What 30 Years of Intermodal Means for You

Why does it matter that Schneider is celebrating 30 years of intermodal in 2021? Because it’s both a milestone of maturity pointing to the interesting history of intermodal and a launching point for what we believe will be an exciting era of more growth. Shippers are primed to benefit.

As Schneider’s senior VP of Intermodal for the last five years and now chief commercial officer as of this year, I want to share some personal reflections based on my 23 years with the company about the dramatic innovations I’ve seen and thoughts about what lies ahead.

How it all started

While the concept of multi-modal freight transportation by both truck and train has been around since the first half of the 20th century, intermodal took off in the early 1990s, and Schneider was an early pioneer.

• 1940s-50s: Piggyback (trailer on flatcar) begins with “circus loading” (backing truck trailer onto a rail flatcar)
• 1964: First “Piggy Packer” developed by Southern Pacific railroad to lift trailers onto flatcars
• 1977: First Intermodal well car developed
• 1984: First “double stack” train concept developed
• 1991: Schneider launched intermodal service with Southern Pacific containers

Throughout the ‘90s, truckload and railroad partnerships formed, and railroads merged and consolidated. That made creative truck/train shipping combinations possible across broader geographic areas — what we now know as intermodal.

The evolution of Schneider Intermodal

• Started with rail-owned containers
• Quickly moved to trailer on flatcar (TOFC) to enhance truckload conversion
• Transitioned to company-owned containers with double-stack capability and third-party chassis
• Invested in the full asset-based solution we offer today with Schneider-owned containers, chassis and tractors, with company drivers delivering over 90% of intermodal loads.

Today, Schneider’s intermodal solution has approximately 22,300 containers, and our network includes over 45 ramps with major railroads linked across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

What’s next and why does it matter to you?

We’re just getting started. Schneider is committed to doubling our intermodal size by 2030 as part of recently announced corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives.

For shippers with ESG targets, intermodal is a no-brainer solution. The railroads we work with can currently move a ton of freight up to 500 miles on a single gallon of fuel. We save 700 million pounds of CO2 each year by working with our intermodal partners, and our carbon consumption analytical tools helps shippers see the specific impact that conversion to intermodal can have on their supply chain footprint.

Shippers can save the environment and money by strategically shifting freight — especially long-haul freight — to intermodal. It’s also a big part of our solution to the driver shortage, as we free up driver capacity every time a load travels by train.

Intermodal is also our first service offering to experiment with electric trucks, another piece of Schneider’s sustainability initiatives.

Ultimately, doing intermodal well requires scale, expertise and an ongoing commitment to innovation, which takes time to build out. Schneider has put in the time for 30 years, and we’re ready for another 30.

I want to close by thanking Schneider’s professional drivers, office associates, rail partners and customers for helping us to this significant anniversary, and I want to invite you to consider how intermodal can be an even bigger part of our collaboration in the future.

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