(Graphics created by Emily Ricks)

Responsible freight management parties have a duty to understand how their enterprise goals impact others. That includes potential impact to the environment, social causes and governance structure and their impact on routing guide compliance. Together, these form what’s collectively known as ESG values, and in today’s world, intermodal shipping and ESG are closely intertwined.

The reason behind this comes from the significantly stronger sustainability advantages within intermodal. As an example, World Finance reported that Bryan Trucker, Vice President of Corporate Communications at CSX, stated, “CSX became the first U.S. Class 1 railroad to operate at a fuel efficiency rate of less than one gallon of fuel per 1,000 gross ton miles.” Let’s juxtapose that against trucking fuel efficiency rates of around 10-20% of that amount. That effectively means rail is up to 10X more efficient than sending a shipment by truck. And that means it’s significantly more sustainable. But to further that argument, let’s take an in-depth look at the benefits and disadvantages of intermodal shipping load planning, when to choose one over the other, and a few core SONAR insights to maximize value.