Transport My Shipment Intermodally? Sure! But What's In It For Me?

By Adolf Onwuka Nanyell

Intermodal transportation in cargo movement refers to the movement of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using several modes of transportation like rail, road, water, and air without necessarily handling the freight at the various mode interchanges. Intermodal transportation has many advantages which certainly include:

Reduced Transit Times

Intermodalism may not achieve transit times that are overly shorter than those of other modes, but it strives to make its transit times so short as to make them attractive when combined with low prices.

The growth of intermodalism has helped in achieving reduced transit times on routes where a combination of air, road, water or rail is possible. This comes about as a result of the availability of mechanized and faster methods of handling shipments using trailers and containers at intermodal terminals/hubs. Also, the adequate analysis of the factors of a product to be transported and the schedules of the various transportation modes that can possibly be used to transport it, most often indicate opportunities of reducing transit times. If proper care is taken to prepare the intermodal transportation, it usually leads to either shorter or more acceptable transit times.

Reduced Labor and Transportation Costs

As a result of the standardization of intermodal container sizes, goods can be packaged in containers and trailers and handled mechanically throughout their transit period. This automatically does away with the huge manual labor costs usually associated with the manual handling of non containerized shipments. The use of standardized intermodal containers and trailers also helps consolidate the available shipping space thereby increasing revenue and reducing costs. Also, in order to remain competitive, intermodal companies work hard to obtain reduced rates from different carriers on different modes which they pass on to their customers by combining them to come up with rates that compete with other non-intermodal low cost modes that are quite competitive.

Reduced Theft and Loss

When goods are transported via intermodal transportation, they are usually packaged in intermodal containers or trailers. This protects the goods from pilferage, theft, damage or loss as the goods once locked up in the loading unit, will most often not be opened again till the loading unit has been picked up by its consignee.

Smoother and Standardized Operations

Over the years, intermodal transportation has developed and evolved into having standardized sizes and weights for its loading units and equipment. This has made it easier for companies to envisage the right equipment and tools to handle loading units at terminals and while on transit. This standardization of intermodal loading units has made handling and transporting shipments using different modes of transportation, like a combination of road and rail, easily mecanizable and consequently, quite smooth.

Conclusion

What I consider the best attribute of intermodal transportation is its ability to simultaneously provide very cheap transportation and very acceptable transit times. This usually responds adequately to the needs of shippers in that the best attributes of attractive modes of transportation are tapped into and combined together to proffer efficient solutions for shippers.

Adolf Onwuka Nanyell is a Canada Institute of Transport and Traffic trained Business Logistics expert. He holds an MBA from the University of North Alabama Business School and worked for many years as a Manager in Sales and Logistics for various multinational companies which include: Cimrep International Logistics, PZ Cussons, Nosak Distilleries, Visa International and Air France. He is bilingual and speaks both French and English fluently. In 2002, he became one of the 3 bilingual Africans selected and sponsored by the government of France to undergo professional management training at the MCM, Paris as invitees of the government, after which he was directly employed by Air France and further retrained for a long period in Vilgenis, Paris (France).

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