The term intermodalism is nearly synonymous with containerization, with the container holding the cargo that is exchanged between modes. For international movements, we consider intermodal transportation to be the carriage of goods by more than one mode of transportation under a “through” bill-of-lading.
From the shipper’s standpoint, an additional advantage of containerization, made possible by the fact that cargo is loaded in boxes, is that containers need not be loaded within the port area. Indeed, they can be loaded anywhere reachable by truck or rail. This proved to be even more momentous to shippers than the efficiencies containerization enabled in terms of working the vessel.