Intermodal Success Requires Education, Enhanced Marketing, Fleet Execs Say
By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the March 16 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
ORLANDO, Fla. — For truckers, there is a lot more to intermodal than simply tying a trailer down on a train, industry experts said.
Patrick Quinn, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc., and John Hickerson, senior vice president of FFE Transportation Services Inc., told members of the Truckload Carriers Association here that fleets need to educate drivers, enhance marketing, fit intermodal into their freight flows and focus on details.
“Intermodal does take some knowledge and understanding,” said Quinn, whose company went from zero intermodal business six years ago to $150 million last year.
Drivers need to understand that a domestic intermodal rail terminal won’t entail several hours of waiting and long lines such as those at some seaports, Quinn said.
The secret, Quinn said, is to plan drivers’ work assignments to and from intermodal terminals that mesh with train schedules and customer needs.
“The challenge is to keep them moving,” he said.
Intermodal is “a great solution right now, if you put a network together and manage it,” Hickerson said. FFE concentrates intermodal on Chicago-West Coast routes as well as Texas and some Northeast markets, but it stays away from it on other routes where it’s not competitive.
Frozen Food Express has a goal of $25 million in intermodal freight this year, about one-third more than in 2008 and five times its volume in 2007. Such changes have helped domestic intermodal to grow 5.2% a year on average since 2004, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.
“It’s not easy” for fleets, Hickerson said. “You have to understand the little things, like how to take care of a temperature-control unit, if there is a failure.”
He also said that “freight flows in one direction. If you don’t use intermodal intelligently, you’ll wind up with a big pile of trailers at one end of your network.”
“You have to look at better ways to market intermodal,” Quinn said, to counter customers’ previous experiences. Fleets should emphasize their expertise when they speak with customers, he added. He illustrated the point by saying that a customer never would try to tell FedEx how to move its packages.
Equipment needs to be built or retrofitted with intermodal components, such as lift pads.
James Hertwig, president of CSX Intermodal Inc., said his company tries to help new customers by having operations
and sales people stay in close communication for the first 90 days after the first shipment moves to answer questions and address issues.
“We want your experience to be good,” he said. “Our people will swarm all over you.”
“If you want to test us, look at us as a broker-carrier,” Hertwig said. “We will pick up a load at your door and deliver it, just like a broker-carrier. Think of us as being your owner-operator from Chicago to New York.”
He touted a new program to address traffic imbalances in Florida, where fleets can have difficulty filling trucks with freight coming out of that state. CSX will take the load to Florida by rail, deliver the shipment by truck and return the trailer to the motor carrier in a major city, such as Atlanta.
Quinn said using your own equipment for drayage also is important because he found that local trucking companies didn’t work as well. A truckload fleet can take advantage of intermodal to get two shifts a day from a day cab, he added.
He also urged fleets to examine standardized intermodal shipping documents such as liability clauses because they may not be the same as what truckers know from their own businesses.
