Top Tips About Intermodal Shipping

Do you ship cargo long distances? Are you desperate to decrease transportation costs? If yes, then intermodal shipping may be your best bet. 

Intermodal shipping cites to moving cargo by 2 or more modes of transportation. By loading freight into intermodal container, consignments can move flawlessly between truck, trains, and cargo ships. 

Intermodal shipments usually fall into one of two classes: international intermodal or domestic intermodal. International intermodal shipments move in 20 or 40ft containers. As such shipments move between trucks, trains and ocean carriers, the product remains in the same container for the whole trip. Domestic intermodal shipments move in 50ft containers. Though these shipments are labelled as “domestic intermodal,” products may still arrive from abroad. The major difference is that once the product reach at a port in twenty or 40ft international containers, they’re shifted to 50ft domestic containers, whether at a transload facility, cross dock facility or distribution center. From there, they move to domestic destinations. 



What are the advantages of intermodal shipping?

Intermodal freight shipping gives a host of advantages, including:

  • Cost efficiency
  • Fuel efficiency
  • Available capacity
  • Sustainability compared to long haul trucking
  • Consistent, dependable service

Putting these advantages together, intermodal give shippers an excellent alternative to shipping by truck alone. Intermodal shipping offers corporations access to rail even when their facility or their client’s facility does not have tracks at their door, letting them reap the advantages of rail without any capital investment. 

Intermodal’s fuel efficiency also make it a greener way to ship. On average, U.S. freight railroads can ship one 1 ton of cargo more than 470 miles per gallon of fuel, making rail the most environment-friendly way to transport cargo over land. So, when transporters convert the long distance part of their shipment to rail, they’re leveraging a more ecologically friendly way to ship. 

Intermodal cargo shipping is a probability for just about any transporter. With no need to have tracks at your shipment destination, intermodal is highly accessible. Trucks manage the 1st and last mile of the shipment and you get the advantages of using train to handle the portion in between. 

NOVA’s Intermodal dispatch software is a comprehensive & integrated software module developed especially for the Intermodal drayage industry. Well-timed & accurate info, along with Container Tracking, will aid your Intermodal operations staff in each business decision. In fact, this is the best Container Tracking Software you can have in the present scenario! 

Source : https://aurorasoftwaresolution.wordpress.com/2021/10/07/everything-shippers-need-to-know-about-intermodal-shipping/

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