ABSTRACT
While multimodal transport denotes the use of more than one mode in a transport chain (e.g. road and rail), intermodal refers specifically to a transport movement in which the goods remain within the same loading unit. Wooden boxes had been utilised since the early days of rail, but it was not until strong metal containers were developed that true intermodal transport emerged. The efficiencies and hence cost reductions of eliminating excessive handling by keeping the goods within the same unit were apparent from the first trials of a container vessel by Malcom McLean in 1956. 1 The initial container revolution was thus in ports, as the stevedoring industry was transformed in succeeding decades from a labour-intensive operation to an increasingly automated activity. Economies of scale on the sea leg meant that container traffic concentrated in a smaller number of ports, thus hinterlands overlapped and inland regions could be served by a number of ports connected by intermodal transport at a cheaper cost than using the nearest port. In rail terms, intermodal is normally used to distinguish unitised flows from other traffic types such as coal, timber, steel and aggregates, which all have their own specific wagon types. Unitised traffic is frequently made up of flows of containers to and from ports, but also includes non-port traffic which often uses domestic containers, swap bodies and piggyback.
