Roeth: Intermodal and drayage can work together to improve freight efficiency

For years, NACFE was known for the work we did improving the freight efficiency of fleets running heavy-duty trucks. As we moved into helping fleets with their decarbonization efforts, we’ve looked at a broader range of vehicles, including vans and step vans, medium-duty box trucks, and terminal tractors.

Even more recently, we ventured into looking at intermodal because of its close ties to drayage. Our recent guidance report, Intermodal & Drayage: An Opportunity To Reduce Freight Emissions, found there is the potential to reduce emissions by optimizing intermodal operations.

But that is not an easy task, in part because railroading and trucking are intertwined freight segments that both compete and complement each other. It is important to remember that intermodal is not one mode but an integral system of modes working together to efficiently and reliably transport products from the point of origin to the consumer.

Our report found there is real potential for intermodal operations using containers as tools to reduce carbon emissions. However, there are also significant operational, economic, and regulatory challenges versus alternative modes of transportation like trucking.

Rails’ portion of national GHG emissions in the U.S. is less than 2%, while medium- and heavy-duty trucking’s share of transportation emissions is estimated at 58%. The significant differences are primarily due to the greater use of trucks in hauling freight tonnage versus trains, with secondary influences being the generally lower emissions locomotives have versus trucks in freight ton-miles per gallon efficiencies.

See also: How to build strategic relationships for intermodal success

Both rail and trucking are investigating new powertrain technologies that result in reduced emissions, which is a positive development for both modes of transportation, but trucks are quicker than locomotives to transition to new technologies because the useful asset life of a truck may be less than 15 years whereas locomotives may have asset lives of 50 years.

We have three key recommendations based on the research into the areas of intermodal and drayage.

• Shift more market share from regional and long-haul trucking to intermodal rail.
• Replace traditional diesel drayage tractors with zero-emission and near-zero-emission tractors.
• Replace traditional diesel terminal tractors with zero-emission and near-zero-emission tractors.

If you operate in the intermodal or drayage markets, we encourage you to consider following these recommendations. If you do, please let us know what you learn. The more information we can gather and share, the smarter—and more freight-efficient—we all get.

Michael Roeth has worked in the commercial vehicle industry for nearly 30 years, most recently as executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). He serves on the second National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technologies and Approaches for Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicles and has held various positions in engineering, quality, sales, and plant management with Navistar and Behr/Cummins.