INTERMODAL: A SMART WAY TO SHIP (AND SAVE)
when they’ll show up, so supply chain professionals can plan. CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS While shippers can cut costs and boost supply chain resilience by including intermodal as a transportation option, they need to be aware of several challenges. By design, intermodal supply chains require multiple hand-offs between carriers and modes, and each carries the potential for delay, errors, or damage, Burch eld says. However, many of these risks can be addressed by using best practices for dunnage and bracing, and by providing supply chain data transparency, she adds. As intermodal grows in popularity, congestion can be a challenge. Inland ports help move congestion from the terminals, allowing more time to prepare the freight for the next leg of its journey, Burch eld says. Inland terminals also keep marine containers closer to the ports and their next ocean trip. These are some of the reasons why BNSF Railway recently announced plans to invest more than $1.5 billion in the Barstow International Gateway. The facility will enable the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains for transport to Barstow, where they’ll be processed, staged, and built into trains moving east via the BNSF network. Organized cargo theft, another challenge, cost major railroads more than $100 million in 2024, the AAR reports, noting that industry estimates suggest the 65,000-plus thefts in 2024 represented a roughly 40% increase over the prior year. “These are not just random people jumping on and breaking into trains,” Kobza says. “This is highly organized criminal activity.” The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025, which has garnered bi-partisan support in both the House and Senate, as well as from industry groups, may help combat these crimes.
Intermodal services oered by companies such as C.H. Robinson provide dependable options and control to help shippers meet demand, optimize routes, and convert between modes.
across all service providers, door-to- door tracking, drayage management, and transloading. “It’s all wrapped in a nice, green, and low CO2 delivery,” Burch eld adds. AI’S IMPACT Much as it is in other industries, arti cial intelligence (AI) is beginning to impact intermodal transportation. One example is an AI solution that monitors equipment to get ahead of maintenance issues, Brach says. One signi cant application will be to alert intermodal shippers to estimated delivery times. “The biggest application of AI right now is trying to build a better mousetrap, telling shippers when their box will get there,” says Andy Adams, senior solutions engineer with TransmetriQ, which delivers freight rail insights. This is key, given that throughout much of intermodal rail’s history, the word ‘visibility’ typically was not associated with it. “It was mostly known as a black hole,” says Brian Kobza, chief commercial of cer with IMC Logistics. That’s changing, as technology provides greater visibility to container locations and a realistic estimate of
Earlier in 2025, Union Paci c and Norfolk Southern agreed to create America’s rst transcontinental railroad. It will connect more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states from the east to the west coasts, and link approximately 100 ports. While it’s too early to have rm data on the impact of the UP/NS agreement, it could promise greater ef ciency. Harrington compares the previous cross-continental cargo rail trip to an individual trying to get from Los Angeles to New York: take a plane from Los Angeles to Chicago, disembark and travel from O’Hare to Midway, and then buy another ticket, from another airline, for the nal leg to New York. The merger streamlines that process. As shippers increasingly demand door-to-door billing under one contract and one bill of lading, some carriers are offering bundled intermodal products, says Karen Burch eld, a consultant with Praxichain. These end-to-end solutions are designed to remove the friction in the hand-offs between transportation modes by having a single point of contact managing the entire chain. Among other features, the solutions may offer one contract or invoice
28 Inbound Logistics • October 2025
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