Trucks made inroads into the intermodal share of the transportation market in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a recent analysis by FTR Associates, Nashville IN.
"Intermodal is facing some terrific headwinds at the moment," said Lawrence Gross, senior consultant for FTR and principal author of the Intermodal Monthly Update. "The combined effects of plunging fuel prices and excess capacity in the motor carrier industry proved too great for domestic intermodal to overcome in the fourth quarter. Compounding the problem is the profound weakness in international trade, a market dominated by long-haul intermodal."
While the near-term intermodal outlook appears difficult, Gross expects better days to come. “As truckers continue to shrink their fleets in response to the current weak freight environment, when the economy eventually does begin to recover there will be a significant shortage of truck capacity and intermodal will then be well positioned to benefit."
Intermodal’s share of US long-haul movements of international and domestic containerized freight dropped by 0.2% to a level of 12.1% from the third to the fourth quarter, according to the report.
Excluding international intermodal moves, the market share represented by intermodal movement of domestic cargo dropped by 0.1% to a level of 5.6%, reversing a trend that had seen domestic intermodal share increasing for the past year.
The analysis is contained in the February issue of the Intermodal Monthly Update.