Intermodal or Multimodal… The choice is yours!

intermodal and multimodal transport systems, highlighting efficient freight movement using various transportation modes, including rail, road, and sea. Ideal for logistics

But what are Intermodal and Multimodal? Saving money and getting the best total shipping costs are not always getting the best routing.

Using a combination of carriers in order to reduce your costs for door-to-door movements is sometimes worth it. But the downside is that you need extensive and hands-on coordination.

Using a single carrier on the other hand, while achieving the best routing, requires less logistics coordination and paperwork and looking at the costs of your time along with the lack of headaches on potential disaster(s) may be well wort it enjoying our VIP services !

Let us therefore have a look at these two options

Intermodal = Consignments handled by several different carriers

Simply put, intermodal transportation is a combination of two or more modes of transport in order to move cargo from a place in a country to another place to a different country and every part of the process it is contracted with a different provider, each with its own independent contract.

As an example, you need to move consignments between two sites. Both of these sites are land locked and on different continents. So potentially, you will contact a trucking company to transport your shipment to a rail yard, where it will be loaded to go to a local depot to be handed over to a local haulier to deliver to the export airport or port, to be loaded on an aircraft or a ship to move overseas. At destination, it will be unloaded and moved to a local haulier who will in turn and potentially deliver to another rail carrier before being finally trucked from the rail yard to your destination location.

When using intermodal shipping, each leg of that shipment will be handled by a different carrier, each with their own contract. While there can be advantages in negotiating each leg with each company, your overhead will increase as you will not only be responsible for each contract, but more importantly responsible for handling and coordinating delays along the movement with each and every carrier involved –and potentially suffer the penalties along the way.

Multimodal = Consignments handled by unique carrier responsible for all modes of transport

Multimodal is still the movement of cargo from origin to destination by several modes of transport with different transport carriers responsible for each leg, but this movement is covered by a single contract Airwaybill or bill of lading. The responsibility is therefore onto one company only, handling each and every leg of the movement.

In the example above, multimodal shipping means that only one company which you are subcontracting will handle all modes of transport.

The advantages of the multimodal transportation are therefore evident and that’s why VIP Freight is your one-stop-shop service provider, handling each part of the movement of your consignments, giving you that ease and peace of mind from start to finish and of course, reducing your overheads and headaches.

While VIP will be able to handle potential delays at any time in the transportation, providing you with constant updates on the progress of your consignment via your preferred method of contact, leave with us the liaising, coordinating and negotiating the best terms and transit to access any remote parts of the world and fit with your requirements.

Thanks to our extensive network, VIP will guarantee that the most efficient combination of multiple transport modes, benefits you by optimising lead times, reducing inventory costs and keeping the level of freight costs under control while resulting in an increased environmental sustainability, reducing the transportation carbon footprint.

For more information on rates or how multimodal transport may benefit your supply chain contact a VIP Freight specialist.