Intermodal transportation tends to get a reputation it doesn't quite deserve. Shippers hear "rail" and think slow, complicated, or risky for their freight. In practice, the reality is often the opposite. For the right lanes and freight types, intermodal can deliver meaningful cost savings while keeping transit times competitive with over-the-road service.
In this episode of Beyond Point to Point, host Joe Greek sits down with Allison Phillips, Averitt's intermodal services leader, to cut through the misconceptions. From how freight actually moves dock to dock, to where the biggest cost and capacity advantages are right now, to how intermodal fits into broader supply chain strategies like LTL pool distribution, Allison covers what shippers need to know to make an informed decision about adding rail to their transportation mix.
Watch the full episode below!
Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we go beyond pickup and delivery and dive deeper into the world of logistics, freight, and supply chain management. From industry trends to expert insights, we're here to help you navigate the complexities of modern shipping. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond Point to Point wherever you watch or listen to your favorite podcasts. And now here's your host, Joe Greek. Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we explore the strategies, services, and innovations shaping today's supply chains. I'm your host, Joe Greek. Today, we're talking about intermodal transportation, a solution that many shippers have heard about but often misunderstand. From cost savings and capacity advantages to common misconceptions around transit times and handling, intermodal can play a powerful role in building a more flexible strategy. Joining me today is Alison Phillips, Averitt's intermodal services leader who works closely with customers and our internal teams to design intermodal solutions that move freight efficiently across North America. Welcome to the show, Allison. It's great to have you here. Good. Thank you. Glad to be here. Well, before we get into all things complex about Intermodal, let's start simple. When is Intermodal actually a good fit for a shipper? Yeah. I would say for anybody that's looking for a dedicated door to door freight option. So anything with intermodal, we can do door to door. Yeah. A perfect example lane would be, like, seven hundred miles or more. Even sometimes five hundred to six hundred can be a good fit for intermodal. And then as well as anybody that's looking for like drop container options, those are good opportunities for intermodal as well. I guess one of the biggest misconceptions out there about intermodal is that it is just too slow. So how do you respond when a shipper says that? Yeah. So a lot of times I just say reach out to us at the intermodal team and just have us take a look at it, review what the options are. A lot of times customers think that intermodal means it's gonna be a two week transit when in reality, it's just one to two days extra compared to the over the road option that they might receive. And a lot of times, it will save the customer upwards of a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars. Whenever they're seeing those options side by side, they can review and say, oh, well, maybe just adding one extra day is worth saving five hundred to a thousand dollars. That is a pretty incredible savings right there. Exactly. I guess another question that comes to mind when thinking about the misconceptions with intermodal, I would assume that the trains are running on a very predictable schedule. So that should also factor into dependability. Right? Yes. And the schedules are very, like you said, predictable. They are ninety percent to a hundred percent on time all the time. So a lot of times they actually move faster than the the train schedule does show. But one thing I learned recently is that the over the road transit is usually about six hundred to six hundred and fifty miles per day, and the intermodal actually offers some solutions that are around five hundred to five hundred and fifty miles per day. So that transit time is really right in line with the over the road transit time that customers are receiving. Wow. Would you mind walking us through what actually happens from dock to dock? Is freight ever touched or transloaded? No. Actually, lot of our or all of our options are door to door. So what we do is we work with the drayage providers. They'll show up to the shipper with a fifty three foot rail container. It's essentially the same dimensions as a full truckload trailer. The shipper will then load the freight, and they'll place a seal on the container. And then we take that same container to the rail yard. That container is then loaded onto the train, and it travels via train to the final destination ramp. And then we actually coordinate with the, drayage providers on the receiving end, and they will pick up that same container and, deliver that same container to the receiver with the same seal so that's not touched once it gets to the rail yard or anything like that. So everything that we do is door to door. So during intermodal transit, are damages an issue that pop up frequently? No. Not at all, actually. We actually have a good success story from a customer that they were shipping auto glass from their glass company, and they were having a lot of damages through over the road where drivers may do, hard stops or quick turns. And that's actually all avoided through intermodal because the train is traveling at a consistent speed, at a consistent rate. And so that actually reduced all freight damages that were happening via over the road. Where are you seeing the biggest cost or capacity advantages right now compared to over the road? Yeah. So I would say, really, it's all over the US right now. We're starting to see truckload rates maybe climb a little bit. Capacity is getting more strained. So intermodal has been really successful lately for, like, anything moving to and from California, the West Coast, I would say, like, Oregon, Washington, as well as Salt Lake City. We've had a lot of success lately. And Chicago is a very good option. Anywhere in the south is really good. So, like, Georgia, Florida, we have really good options. And one of our really good options is for Florida through what we call TOFC, is trailer on flat car. So we actually will show up to the shipper with the Averitt Truckload trailer, and they load that freight on a Averitt trailer. And we load the same Averitt trailer onto the rail and travels to South Florida on a Averitt trailer. And we can work with our service centers or partner dray carriers to actually deliver the freight