One of the simplest ways for a shipper to slash its emissions is by modal shift. And that doesn’t mean abandoning trucks altogether. Canadian carriers like Fastfrate have long been pushing intermodal options as a way to reduce costs. Now, shippers with a commitment to sustainability are seeing intermodal shipping as a win-win – less harmful pollutants and at a lower price point.

James Menzies caught up with Ron Tepper, chairman of Fastfrate owner Tepper Holdings, and Manny Calandrino, CEO of Fastfrate, to discuss the growing usage of intermodal and the environmental benefits.

Tepper: Trains have 200 containers on them, so theoretically that’s 200 truckloads that you’re taking off the road for one train. And trains are very carbon sensitive right now. They’re getting into hydrogen. So just taking 200 trucks off the road is a big thing going 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers. And that’s the benefit from that perspective.

Calandrino: And there’s not enough trucks. You gotta understand, every train that departs has a line of containers, like Ron said. And then you have CN and CP [rail] and the number of trains that depart every night. There’s just not enough trucks to be able to move that across the country, and people don’t realize how important the railway is. We couldn’t connect eastern and western Canada without our railways.

According to data provided by Fastfrate, heavy trucks emit about 110 grams of CO2 per tonne kilometer. Compare that to intermodal, which, experts say, offers a 30-50% average CO2 reduction versus truckload alone. But how about the service? Surely rail can’t compete with trucking when it comes to timeliness?

Tepper: You can get to Vancouver by rail now in four days. You can get to Calgary in three days. So that’s pretty good service. Rail is affected by lots of things. Weather is one. If the weather is really bad — North Line or South Line, CN or CP respectively — that could hold up a train where a truck might not be held up.

But other than that, other than some rail event that takes place that would stop a train from going as fast as it could across the lanes, you can move a container from Toronto to Vancouver and deliver it on the fourth day, and that’s the same as a truck service, and you’re paying a rail price as opposed to a truck price.

Is that message getting through to shippers, who are looking to improve their sustainability performance without sacrificing service?

Tepper: They’re not. They should be. The ones that are really looking into the value of rail versus truck, and thinking about it from an ESG perspective — why would you not use rail?