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A Discussion on the Intermodalism in Freight Transportation

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Please discuss and extend the information on the topic, and to expand on the topic by giving real-world scenarios, which reflect this topic.

. Based on this topic:

- Freight transportation and the economy and categorize the key economic components of intermodalism.

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A Discussion on the Intermodalism in Freight Transportation

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Intermodalism in Freight Transportations
Globalization has, for the past few decades, been the main driving force of trade demand and of course, the related logistics activities to move these trades from one place to another. As companies in one location compete with another located, say, at the other side of the globe, how fast these companies can deliver their products to customers has increasingly become a source of competitive advantage. A challenge that companies face in the movement of freight is the inherent structure of the world, which makes it nearly impossible to transport a product by using just one mode of transportation. We could say that the globalization of trade gave birth (or maybe helped develop) to the intermodal of freight transportation.
When we say intermodal as it refers to freight transportations we mean the movement of freight through a series of different modes of transportation including rail, ship, and trucks without those freight being handled over and over as they are transferred from one mode to another. What this means is if the freight was initially transported through rail in a twenty-foot container, then in the next mode, say, a ship, then that twenty-foot container for the movement to be considered intermodal should be moved directly into the ship without opening or repacking the container. More formally, intermodal freight transport could be defined as "the movement of goods in one and the same loading unit or vehicle, which uses successive, various modes of transport (road, rail, water) without any handling of the goods themselves during transfers between modes" (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division, 1997, p. 2). Kunadhamraks and Hanaoka (2008) defined intermodal freight more simply: "Intermodal freight transport is the movement of goods in one and the same loading unit or vehicle by successive modes of transport without handling of the goods themselves when changing modes" (n.p.).
The choice of what routes and intermodal transport the transportation network will use to move freight from its point of origin ...

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