Intermodal transportation is the fastest growing mode of transportation in the world.  Containerization of freight began in 1956 when Malcom McLean invented the international shipping container.  Since then, world trade has been built upon his invention.  In the 1970's Europeans invented the tank container and in 1988 Agmark introduced tank containers to the American railroads.  Prior to this, rail service in America was still suffering from the plague of rail regulation.  Rail service had deteriorated to the point of almost uselessness as a viable mode for anything other than a few bulk commodities.  With de-regulation, railroads began to compete with trucks, initially on price alone.  As service improved, rates increased and railroads plowed billions of dollars back into their private infrastructure to further improve service.

Intermodal transportation is the fastest growing mode of transportation in the world.  Containerization of freight began in 1956 when Malcom McLean invented the international shipping container.  Since then, world trade has been built upon his invention.  In the 1970's Europeans invented the tank container and in 1988 Agmark introduced tank containers to the American railroads.  Prior to this, rail service in America was still suffering from the plague of rail regulation.  Rail service had deteriorated to the point of almost uselessness as a viable mode for anything other than a few bulk commodities.  With de-regulation, railroads began to compete with trucks, initially on price alone.  As service improved, rates increased and railroads plowed billions of dollars back into their private infrastructure to further improve service.

When Agmark first shipped milk from Chicago to Florida on rail, it proved that if you could ship milk on rail, you could ship anything.  By 1993, California milk production exceeded a diminishing supply of Wisconsin milk.  At that point, Agmark aligned with the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad (now the BNSF) to ship milk from California to the Wisconsin milk industry.   At the same time J.B. Hunt was altering the trucking world by riding the same trains with their dry freight.  UPS and the US Postal Service were also early adopters of intermodal rail. By the mid 1990's, rail had arrived.

In the early 2000's the world experienced the largest boom of international trade in the history of the world.  This trade rode on the back of intermodalism.  By 2003, Chinese container trade was starting to overwhelm the capacity of the ports and rail infrastructure.  Trucking was also constrained as it provided the last leg of the intermodal equation in the US.  Such constraints resulted in a rationalization of rail services across all North American railroads.  The result was a refocusing on core competencies, the elimination of some services and lanes, the rewriting of rules for storage and terminal charges and most significantly, the re-pricing of rail services.  By the mid 2000's rail services were priced up to the market for all transportation. 

Today, intermodal rail service is a highly reliable but usually slower mode than over-the-road trucks.  For much freight, this makes no difference, as the freight on rail is simply a part of their supply chain.  Where high speed is needed, expedited trains that are actually faster than truck run between a number of major metropolitan markets and command a premium price.  Given these services, intermodal rail operates like a virtual conveyor belt with an almost infinite capacity. You put the freight on at one end and it comes off at a predetermined time at the other. 

The future of intermodalism is bright.  Railroads have plowed their profits and borrowings back into their capacity.  Rail capacity has kept truck freight rates in check.  Trucking companies now realize that it makes little sense to put a human in a tractor to pull a load thousands of miles when the same job can be done at a lower total cost, in a more environmentally conscious manner, with rail.   Trucking companies also know that without rail, driver shortages would cripple their ability to serve their customers as fewer and fewer people want to drive long haul in our ever more congested society.

Agmark Logistics, a pioneer intermodal tank container operator, understands intermodalism.  While international shipping can be very complicated, we use our history and industry foresight to provide customers with the flexibility and dependability they need to ship their products across the country or worldwide in our intermodal tank containers.