As more companies are making a commitment to protecting the environment – and measuring their impact on it – sustainability is emerging as one of the top advantages helping intermodal compete with trucking, and as a potential driver of intermodal growth.

“Businesses looking to reduce their carbon footprint are increasingly looking to rail intermodal for their long-haul movements,” says Jessica Kahanek, Assistant VP, Communications, Association of American Railroads (AAR).

“Intermodal offers a far more environmentally-friendly alternative to over-the-road trucking,” David Garofalo, IANA Assistant VP, Membership & Communications, agrees. “Moving containers on the rail is roughly four times as fuel efficient as pulling a trailer over the highway.”

Kahanek says fuel-efficiency of railroads leads to an average reduction of 75% in greenhouse gas emissions, and Garofalo adds that the use of intermodal reduced North American fuel consumption by 2.3 billion gallons and saved over 25 million tons in CO2 emissions in 2022.

“Schneider’s Intermodal services emit 62% less CO2 than Tier 5 truckload transportation,” says Michael Baumgardt, Schneider SVP and GM of Intermodal, pointing out that one ton of freight can be shipped up to 500 miles on the equivalent of a single gallon of fuel. “Our north-south zero-handoff route with CPKC saves approximately 3,400 pounds of CO2 emissions and 157 intermodal gallons per trip compared to existing over-the-road routes.”

Garofalo concludes, “We expect that sustainability will play a larger role in the decision-making to use intermodal going forward.”