You have multiple options for transporting any goods, and opting for the best one depends on your requirement. However, rail, truck, and air freight are the most common transportation mediums for domestic package delivery. On the flip side, when you need shipping across Canada or transport your goods cross-border, it can even include the ship services.
Now, you have two major choices to choose from for transporting your goods to the end client. It consists of intermodal and individual transportation facilities. For instance, if you are working in the food grain business and want to deliver goods within the city, state, or nation, you can go for a road or rail transportation facility. Another side, if you are trading overseas, intermodal would be the best and most inexpensive transportation mode to opt for.
Well! It’s enough saying. Now, let’s see how an intermodal freight service can be a convenient and cost-saving solution if you are exporting your products around the world.
Why Is It A Need For Intermodal Shipment?
As the name defines, intermodal means you are shipping your package from one location to another, followed by a different means of transportation. Based on the types of goods and the size of containers, intermodal freight services can include truck, rail, ship, or sometimes air medium to deliver your package.
For instance, if you have a large container and you want to export it to another country than your operational business location, you may need intermodal mediums. And here are some quick reasons why intermodal shipment would be profitable for you.
- Environment-friendly transportation facility
- Les expenses on fuel cost
- All documentation at a place
- Saves time in container shipment
- Timely delivery without convenient
- Multi-channel transportation facility with a single contact
- Secured package delivery with insurance
- Affordable custom clearance charges
- No worries about wear and tear on the packaging
- Live tracking throughout your transportation
- Customized container size for safe product delivery
- Best for overseas trading
How To Find The Best Intermodal Shipment Agency?
While hunting for the best Intermodal transportation company, here are some genuine queries to ask them. Clarifying these doubts can help you hire the right transportation agency that can take care of your packages for timely and safe delivery to the end location.
Ask For Their Essential Features
Start knowing the intermodal freight service provider by asking about their eligibility. For instance, you can ask them about the mode of transportation they offer, the container size they provide, and what process they follow for intermodal shipment. You can also confirm if they take care of temperature control if you deal with such products that require to be stored in the refrigerator.
Clear Your Doubt Related To Shipment Location
It may be possible that there is a big distance between your warehouse and their transportation unit. If it applies, then be sure that your transportation cost is going to hike. In that case, either you can look for an alternative to that shipment company or negotiate with them if needed. Further, you must ask how they deal with the intermodal shipment, what expected delays are if they happen, and their frequently used containers and mode of transportation.
Be Assure About The Secured Shipment
If you are hiring the best shipping company for overseas transportation, don’t hesitate to ask about security. It can be in terms of package loading and unloading, container safety, documentation, weather-friendly transportation, wear and tear problem, insurance, and significantly more. So, before hiring an intermodal freight partner on board, be assured about all the probability and the security that matters for your delivery.
Tracking System
Tracking the product movement gives you a sign of peace to handle the scenario if it is getting delayed in delivery or any unforeseen situation. So, before hiring the best and most affordable intermodal transit company, you must ask them how they track the shipment throughout the journey.
A few relevant queries to ask your transportation partner can be the technology they used for international shipment tracking, frequency of updates, the contact point for tracking, and significantly more. Likewise, you can ask how they deal with the inconvenience, if any, caused during international transportation.
Ask For Excluded Cost (If Any)
While you are querying all about the operational process to the intermodal freight transportation partner, do not forget to ask for an additional cost if it applies anywhere from starting to delivering the product to the final destination.
Be clear if the cost for the container, fuel, driver, or labor is excluded from the transportation charges. Clearing all these queries will help you plan the right transportation at the right time utilizing the most out of the available intermodal shipment facilities.
Final Verdict
Hiring the right transportation agency is essential if you belong to an overseas export business. Also, it requires an intermodal shipment facility to deliver your products from one corner to the other corner of the world. We hope the above guide will help you get the most benefit and maintain your supply chain by choosing a reliable intermodel shipment partner.
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