
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 intermediary 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.