- Intermodal
- Intermodal freight moves in a single container across two or more modes, typically rail for the long leg and truck at each end.
The container is not unpacked between modes, which reduces handling damage and cost on long distances.
Trucking handles the first and last legs, so intermodal work for a carrier is usually drayage rather than long-haul.
It trades speed for cost: rail is cheaper over distance but adds transit time and less schedule flexibility than an over-the-road run.
The economics turn on distance: rail generally beats an over-the-road move once the run is long enough to absorb the two drays at either end.
Transit is less predictable than a truckload move, so it suits freight where a day either way does not break the delivery.
Intermodal and intramodal are not one word with a different prefix. Intermodal means the freight changes mode - road to rail and back again - without leaving its container. Intramodal means it stays in a single mode and only changes hands, as when one rail carrier passes a container to another.
That distinction is worth checking on a quote: an intermodal service moves the box between modes, and the handovers it creates are where the timestamps, the free time and the accountability sit.
Software that handles this for you
Run your real loads through it before you decide anything.
- Free tier
- Up to 3 trucks, permanently
- After that
- $19 per truck, not per seat
- Included
- Every module, on every plan