Intermodal savings is a big part of why shippers in the know often choose the mode over truck options. But those hesitant to use the road-rail combination cite concerns about service compared to strictly over-the-road solutions. To get a complete picture of both the savings and service landscape for intermodal, we welcome Ari Ashe with the Journal of Commerce to the latest episode of InTek Freight & Logistics: The Podcast.
Ari discusses two offerings he provides through JOC that put numbers to both - the Intermodal Savings Index (ISI) and the Intermodal Service Scorecard. He tells us how the ISI tracks pricing versus trucking on a quarterly basis, with a particular focus on the most major lanes. And while the index offers a snapshot of rail service, the scorecard takes it a step further - actually surveying shippers about how their service (a term that encompasses both reliability and actual customer relations) compares between railroads and intermodal marketing companies (IMCs), from small to large and asset to non-asset.
We also touch on TPM24, a conference put on by Ari and his JOC team focused on ocean container shipping just last week, that was especially timely this year due to the Red Sea crisis. And he provided an extra early preview of Inland, another JOC event focused on domestic freight coming in September.
To learn more about the ISI and savings scorecard - and to access them - visit the JOC's subscription page and choose a Gold Plan. To find out more about their events, go to www.joc.com/events.
And this episode marks the first edition of the podcast to include us and our guest live on video. Check out the episode on YouTube now, and head to our playlist there for the audio versions of all our previous ones.
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