Chapter 2 Transportation                                         

 2.5 Intermodal Transportation

        In addition to the five basic modes of transport, a number of intermodal combinations are available to the shipper. Intermodal transportation combines two or more modes to take advantage of the inherent economics of each and thus provide and integrated service at lower total cost.
        Among the intermodal combinations, only rail-truck, called piggyback, has been widely used. Truck-water combinations, referred to as fishyback, gain acceptance, especially in the international movement of high valued goods. And birdyback, the combinations of air-truck are also common. Birdyback, fishyback, and piggyback services are examples of coordination in which a carrier physically transfers the motor carrier trailer, with the cargo intact in another mode. Birdyback combines the accessibility of motor with the speed of airline; fishyback couples motor accessibility with the low cost of water carriage and piggyback adds the truck’s accessibility to the low cost of rail service. In each case, the combined service suffers the disadvantages of one of the modes involved, for example, birdyback has the disadvantage of high cost of air transport.
       One substantial block to intermodal service is that carriers are reluctant to participate. The carriers coordinate willingly, even eagerly, to move a product that any one carrier could not transport in its entirety, but once one carrier can transport the commodity in the entire distance through its own lines, the carrier is still hesitant to coordinate with other carriers.
       Another problem with intermodal services is the transfer of freight from one mode to another. This creates time delays and adds to transportation costs. Some forms of coordination eliminate this problem by transferring a motor carrier trailer to another transport mode. The motor carrier trailer’s transferability is a special coordination from termed containerization, the trailer being a container.