Intermodal shipping is expected to be a shining star in the trucking and logistics industry in 2025. The expectation of tariffs triggered a double-digit increase in imports during the first quarter. While the pace is decelerating, growth is forecasted to be between 2% and 3% by year-end.

With rising freight volumes, however, the pressure is on all parties in the intermodal supply chain to address long-standing visibility challenges.

Ocean carriers, port terminals, railroads, warehouses, and drayage trucking companies encounter the most difficulties in the initial leg of inland movement, which has historically been a logistical bottleneck.

Port terminals function as complex, high-volume hubs. They’re often congested with inbound trucking fleets, contributing to delays in picking up and exchanging containers. From port terminals, inbound containers travel through a fragmented network that obstructs the tracking of assets and cargo, as well as the sharing of data.

To escape this, fleets must bridge critical information gaps. Here are four primary challenges that modern Internet of Things visibility tools can address to improve the management of intermodal assets and cargo.

1. Optimizing Asset Turns

One of the intermodal industry’s longstanding challenges is that chassis, containers and freight operate in information silos. This results in missed opportunities, unnecessary moves and costly delays.

The “street turn” is a prime example of an opportunity to optimize. 

Instead of returning empty containers to the port, carriers ideally want to return with loaded containers in a boomerang pattern. They can achieve this by matching import deliveries with exports along their routes. 

However, street turns can be challenging to execute without accurate, real-time data on export container locations, availability, and loaded/unloaded status.

IoT container visibility solutions can equip dispatchers and logistics teams with essential tools for street turns. Real-time GPS tracking, automated geofencing and centralized dashboards enable fleet planners and dispatchers to identify the locations of containers at ports ready for pickup. This allows them to proactively match these deliveries with nearby exports on the same route, facilitating a round trip back to the port.

By remotely confirming container status and optimizing turnaround opportunities, fleets eliminate unnecessary trips across their network, reducing deadhead miles and fuel consumption while increasing revenue.

2. Recovering Idle Containers

Underutilized containers and chassis are a significant operating expense. In many cases, fleets overlook assets that sit empty for extended periods at drop yards, or in other instances, when customers use them for storage purposes.

During high-demand periods, the visibility of available containers and chassis is critical to position them where they are needed. This can increase capacity and eliminate delays from drivers waiting for live loads.

Also, fleets can reduce detention fees by ensuring their assets are not left at locations beyond a specified time limit.

Clear visibility of intermodal operations also helps fleets avoid unnecessary equipment rentals and reduce excess inventory of assets. Furthermore, they can leverage technology to eliminate manual yard check costs and proactively reposition containers, ensuring a healthy balance and flow of assets throughout their networks.

Today’s advanced container and chassis visibility systems provide real-time insights into asset locations, load status (empty or loaded), idle durations and usage patterns. Dispatchers can access a dashboard that delivers all the necessary information they need to keep their assets moving.

3. Controlling the Clock

In the world of intermodal transportation, scheduling pickup and delivery appointments is a crucial part of daily operations. 

Unlike over-the-road trucking, which allows for greater flexibility, intermodal pickups and returns operate on fixed-time windows. Miss one, and the delay can extend into the next day or longer.

The complexity deepens when working across steamship lines, ports and rail terminals, each having a distinct booking system. Without a unified view, even experienced operators can struggle to stay on schedule.

Visibility tools offer clarity amid chaos. Using the data these systems provide, such as historical dwell times and live activities at port terminals and during transit, fleets can generate predictive ETAs and identify potential delays.

With access to real-time alerts and utilization analytics, dispatchers can schedule pickup and delivery appointments more precisely and take steps to prevent disruptions. This, along with other factors, will result in tighter turn times and fewer idle miles.

4. Securing the Load

Cargo theft for intermodal shipments surged in 2024, with overall incidents rising by over 25% and rail-specific thefts nearly doubling. 

This trend is expected to continue in 2025, creating a need for greater cargo visibility during transit. This is possible with cargo cameras that stay with the load, extending security beyond yard cameras and padlocks.

Containers often remain unattended at depots, railyards or drop lots, particularly in the early stages of inland travel. That’s when thieves strike. The critical threat window typically occurs within the first 300 miles of port departure, during which containers are often stationary or lightly monitored. 

Container visibility solutions can help fleets identify unauthorized movements and confirm load integrity from origin to destination with geofencing as well as door sensors, cargo sensors, load sensors, and cargo imaging.

By combining real-time monitoring with historical theft pattern analysis, fleets can develop safer routes, limit unnecessary stops and reduce risk exposure.

From blind spots to breakthroughs

The challenges of intermodal logistics are no longer an inescapable reality. With the rise of IoT container visibility solutions, fleets now have the tools to identify problems and take decisive action to ensure consistent and secure deliveries. 

Container visibility doesn’t just prevent loss or delay. It creates value at every handoff by creating operational clarity for all parties involved. Fleets can use dashboards to transform information into action, and integrations to facilitate collaboration between transportation partners, customers and supply chain stakeholders.

About the Author: Gregg Plonisch is VP of Sales, North America Transportation for Orbcomm, a provider of advanced dry and reefer trailer and container visibility technology for the transportation industry. 

This article was authored and edited according to Heavy Duty Trucking’s editorial standards. Opinions expressed may not reflect those of HDT.