By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTWith rising fuel prices, shippers are turning to other alternatives that include intermodal freight.By using intermodal—a combination of modes most frequently associated with rail and truck, companies can move freight from one location to another in the most efficient, timely, cost effective, and environmentally friendly manner. “Companies today are trying to squeeze costs, improve margins, eek out profitability, and see some growth,” says Tony Zasimovic, vice president, International, APL Logistics. The mode has come a long way from the days when railways and trucking concerns rarely cooperated with each other. Equipment was seldom compatible, and rail yards did not accommodate trucks. But intermodal shipping has greatly improved over the last 10 years and now represents a great value proposition for shipments 500 miles and over. OCEAN53 Now intermodal appears poised for another giant leap thanks to programs and innovations being made by APL. For starters there’s APL’s ocean-capable 53-foot containers, a move that observers believe could significantly alter the US import market. Dubbed Ocean53, the containers are currently only coming out of South China and Qingdao, although they‘re also fundamental to domestic intermodal transportation in the United States. The containers are longer and wider than containers currently employed in ocean trade lanes. They’re also built to withstand the rigors of deep-sea ocean containership transport, unlike 53-foot boxes already in use for US domestic-oriented truck, rail and barge transport. “The bigger box offers greater loadabilty and reduces per unit costs on imports,” Zasimovic says. APL executives believe the premium big-box service on a regular, weekly basis could make a significant difference to shipping options on the Transpacific. “Our objective is to move big-box economics farther back in the supply chain to the point where products are manufactured in Asia,” says Ron Widdows, CEO of APL. “We’re responding to customers who want new levels of efficiency in their containerized trade.” Consequently, the new 53-foot containers are being viewed as a global trade breakthrough. The bigger boxes have 60% more capacity than standard 40-foot containers. They’re 9 feet 6 inches high and 102 inches wide – six inches wider than standard boxes. That extra space enables shippers to consolidate more cargo into fewer containers. DC BYPASS SCHEME Planning for intermodal shipments, which is generally a slower mode, now requires that shippers reach further back into the supply chain to make it work efficiently and economically. This can mean redeveloping how shipments leave the sourcing manufacturer. With today’s low cost labor options in China, retailers, in particular, are looking for ways to further reduce costs in their supply chains. One potential area that is becoming increasingly prevalent is the concept of DC bypass. Here goods are sorted, labeled, and boxed in store ready packages prior to departing the manufacturers facility in the source country. The products are then shipped to the United States where they are de-consolidated and sorted at a 3PL warehouse prior to final delivery to the end customer. To eliminate this step, APL offers a DC Bypass deconsolidation program. Here freight is consolidated at origin from multiple vendors or factories within a region. Instead of being shipped to the manufacturer’s US distribution center, the products are sent directly to the end customer’s US distribution center. “If you are shipping all the way to Pennsylvania, for example, you can import product to the West Coast where we will pick it up and put it into our facility then put it in bigger 53-foot containers,” Zasimovic explains. “In that process on the West Coast, we can transload the shipment to a bigger box and send by truck or train.” For retailers and wholesalers, especially, the program can be cost-effective. “Some shippers, like Wal-Mart, do