West Coast Ports

Special Report

US railroads handled peak season surge better than pandemic : IMCs

By Ari Ashe

Following a prolonged peak shipping season , intermodal providers are crediting North American Class I railroads for handling the surge in volume better that they did during the COVID-19 pandemic .

Admittedly , asset and non-asset intermodal marketing companies ( IMCs ) were irritated over disruptions in Chicago , Los Angeles , Portland and Tacoma during the second half of 2024 . Yet those challenges were not as severe as the backlogs they experienced in 2020 and 2021 , despite a more than 20 % year-over-year jump in freight volumes originating in the US Southwest in October and November , IMCs said .

Container availability , a problem during the pandemic , was manageable this peak season . Surcharges to use containers only went as high as $ 850 using rail-owned containers and some private boxes of Hub Group , Schneider National , STG Logistics and Swift Intermodal . By

28 Journal of Commerce | February 3 , 2025 www . joc . com