Intermodal competitive index explained

An FTR exclusive index helping shippers and carriers prepare for the right time to switch from road to rail.

This index, found in the FTR Intermodal Dash, tracks the changes representing five major conditions in the U.S. rail intermodal market. The major conditions are:

  1. freight demand
  2. freight rates
  3. truck capacity
  4. rail service
  5. fuel price

These individual metrics are then combined into a single index that measures the competitive posture of domestic intermodal vs. OTR Truck based off of our Freight-cast model.

A positive score represents favorable conditions for intermodal to compete with the truck market; a negative score represents reductions in intermodal’s ability to gain additional market share from trucking.