b'14American Journal of Transportation ajot.comThe redefining of intermodal The battle for dominance over Intermodaltransportationisbeingredefinedasthemodal- the last 5,280 feetity freight movement shiftsbut what will emerge as the new intermodal model is still a work in progress. The most costly portion of a delivery is the last 5,280 feetthe last mile and maybe the most difficult portion of the supply By Matt Miller, AJOT chain is the last fifty feet.With so much recent scrutiny onBy Matt Miller, AJOT last-mile transportation and delivery, its easy to lose track of all the milesWithanextraordinarilyexpan- will turn as well to Amazon-branded and transport that comes before. Simi- sivearrayoffulfillmentcenters,electric vans, autonomous drones and larly, its tempting to dismiss last-milewhichrangefromgargantuantorobots named Scout to rush all those as completely separate from the restsmall, and its commitment to shortergoods to consumers.of the transport supply chain. andshorterdeliveryschedules,In its classic definition, last mile ThatsaweaklinkinhowweAmazon has profoundly altered lastmeans the delivery of the parcel or dealwithtransportationlogistics,miledelivery,thatfinallinkintheproduct from the destination terminal suggested Gerhardt Muller, a longtimetransportation supply chain.or hub to the recipient, according to maritimeanalyst,universitylecturerAmazonisattemptingtobut- DeanMaciuba,directorofconsult-and the author of the book Intermo- tressitswarehouseinfrastructureingservicesatLogisticsTrends& dal Freight Transportation. We dontwith a transport prowess to match. ToInsights and an authority on the sub-think holistically. We think about indi- get, oh, 400 million-plus packages aject. But these days, last mile rep-vidual pieces here and there. month into the hands of its customers,resents deliveries to final destinations.Perhaps nowhere along that trans- Anne Goodchild, the founding director ofAmazon increasingly relies on its ownLast-miledeliveryisplaying portationchainisthesegmentationUniversity of Washingtons Supply Chainfleet of specially fitted delivery vansastarringroleintheageofCovid. more pronounced than with intermo- Transportation and Logistics Center rather than outsourcing to UPS or theMore consumers worldwide than ever dal transportation. And, say some, the(REDEFININGcontinued onPostalService.Inthenone-too-dis- beforehaveturnedtoe-commence definition of intermodal needs a seri- page 16) tant future, the e-commerce behemoth(BATTLEcontinued on page 19)ous rethink to better reflect logistics in 2020 and beyond.Theresnoquestionthatinter-modal has changed in definition and its definitely an outdated term from a transportation standpoint, asserted Jack Buffington, a professor at Uni-versity of Denvers Denver Transpor-tation Institute and a former logistics specialistatMillerCoors.Ialways questiontransportationproviders who look at transportation as separate from overall logistics. So, when you talk about intermodal, I would even go so far as it should be called, inter-logistics now. Its not a matter of how you use truck and rail together or rail and air, its how you use modalities of transportation tied to distribution cen-ters or retail.Jack Buffington, University of Denvers Denver Transportation Instituted efiningi ntermodaL Distributionisexperiencingseis-mic shifts, with everything from direct-to-consumertoomnichannel,from micro-fulfillmentcenterstocrowd-sourced delivery now rolling through the supply chain landscape. Lines are being blurred not only between distri-bution channels, but between shippers andlogisticsproviders.Intermodal transportation isnt immune. Amazon and Walmart, for example, both have branded containers that they ship via intermodalrailandtruck.Amazon offers ocean freight services as well.When you and I say intermodal, particularly in this e-commerce focused world, thats not the same thing that intermodaldatawouldbecollected tocapture,addedAnneGoodchild, the founding director of University of Washingtons Supply Chain Transpor-tation and Logistics Center.'