What is Intermodalism?

The movement of international shipments via container using sequential transportation modes (water, air and land) makes use of the most efficient cost-effective methods to move goods. An entire new set of terms has developed around this concept of intermodalism.

Load Centers


As ships grew to hold more containers, they became more expensive to operate. One way to reduce costs was to hold down the number of port calls. To fill the ships at fewer ports the cargo had to be funneled into Load Centers.

Land Bridges

• Microbridge – a microbridge routes a container to or from any port in a given country
• Minibridge – a minibridge moves a container that originates or terminates in a domestic port other than the one where it enters or leaves the country.
• Landbridge - a Landbridge offloads a container at any domestic port, ships it across country by rail and then reloads it aboard a vessel for final movement to foreign destination. The RO/RO (Roll On/Roll Off) capability of containerized cargo is the foundation of intermodalism.

Source: This is an excerpt from Nelson, Carl. A, Import/Export – How to get started in International Trade, Third Edition, published by McGraw-Hill