Nontraditional bank lending to trucking companies picked up moderately in the second half of 2016 as fleets sought to survive during a sluggish freight market, according to lenders with exposure in transportation financing.

For the first time since 2009, the number of container and trailer units transported on intermodal rail fell on a year-over-year basis, according to 2016 totals from the Association of American Railroads.

While many in the industry believe this year will be better than 2016, trucking executives are concerned about shippers trying to lock in low rates to get ahead of the curve on the contract market.

Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad, has acquired the refrigerated and cold-storage facilities of Railex in Rotterdam, N.Y., Wallula, Washington, and Delano, California.

After four consecutive years of record-breaking intermodal growth in the railroad industry, container and trailer traffic dropped 1.6% in 2016, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Construction has begun on an intermodal terminal at the Global Container Terminals in Bayonne, New Jersey, to connect on-site to CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads and to offer an alternative that could result in fewer containers being placed on trucks.

Maersk, the world's largest container shipping line, has teamed up with Alibaba to allow customers to reserve space on its vessels through the Chinese company, illustrating growing cooperation between e-commerce and logistics firms.

XPO shareholders overwhelmingly approved a plan Dec. 20 to increase the maximum number of shares the company can issue to executives as compensation, to 2.5 million shares from 500,000, easily overcoming opposition from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.