Shippers See Opportunities, Limitations In Assessing Intermodal's Potential

By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter

This story appears in the Nov. 28 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

ATLANTA — Intermodal transportation is brimming with opportunities, suffering from routing limitations or possibly a mixture of both, industry officials said here.

Those diverse views were expressed by six shippers who spoke Nov. 14 here at a meeting of the Intermodal Association of North America, the Transportation Intermediaries Association and the National Industrial Transportation League.

“There are a significant number of additional [freight] lanes that we are looking at for intermodal,” said Michael Vannatta, director of transportation procurement for LXP, which manages food shipments. “We’d like more coverage for reefer,” Vannatta said.

He told TT that LXP could perhaps double the current 172 lanes where intermodal is used if the service were available.

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