via an Averitt trailer in South Florida. So that's something we've had very good success with lately. And then some other good lanes, I would say, like Texas is a good option. Outbound Laredo is very good and competitive, and that's where we are starting to see truckload capacity maybe start to tighten. Anything in the northeast is very good as well. I guess that lane specifically from Chicago down through Atlanta Into Florida, that would be very competitive for for a intermodal because there's not as much truck capacity in Florida. Is that right? That is correct. Yes. So a lot of drivers for over the road, they try to steer clear of Florida just because it's hard to get a lane moving out of Florida for truckload drivers. So that does give us a good capacity option for intermodal. That makes a lot of sense. Well, how does intermodal connect to the bigger strategies within the supply chain like pool distribution or network optimization? Yeah. So LTL pool distribution, that's a very hot topic with us right now. I can tell a success story that we've had over the last few months where we worked with a customer in Chicago that was moving freight to South Florida through Miami. So what we actually did is we pulled the LTL freight in Chicago, and then we shipped it all at once to South Florida. And then our Averitt service center then delivers the LTL freight. And so that has been a very good success story. Another good option that we have for LTL full distribution is shipping from Chicago to Memphis. It's actually a one day transit, which is the same exact as over the road transit, and it gives a lot of capacity options for that as well. And we can ship from Memphis to lots of different places throughout the southeast, so it just gives us a good capacity option for LTL freight as well. And one thing that I would suggest, if you do ship a lot of LTL freight, just send us a list of all of your LTL lanes. We can take a list of upwards of ten to twenty thousand loads and look and see exactly where you ship LTL and where we can optimize that and give you good LTL options. That's very interesting points about shipping LTL via intermodal. Because it seems like it'd be easier to track one container or one trailer on a flat car. How do you track individual shipments moving like that by rail? Is it just you go to the website and you see all the shipments as one listing or we see individual shipments? We actually do see individual shipments that are updated very consistently. So whether you have one pallet on the training or ten, you can pull them up individually and look and see exactly where they are at all times. So I guess an example with this customer, their freight is consolidated at the origin and it's all tracking on the rail down to Florida. And then from there, we're taking it to our service center? Yes. And then it's being put on different city tractors going to out to different locations. So all the tracking is definitely individual and unique. Yes. Very much so. We actually also have that option for outside of our footprint. So we have partner carriers that can deliver LTL freight throughout like California, Pennsylvania, anywhere outside of our footprint really. Great. Well, what's something customers are surprised to learn about intermodal once they try it? I would say just how reliable it is, how consistent it is. The big thing that I hear, and actually I came from a full truckload background, is just how similar it is to that dedicated full truckload option that we have as well. It comes to shipping intermodal, what are the differences between insurance compared to traditional over the road? Yeah. So all of our loads are actually covered up to a hundred thousand dollars. So that is automatically included. If you have freight that is additional more than a hundred thousand dollars, we can always look at it and offer additional insurance as well through our insurance provider. Right now, what are some ideal transit lanes for intermodal versus over the road? Yeah. I would say, like, Chicago Midwest area to the south, that's a really good option. That actually just adds one extra day to the transit. So over the road is typically two days and the intermodal is three. So it just adds one extra day to the transit and it can be a massive cost savings to the customer. I would say anything moving into South Florida is very competitive on transit. Like the Northeast to South Florida is four days for intermodal. And a big one is anything moving out west, so like say from the south is a five day intermodal transit, whereas a lot of times over the road is four. So it's just adding one extra day. Well, I know that intermodal services occur all across our country, but does this service also tie into Mexico and Canada? Yes. We actually do ship all throughout Canada, and we also ship throughout Mexico. We go down to, like, Monterey, Mexico, Salau. Those are just a few examples. So if you ever have any options that are shipping from Mexico or Canada, we can definitely take a look at it. When it comes to shopping for intermodal rates, are you limited to just one provider on the rail or are there multiple options? So we actually do have multiple options, and that's very good question. So for example, one of our providers might offer a four day transit for x amount of dollars and then another provider may offer a maybe a eight day option that's way cheaper. So a lot of times what we do is we will offer both solutions to the customer. Some customers may be looking for a faster option and are willing to pay maybe a little extra versus maybe a slower option where they do have a very big cost savings. Alright. One final question for you, Allison. What is the biggest benefit of partnering with Averitt for intermodal solutions? Yeah. I would just say that we're very seasoned in intermodal. We're very experienced. And I would say we have lots of opportunities within Averitt. Like we say, we are the power of one. So we have lots of different service areas that we can partner with and just offer blended solutions to our customers as well. That is the power of one. That's right. Alright. Appreciate your time today, Allison. Thank you very much. Thank you, Joe. Thanks for watching Beyond Point to Point. Intermodal transportation continues to be an important tool for shippers looking to control costs, expand capacity options, and build more flexibility into their supply chain strategies. If you'd like to learn more about how Averitt can support your intermodal transportation needs, visit averitt dot com slash intermodal. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and join us next time as we continue exploring the strategies and solutions shaping today's supply chains.
