The increasing need to efficiently move freight globally will need to continue to grow in order to meet the demands of an expanding world population. It is predicted by 2035 the United States will be required to move over 37, 211 million tons of freight across the country (U.S., 2008). In order to meet this increasing future demand, freight will be required to move from place of origin to final destination as quickly as possible while trying to keep costs down. Intermodal transportation is the type of transportation that could meet this demand by combining many different modes of transport that is easily interchangeable using standardized containers. Intermodal transportation is the use of two or more modes of transport to freight. Increasing the use of intermodal transportation will efficiently escalate freight movement by using shipping containers to easily transport from one location to another, and by using multiple modes of transport that can reduce costs for the shipper and end user. Intermodal transportation had slow beginnings. The concept and use of intermodal transportation did not see its beginnings until the 1960s. Before then cargo was moved at times separately and by hand. According to Donovan (2000),
The task of shifting cargo between modes still required that boxes, barrels, and bags in which goods were packed be unloaded from one carrier and then reloaded on the train, ship, or truck that would carry them on the next leg of their journey (p. 1)
This was a slow process that required large amounts of labor working at a dock yard or railroad depot. By having these items move separately it slowed the process which would result in higher costs and additional time. Tomlinson (2009) stated “One analysis in the late 1950s concluded that 60-75% of the cost of transporting cargo by sea was made up of portside costs, while another study of a specific ship voyage found cargo handling made up about 37% of total costs” (p. 1). Furthermore, many different modes of transport competed against each other adding to the difficulty of moving cargo. By the mid-1960s a new form of moving cargo from ship to truck or ship to train would help jump start this mode of transport. The shipping container would change the intermodal industry globally and boost its need. In the 1960s the use of containers became standard within the United States (U.S.) (TRAC, n.d.). Using 40 foot or 53 foot containers would eventually increase the U.S. capacity to move fright up to 70 percent or more than one million containers per year (TRAC, n.d.). Containers started to be used during World War Two to move goods at a faster rate with less labor for converted cargo ships, but by the 1950s the first commercial container ships were built for civilian use moving freight from one continent to another. A container could be offloaded from a ship and right onto a truck without ever touching the ground. Unfortunately, the introduction of containers had an unwanted affect at many ports. Dovan (2000) stated
The impact of expanded use of containers was immediately felt by port workers, with the speed efficiencies in loading/unloading meaning fewer workers were required. Studies found that the amount of goods per worker that could be loaded or unloaded with containers, as compared to break bulk, was so much higher as to “make nineteen in every twenty men redundant (Broeze (235-236)” (p. 4).
This type of impact goes to show how important and well-organized a shipping container can be. Incorporating the shipping container with other modes of transport could only intensify the effectiveness of intermodal transport.
To move large quantities of containers from one continent to another in mass requires a vehicle that is large and massive in its self. A specialty made ship called “container ships” were manufactured to take on the challenge. The first ships built could only carry between 500 and 800 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). But by 2013, the Maersk Triple E class economy of scale, energy efficient and environmentally improved container ship, is able to carry 18,000 TEU on one trip (TRAC, n.d.). By way of increasing the capacity of these container ships, trade between countries would increase allowing shippers to move more products at one time with more frequency, but the use of container ships would not be the only transport mode used to increase the capability of intermodal transportation. As stated earlier is this paper, intermodal transportation uses two or more modes of transport. One of the cost efficient modes of ground transport is the locomotive. When a shipping container arrives at a port, it can be picked up by truck then delivered to a train station to be loaded onto a train. According to a CSX article (2012) “Over 14 million loads were moved by intermodal rail transportation last year alone” (para. 4). Integrating trains into intermodal transportation has overwhelming benefits. First, trains are capable of double stacking containers, which means they could haul more freight across the country. Nearly 70 percent of the United States domestic freight is transported double stacked by rail (TRAC, n.d.). Moving freight by train uses less fuel, is four times more energy efficient because it can transport a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on a single gallon of fuel (CSX, 2012). The end result of this is lower shipping costs for the shipper and a lower product price for the consumer. The train has shown to be a cost effective measure within the intermodal system, but a train is limited to how close it can deliver freight while another mode of transport is not. A train is an excellent way to move freight over short or long distance, but a truck can deliver a product right to the doorstep of the customer. Adding a truck to the final leg of freight combines the “best abilities of different transportation modes to deliver service, savings and solutions to shippers” (par. 2) as stated by Intermodal Association of America (n.d.). Freight can begin its movement overseas by container ship then get moved to train to be transported from the east coast to west coast, and after that it can be transported by truck for its final destination. By combining rail and truck, freight can arrive to its destination within 48 to 72 hours for every 1,000 miles traveled or less, but if a truck were to be used the entire ground trip an additional day would be added for every 500 miles (Piatak, 2002). What makes the use of truck at the end is a truck has the capability for more of a direct route to the final destination where a train does not. Intermodal transportation is an efficient mode of transport with the capability of reducing costs and to quickly move freight from point of origin to destination. The simplicity of the shipping container has dramatically increased the ability to execute freight move movement much quicker and resourcefully to the point of reducing manual labor at port. Container ships add to intermodal transportation with its massive size and capability to transport large quantities of containers. Trains are cost efficient modes of transport over long distance by using very little energy to operate. And trucks have the skill to deliver right to the costumer’s door step. Overall, intermodal transportation is a resourceful tool that can deliver an effective means to move freight globally.