move in this process,” says Sherman. “First, a truck picks up the container or trailer at the origin. The container is then driven to an origin ramp, where it’s brought into a rail yard. Next, the container gets put on a well car.” That process happens in reverse once a container reaches its destination. “Rail service will get as close as it can to the destination point, but then the container must be deramped, and taken away by truck for the nal delivery,” Sherman explains. “Over-the-road, in contrast, is the easy button,” he adds. “It has an origin and destination in just about any market, and there are thousands of carriers across North America.” Intermodal’s additional moves can be further complicated by a lack of available equipment. “Chassis availability is important to understand when using intermodal,” says LeAnne Coulter, vice president of freight management at Penske Logistics, a logistics services provider based in Reading, Pennsylvania. “You don’t want to be in a situation where you’ve run out of free days at a port and you don’t know how you will get that container unloaded and returned.” To mitigate some of these complications, companies might enlist the help of an intermodal marketing company, or IMC. “The process looks almost as easy from the shipper perspective,” Sherman says. “The IMC picks up the freight, just like in truckload, but it goes to a ramp. All the shipper sees is a different rate and transit time.”
When delivery speed is not an issue, rail/intermodal service can o er robust capacity with a smaller price tag.
weather or traf c, carriers can shift to a corridor with fewer disruptions. “We might see something happening on a particular corridor and decide to reroute a driver so we don’t miss a delivery,” Schnell explains. “That applies whether there’s a tropical storm or a product launch. Obviously if there’s a blizzard, it doesn’t matter if freight is traveling by rail or highway. There will still be disruptions. However, the exibility to take alternate routes doesn’t happen with rail.” 4. COMPLEXITY. Not every origin or destination point is located in the vicinity of a rail yard. Intermodal widens access to rail by including a drayage service to or from an origin or destination point. But the additional moves add a layer of complexity. “You typically have ramps plus a dray
Sherman, president of IntelliTrans, a technology-enabled transportation management service company headquartered in Atlanta. “Do they want the whole railcar to show up at once, or will they need one-fourth of a railcar to show up one week apart?” On the other hand, over-the-road shipping is a better t for spot freight. “Intermodal typically works best when there is consistency in order to keep containers moving,” says Jake Schnell, vice president of sales operations at RXO, an asset-light transportation provider and freight brokerage based in Charlotte, North Carolina. “When volume is sporadic or it is a short-term project, over- the-road can provide more exibility as volumes ebb and ow.” 3. FLEXIBILITY. The pandemic highlighted the need to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. Shippers had to constantly be prepared to work around unanticipated chokepoints. This need for resilience applies whether operating in pandemic conditions, or dealing with another unforeseen event. Take weather conditions, for example. “A major tropical storm hit Florida and Georgia recently,” says Schnell. “How will that impact ports in that region?” . When a storm hits, trucking offers the possibility to take alternate routes. For example, by using RXO Connect, a visibility tool that provides insights into
WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN SELECTING A FREIGHT MODE
Source: BlueGrace Logistics
January 2023 • Inbound Logistics 187
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