Integrated Freight Transport Systems: Intermodal and Transmodal Operations

The function of transshipment is of core importance in contemporary freight distribution as it is concomitantly an intermodal and a trans-modal activity. In integrated transport systems the time component has become increasingly significant. Since modal speed improvements tend to be marginal, it is at the terminal and with the function of transshipment that most of the time and cost benefits are achieved. Transshipment is more than an intermodal activity; that is movements between modes. It also concerns movements within segments of the same mode; modal transshipment. As commodity chains became more complex and longer the pressure on intermodal and trans-modal transportation has increased. In this geography of transshipments connecting different parts of the transport systems, freight markets and freight forwarders are interacting with increasing efficiency. Intermodal transshipments have received the bulk of the attention, particularly their port and rail terminals segments, as massive investments in those facilities were required to set global commodity chains. However, intramodal transshipments are comparatively uncovered, the main reason being that until recently they mainly took place within fragmented and regulated national transport systems. The three main transmodal dimensions include:

• Transmodal road. Mainly takes place at distribution centers, which have become strategic elements in freight distribution systems. It is probably one of the few cases where intramodal transshipments can be combined with added value activities, such as labeling and packaging. Although distribution centers were conventionally warehousing facilities in which commodities could be stored while waiting to be sold to customers down the supply chain, this function has substantially receded. Time constraints in freight distribution impacted on road based distribution centers, whose function is increasingly related to transmodal operations and much less to warehousing. The true time-dependent intramodal facility remains the cross-docking distribution center.
• Transmodal maritime. Ship-to-ship transshipments mainly concerns off-shore hubs such as in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean or ship-to-barge activities. Although in many cases the containers are actually unloaded onto a temporary storage facility (commonly next to the piers), an off-shore hub is functionally a transmodal facility. They have emerged at intermediary locations by offering transshipment advantages in view of costs related to pendulum multiport services coupled with lower container handling cost related to transshipment-only terminals, in addition to economies of scale for feeder ships.
• Transmodal rail. Probably represents one of the least investigated segments of transmodal transportation. Most rail systems were built to service specific markets and were heavily regulated. It is only recently that containerization created the need for transmodal functions in rail transport systems, since rail transportation was “forced” to address a new variety of movements, many of them with international origins or destinations. Initially, rail developed greater intermodal efficiencies with maritime and road transport systems, particularly because this represented new market opportunities.