Memphis Moves the Freight

Memphis Stories Memphis is transportation's Greatest Show on Earth. Municipal fleet embraces lawsuit managed competition. Freight leaders anticipate next level of intermodalism. (Note: To return to this story, click the "Back" button on your browser.)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In a perfect transportation world, trains, planes, ships and trucks work flawlessly in concert to move people and freight across the country.

No such place exists, of course, but its closest match may be Memphis. The city is best known as the base of operations for Federal Express, but it is home to a confluence of highways, railroads and a river port that has made the city an intermodal transportation hub like no other.

Memphis calls itself North America’s Distribution Center.

Transportation and distribution have become the mainstays of the Memphis economy. More than 89,000 people, or 21% of the workforce, are employed in distribution and related industries, and the city has more than 130 million square feet of distribution space.

The city is bisected by two federal highways — Interstate 40 going east to west and Interstate 55 going north to south. It joins Chicago and New Orleans as the only cities where five Class I railroads converge.

Thanks to FedEx, Memphis International Airport is the busiest cargo airport in the world. So much international freight pours into Memphis every day by air and rail that the U.S. Customs Service handles more dollar volume here than any other port in the nation.

For the full story, see the Feb. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.