Cheaper linehaul over distance, and a set of clocks that start without anyone telling you.
What intermodal is, the conversion decision, equipment and who provides it, the accessorial exposure, operating differences, mode-specific KPIs, staffing and the failure modes.
Free time is a clock that starts without anyone telling you. A brokerage that treats intermodal as a booked-and-forget move discovers its margin at month end, in accessorials, on freight that looked profitable at quote.
Lead the conversion conversation with total landed cost and honest transit, not with the rate. A customer who converts on price and discovers the transit is a customer you lose twice.
No industry benchmarks. Where a figure appears it is either sourced to a public filing and cited, or labelled as the author’s own judgment. Written by an operator with fifteen years building and scaling freight brokerages.