American Shipper
Schneider leverages inland import service to help U.S. shippers get products to port.
Schneider National, building on its two-year-old import drayage service, is partnering with SynchroNet Intermodal to provide manufacturers and commodity shippers a turnkey service for locating available containers and transporting their export loads to rail heads and ports.
The teaming arrangement is designed to address the reality that exporters frequently can’t find empty containers for export in their vicinity due to trade imbalances and a shift in ocean carrier business models for inland distribution of international containers.
Manufacturing and agricultural production facilities are usually far from metropolitan consumption centers where ocean boxes tend to flow. Ocean carriers say they don’t want the extra expense of an empty move to pick up an export load. And, in recent years, many liners have significantly cut back their inland distribution points to concentrate on main freight corridors and quickly turn boxes at the ports because import loads command significantly higher rates than exports, which often tend to be low-value commodities such as wastepaper and grain…
