b'16American Journal of Transportation ajot.com(REDEFININGcontinuedtransportation. Buffington goes one stepdontseethatchangingforroad and rail for certain line from page 14) further.Asmallerpercent- the next 40 years. haul business. Hatch lists five Foryears,intermodali ntermodaLL arge and ageofgoodsthatarebeingstructural advantages rail has transportation has been linkeds maLL sold are coming in these bigf uture ofi ntermodaL over trucking, when it comes specifically to containers. TheWhats more, Evers believes,containersthatarebrokenIntermodal traffic this yeartointermodalcarryofcon-IntermodalAssociationofpresent-dayintermodaltrafficdownintodistributioncen- isforecasttobedownsometainers. These include labor, North America defines inter- blurs some of those traditionalters, he said. Surprisingly,10%over2019,Kepplerswheretrainscanhaulcon-modal simply as the move- lines between modes of trans- theresmoreparcelsthatassociationpredicts,blamingtainers with about 10% of the mentofcargoinshippingportationthatbetterhandlearecomingfromChina.OrCovid-related trade dislocation. manpower needed for truck-containers or trailers by morelarge shipments and those thatcoming from anywhere. TheThis reflects in part rail- ing; fuel, where trains enjoy than one mode of transport emphasizesmallershipments,businessisbecomingmorerelated dips. According to theafour-foldsavingsover ship, rail or truck. explainedEvers.Todaysparcel-ized. Association of American Rail- trucks; environmental, which Steve Keppler, the associ- e-commercephenomenonNoteveryonebelievesroads, US rail traffic throughwill become more and more ations senior vice president,reallyputstheemphasisontheres a need for a definitionAugust 29 this year was downimportantashighwayscon-member service, defends thissmall shipments, he said. change.Itsbroadenoughalmost 12%, while rail-relatedtinuetoclog,infrastructure strict tethering to containers.EverscitesUPS,whichto encompass changes, saidintermodaldroppedalmostlags and pressure on energy It is estimated that 95% ofcanhandleshipmentsfromAnthony Hatch, a New York- 8%. (Plummeting coal trafficsavingsincreases;capacity theworldsmanufacturedorigintodestination.Ituti- basedtransportanalystwithbrought down rail freight sta- flexibility,becauserailcan goods,atsomepoint,travellizes rail to ship its containerABHConsulting,Weretistics as a whole.) shiftresourceswithfarless in a container before arrivingloadsofgoodslongdis- still going to get a lot of largeHowever, intermodal, likeimpactontheefficiencyof in the hands of the customer,tances.Containers,yes,butpercentageofourconsumerfreight transport as a whole, isthesystemasawhole;and wroteKeppler,inanemail.onesfilledwithindividualgoodsfromoverseas.Weremuch more complicated thanfinancial strength.Theintermodalproductparcelsandboxesdestinedstill going to be moving somethesefiguresportray.ThisRailroadswillnever oftodayisamatureoffer- forthousandsofdiscreteof those goods within the con- industryismovingsofastdeliver pizza, Hatch quipped. ing for the customer, and thedestinations.Railisactu- tinentlongdistanceswhereand its so complex, we justButtheyarentlimitedto advancementsintechnologyally now able to capture, or atraileconomicscanplayahaventupdatedandshiftedcross-countryhaulsaswell have had a marked impact onleast be involved with, smallrole,workingwithsophisti- the data that we have, Good- and can go head-to-head with the intermodal business to theshipments that they give it upcated partners who help themchild believes.(REDEFININGcontinued positive,enablingittogain70 years ago, Evers said.with the first and last mile. ITaketheclashbetweenon page 24)market share over the years. Theoriginsofintermo-daltransportation,infact, go back more than two mil-lennia,accordingtoMuller, to AlexandertheGreat,and a cleverly designed box that could be moved from wagon toshipwithoutdisturbing itscontents.Otherstrace intermodaltransportationto somewhat more sophisticated boxes and 19th Century rail and barge traffic, and then to so-calledliftvans,larger woodencrateswhichheld household goods and could be easily transferred from truck to train to ship, which came on the scene at the beginning of the 20th Century.Mullerdefinesintermo-dalasfreighttransportin continuous motion from point of origin to final destination, where[thefreight]isnever touched during that entire pro-cess, adding that it involves a single bill of lading.Intermodaltransportis oftenconfusedwiththe moregenerictermmulti-modaltransport,whichis exactly what it says: the use oftwoormoremodesof transport to ship cargo. Mul-timodal transport is far more commoninfreighttrans-port. This term, some main-tain, offers a more nuanced view of transportation com-plexities. It encompasses air transport that isnt equipped to handle most containers. It also allows, for example, to distinguishbetweensemis and vans, which in turn rep-resent two legs of the trans-portation chain.Twoormoremodes beinginvolvedinthetrans-portation [of goods] is becom-ing more and more the case, said Philip Evers, professor of logisticsmanagementatthe RobertH.SmithSchoolof Business, University of Mary-land. Because of the changes in distribution, because of the inherentefficienciesorser-vices of the different modes of'