Making the Truck-Rail Connection Pay Off

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img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>Some larger trucking companies are trying to capitalize on the appetite for intermodal shipping by offering customers the flexibility to shift easily between a purely truck movement and a truck-rail mixture.

While such a service may be convenient for customers, it is usually the shipper — or its third-party logistics provider — that makes the decisions as to which freight moves by which mode over what distance.

"Our larger customers usually have a good idea of what mode they want to use,” said Paul R. Bergant, intermodal division president of J.B. Hunt Transport Services in Lowell, Ark. “We give them some options, but then they make the decision and expect us to execute."

For the full story, see the Nov. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.