Intermodal vs. Road: Analyzing Competitiveness Across Key European Corridors

What’s cheaper? Surprises we found in data

Which is more beneficial—intermodal or road transportation? This seemingly simple question proves complex due to numerous variables and operational intricacies. Today, we aim to shed light on this topic and examine how prices for these transportation modes are evolving on key corridors.

Carriers and shippers started to tell us that intermodal transportation is losing its attractiveness under non-environmental KPIs, while road transportation gains price advantage and share. This prompted us to analyze this perception using data-driven facts and figures to verify, partially confirm, or disprove this perception.

Since comparing different transport modes on an equal footing is complex, we focus on market prices. This view between shippers and the carriers may not reflect actual costs for operators and hauliers or identical routing between shipments, nor does it account for a general FTL shipment suitability for intermodal solutions. However, it provides an indication how existing solutions evolve in terms of market competitiveness in executed market prices.

Our comparison focuses on 5 key corridors: The first chart covers Germany-Italy and the Benelux-Area-Italy, two of the oldest and most important intermodal trade routes. While transport prices from Germany evolved more uniformly, Benelux prices displayed more volatility and significant variation between the segments.