Glossary term
Intermodal
Moving goods in one loading unit across two or more modes without handling the goods themselves.
Transport using more than one mode where the goods stay in the same container or unit throughout, so only the unit is transferred and the cargo is not re-handled.
Often used interchangeably with multimodal, though strictly multimodal refers to the contractual arrangement - one contract for the whole journey - while intermodal describes the physical method. See combined transport.