Today's Intermodal
BENEFITS
The forward looking supply chain leader balances the needs of today with managing the risks of tomorrow. From inclement weather, labor disputes and trucking regulations, to changing consumer trends, capacity crunches and rising costs, there are many examples of disruptions that can adversely impact a supply chain.
Intermodal transportation is a critical component of a resilient, diversified transportation network. Including intermodal rail into a supply chain provides additional sources of capacity, allowing an organization to adapt to change, minimize disruption, and lower costs.
MITIGATE RISK
Incorporating intermodal rail into your freight network provides access to capacity that can flex based on market stimuli. This helps to lessen the impact of increasing truckload challenges.
LOWER COSTS
The use of intermodal shipping reduces transportation costs, provides access to capacity, improves product flows and ultimately, improves your bottom line. On average, transportation comprises 66% of a shipper’s total logistics costs. Optimizing your freight network by substituting intermodal rail on moves over 500 miles can result in cost savings of at least 15%.
SUSTAINABLE
Moving freight by rail is the most fuel efficient form of land transport. A single double-stacked train can move the equivalent of 280 trucks, resulting in both cost and carbon savings. Brands with a demonstrated commitment to
environmental sustainability have grown more than 4% globally, while those without grew less than 1%.
PARTNERSHIP
Shippers can access the value of intermodal rail by engaging our business partners, companies that comprise of major trucking companies, intermodal marketing companies and 3PLs. Together, CSXT and its business partners provide in-depth industry insight and comprehensive transportation solutions to help you avoid supply chain disruption and navigate the perils of volatility.
INTERMODAL
101
Intermodal shipping is the use of two or more modes of transportation in the shipment of freight. Goods are transported through a mix of truck, rail and/or container ships allowing shippers to leverage the strength of each mode in order to improve efficiencies and mitigate risk. Intermodal plays to the strengths of each mode of transportation, capitalizing on the efficiency of rail to complete the long-haul portion of a move, while trucks complete the first and last mile portions.
IS INTERMODAL RAIL RIGHT FOR MY FREIGHT?
If you are currently moving over-the-road freight 500 miles or more, you likely have intermodal conversion opportunities that will be of value to your company. In fact, 96% of shippers are not deploying or are under-utilizing intermodal, adding unnecessary cost and capacity exposure to their logistics.
WHAT CAN BE SHIPPED VIA INTERMODAL?
Intermodal rail moves millions of truckloads of products that consumers and businesses use every day. Inputs such as car parts as well as finished goods such as electronics, household appliances, groceries, alcoholic beverages and retail items, such as clothing, toys and furniture, all move via intermodal rail.
SAMPLE ROUTE TIMING
HIGHWAY
TO RAIL
Intermodal rail allows shippers to capitalize on the efficiency of rail to complete the long-haul portion of a move, with trucks completing the first and last mile portions. However, not all moves are a good fit for intermodal rail. Identifying the highway freight that would benefit from converting to intermodal rail can prove time-consuming and challenging. If you are unfamiliar with intermodal it can be tough to know where to start, even if you’re a seasoned expert, you may still be missing out on additional opportunities. Ongoing market expansion and service improvements present new opportunities to evaluate existing freight for intermodal.
CSXT Intermodal’s proprietary freight analysis tool, the H2R Optimizer, analyzes your freight network to identify sub-optimized freight moves that would benefit from highway to intermodal rail conversion.
Several factors determine whether a move would benefit from highway-to-intermodal rail conversion. The H2R Optimizer is able to analyze your full truckload moves taking into consideration total length of haul, proximity to an intermodal terminal and transit time to highlight opportunities for cost savings.
To perform the analysis, all that is required are the origin and destination zip codes as well as the volume of your current over-the-road freight moves.
INTERMODAL
MAP
We make it easy for you to map individual freight shipments to discover whether a move would be a good fit for intermodal rail with our Build-a-Shipment tool. Use the map to explore the CSXT Intermodal network, create a custom shipment to identify truck freight with an intermodal alternative and calculate potential carbon savings.
The CSXT Intermodal network’s expansive market reach provides comprehensive intermodal rail connectivity to nearly every market in the Eastern U.S. and Canada. The efficiencies of intermodal rail are achievable on freight moves with lengths of haul as short as 500 miles. Follow the directions below to uncover the freight in your network that could benefit from highway-to-rail conversion.
How to Build a Shipment
1. Visit Intermodal.com/map
2. Click Build-a-Shipment
3. Enter shipment origin/destination, weight and units to find out of the lane is a good fit for intermodal
EQUIPMENT
& PARTNERSHIP
CSXT Intermodal works collaboratively with over 500 transportation providers, or “channel partners." If you have a current relationship with a transportation company, the chance is good we already work with them. If you don’t, we can provide a list of companies and contacts that can connect your company with ours, and begin the process of doing business with CSXT Intermodal.
Working through channel partners, CSXT Intermodal moves a variety of equipment including rail asset, (rail-owned containers) and private asset (channel partner-owned) containers. Below are some types of equipment we move, including both domestic (53’) and international (20’, 40’) equipment.
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UMAX CONTAINER
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CSXU CONTAINER
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PRIVATE 53' CONTAINER
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PRIVATE 20' AND 40' CONTAINERS
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PRIVATE REFRIGERATED TRAILER
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BLOCKING
& BRACING
Properly secured freight ensures the safety of your lading, and our trains and personnel. Experts from CSX’s Load Engineering team work closely with shippers to develop correct blocking and bracing procedures.
CSXT Intermodal’s LEADS program (Load Engineering and Design Services), comprised of a team of engineering experts, offers free blocking and bracing consulting. Using a variety of equipment and resources, CSXT Intermodal’s LEADS experts will create a customized solution that meets your shipping needs.
RELATED LINKS
Explore the Intermodal Network Map and Build a Shipment
Understand the Intermodal Advantage
CONTACT
New to intermodal?
Contact us at [email protected]