Ready to explore what intermodal could do for your freight? Averitt's intermodal team manages the full move door to door, from drayage and rail coordination to final delivery, with access to all major North American rail markets across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Visit our intermodal services page to learn more or connect with our team directly.
Episode Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we go beyond pickup and delivery and dive deeper into the world of logistics, freight, and supply chain management. From industry trends to expert insights, we're here to help you navigate the complexities of modern shipping. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond Point to Point wherever you watch or listen to your favorite podcasts. And now here's your host, Joe Greek.
Joe Greek: Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we explore the strategies, services, and innovations shaping today's supply chains. I'm your host, Joe Greek. Today we're talking about intermodal transportation, a solution that many shippers have heard about but often misunderstand. From cost savings and capacity advantages to common misconceptions around transit times and handling, intermodal can play a powerful role in building a more flexible strategy. Joining me today is Allison Phillips, Averitt's intermodal services leader, who works closely with customers and our internal teams to design intermodal solutions that move freight efficiently across North America.
Welcome to the show, Allison. It's great to have you here.
Allison Phillips: Thank you. Glad to be here.
Joe Greek: Before we get into all things intermodal, let's start simple. When is intermodal actually a good fit for a shipper?
Allison Phillips: For anyone looking for a dedicated door-to-door freight option, intermodal can work well. A good example lane is anything 700 miles or more, though sometimes 500 to 600 miles can be a fit too. Shippers looking for drop container options are also great candidates.
Joe Greek: One of the biggest misconceptions about intermodal is that it's just too slow. How do you respond when a shipper says that?
Allison Phillips: I tell them to reach out to our intermodal team and let us take a look at it. A lot of customers think intermodal means a two-week transit when in reality it's just one to two days extra compared to their over-the-road option. And a lot of times it can save the customer upwards of $1,000 to $1,500. When they see those options side by side, they can say, "Maybe adding one extra day is worth saving $500 to $1,000."
Joe Greek: That's a pretty incredible savings.
Allison Phillips: Exactly.
Joe Greek: Another thing that comes to mind around intermodal dependability: trains run on a very predictable schedule. Does that factor into reliability?
Allison Phillips: Yes. The schedules are very predictable. They're 90 to 100 percent on time. And a lot of times trains actually move faster than the schedule shows. One thing worth knowing is that over-the-road transit typically covers around 600 to 650 miles per day, while intermodal solutions run around 500 to 550 miles per day. That transit time is really right in line with what customers are already receiving over the road.
Joe Greek: Would you walk us through what actually happens from dock to dock? Is freight ever touched or transloaded?
Allison Phillips: No. All of our options are door to door. We work with drayage providers, and they'll show up to the shipper with a 53-foot rail container, which is essentially the same dimensions as a full truckload trailer. The shipper loads the freight and places a seal on the container. We then take that same container to the rail yard, where it's loaded onto the train and travels to the destination ramp. From there, we coordinate with drayage providers on the receiving end, and they pick up that same container and deliver it to the receiver with the same seal intact. The freight is not touched once it leaves the origin.
Joe Greek: During intermodal transit, are damages a frequent issue?
Allison Phillips: Not at all, actually. We have a good example from a customer who was shipping auto glass and was experiencing a lot of damages through over the road due to hard stops and quick turns. Intermodal eliminated that entirely because the train travels at a consistent speed and rate. Their freight damage issues went away.
Joe Greek: Where are you seeing the biggest cost or capacity advantages right now compared to over the road?
Allison Phillips: Really all over the U.S. We're starting to see truckload rates climb and capacity get more strained. Intermodal has been especially successful lately for anything moving to and from California, the West Coast, Oregon, Washington, and Salt Lake City. Chicago is a strong option. Anywhere in the South is really good as well, including Georgia and Florida.
One of our particularly strong options for Florida is what we call TOFC, or trailer on flat car. We show up to the shipper with an Averitt truckload trailer, they load their freight, and we put that same Averitt trailer on the rail to South Florida. We can then work with our service centers or partner dray carriers to deliver the freight on an Averitt trailer at the destination. That's something we've had real success with lately.
Other strong lanes include Texas and outbound Laredo, where truckload capacity is starting to tighten. The Northeast is very competitive as well.
Joe Greek: That lane specifically from Chicago through Atlanta into Florida would be very competitive for intermodal because there's limited truck capacity in Florida. Is that right?
Allison Phillips: That's correct. A lot of over-the-road drivers try to avoid Florida because it's hard to find a load moving back out. That gives intermodal a real capacity advantage there.
Joe Greek: How does intermodal connect to broader supply chain strategies like pool distribution or network optimization?
Allison Phillips: LTL pool distribution is a very hot topic for us right now. One recent success story involved a customer in Chicago moving freight to South Florida through Miami. We pooled their LTL freight in Chicago, shipped it all at once to South Florida, and then our Averitt service center delivered it locally. That's been a strong model.
Another good option is Chicago to Memphis, which is a one-day transit, the same as over the road, and opens up a lot of capacity for LTL freight moving throughout the Southeast. If a shipper moves a lot of LTL freight, I'd suggest sending us a list of lanes. We can analyze upwards of 10,000 to 20,000 loads and identify exactly where intermodal can optimize and deliver better options.
Joe Greek: That's a great point about LTL via intermodal. It seems like it would also be easier to track freight when it's consolidated into one container or trailer. How does tracking work for individual shipments moving by rail?
Allison Phillips: We actually track individual shipments, and they're updated very consistently. Whether you have one pallet or ten on the train, you can pull each one up individually and see exactly where it is at all times.
Joe Greek: So in that Florida example, freight is consolidated at origin, tracking on the rail down to Florida, then delivered to our service center and put on city tractors to final destinations. The tracking stays individual and unique throughout?
Allison Phillips: Yes, very much so. And we have that option outside of our footprint as well. Partner carriers can deliver LTL freight throughout California, Pennsylvania, and anywhere else we don't directly serve.
Joe Greek: What's something customers are surprised to learn about intermodal once they try it?
Allison Phillips: Just how reliable and consistent it is. The biggest thing I hear, and I came from a full truckload background, is how similar it feels to a dedicated full truckload option.
Joe Greek: When it comes to insurance, how does intermodal compare to traditional over the road?
Allison Phillips: All of our loads are covered up to $100,000, and that's automatically included. If a shipper has freight valued above that, we can look at additional insurance options through our insurance provider.
Joe Greek: What are some of the ideal transit lanes for intermodal versus over the road right now?
Allison Phillips: Chicago and the Midwest to the South is a really strong option. It typically adds just one extra day. Over the road is usually two days and intermodal is three, and the cost savings can be significant. Anything into South Florida is very competitive on transit. Northeast to South Florida is a four-day intermodal transit. Moving out west from the South is typically a five-day intermodal transit compared to four days over the road. So again, just one extra day in most cases.
Joe Greek: Intermodal covers the U.S., but does this service extend into Mexico and Canada?
Allison Phillips: Yes. We ship throughout Canada and throughout Mexico, including Monterrey and Saltillo, among other destinations. If a shipper has moves involving Mexico or Canada, we can definitely take a look at it.
Joe Greek: When shopping for intermodal rates, are shippers limited to one rail provider?
Allison Phillips: No, we have multiple providers. One might offer a four-day transit at one price point and another might offer an eight-day option at a significantly lower cost. We'll typically present both solutions so the customer can decide based on their priorities. Some want the faster option and are willing to pay a bit more. Others have flexibility and want the cost savings.
Joe Greek: One final question, Allison. What's the biggest benefit of partnering with Averitt for intermodal?
Allison Phillips: We're very seasoned and experienced in intermodal. And within Averitt, we have a lot of opportunities to partner across service areas and offer blended solutions. That's the power of one.
Joe Greek: That is the power of one.
Allison Phillips: That's right.
Joe Greek: Appreciate your time today, Allison. Thank you.
Allison Phillips: Thank you, Joe.
Joe Greek: Thanks for watching Beyond Point to Point. Intermodal transportation continues to be an important tool for shippers looking to control costs, expand capacity options, and build more flexibility into their supply chain strategies. To learn more about how Averitt can support your intermodal needs, visit averitt.com/intermodal. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and join us next time as we continue exploring the strategies and solutions shaping today's supply chains.
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