Dray to the ramp, rail between ramps, dray to the door. Each leg has its own clock and its own way of billing you.
How fast is the middle leg, really?
The railroads publish a yardstick for this and it is not called transit time. BNSF sets it out in the intermodal questions it answers on bnsf.com, read 2026-07-28.
Intermodal goal hours refer to the scheduled elapsed time to move from rail origin (day/time specific cutoff) to rail destination (day/time specific availability).BNSF Intermodal FAQs, bnsf.com, read 2026-07-28
Two things follow from that sentence, and both cost money. The clock starts at a cutoff on a stated day and hour, so an in-gate ten minutes late does not arrive late, it arrives on the next train. And the clock stops at availability at the destination ramp, which is well short of the consignee's dock. Every hour after that belongs to the second dray and to the storage rules below.
| Published figure | What the railroad states | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Expedited service pace | Averages about 800 miles per day Worked example given: Los Angeles to Chicago, ramp to ramp, in 78 hours | BNSF Intermodal FAQs |
| Standard service pace | Averages about 600 miles per day No lane example published alongside it | BNSF Intermodal FAQs |
| Against a truck | About one day longer in transit than a truckload move Stated by an intermodal marketing manager in Union Pacific's own article, published 2020-08-04 | up.com |
Put those together and the lane arithmetic is simple. Two thousand miles at the standard pace is a little over three days on the rail alone; the same run behind a solo driver is four days of legal hours plus a reload. That is the band where the mode competes. Under about a day's drive the rail leg is too short to absorb two lifts and two drays, and the truck wins before anyone quotes it.
The dray at each end decides the answer
Union Pacific is unusually blunt about where its own product stops working, in the same article read 2026-07-28.
If the drayage portion is too long, for instance, where a Hub Group truck is taking something from a ramp to a distribution center more than 300 miles away, the economics don't work quite as well.Union Pacific, up.com, published 2020-08-04, read 2026-07-28
So the qualifying question is a ratio rather than a mileage. Long line-haul, short dray at both ends, and a consignee who can live with the extra day. A plant forty minutes from a ramp on both ends of a two-thousand-mile lane is the textbook case. A shipper two hundred miles from the nearest ramp shipping eight hundred miles is paying road rates for most of the trip and waiting for a train as well.
What the box costs you in payload
Domestic intermodal rides 53-foot containers, and the container plus its chassis is heavier steel than a road trailer. That difference comes straight out of what you can load. Loup Logistics, a Union Pacific company, publishes the limits on louplogistics.com, read 2026-07-28.
| Limit | Published figure | Why it bites |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum gross weight, including tractor | 80,000 lb | The same highway ceiling a dry van lives under, but carrying heavier equipment |
| Steer axle | Not over 12,000 lb | Nose-heavy loading fails at the scale before anyone opens the doors |
| Drive axles | Not over 17,000 lb each, 34,000 lb combined | Weight distribution inside the box is your job, not the driver's |
| Container axles | Not over 17,000 lb each, 34,000 lb combined | A legal total can still be an illegal group |
| Loup's own working ceiling | Keep the shipment to a maximum of 42,500 lb | Published as the way to stay clear of overweight problems |
Loup also states that a 53-foot domestic container and chassis typically weigh 3,000 to 4,000 pounds more than a standard aluminium over-the-road trailer. If your dry van loads run near the top of legal, the honest answer is that the same load will not fit the mode, and the conversation ends there rather than at a scale house in Ohio.
The charges waiting at the ramp
Free time starts at notification
BNSF states that intermodal storage free time and charges apply to equipment held at a facility from notification to out gate, and that notification occurs when BNSF advises the notify party that the equipment is available. The hours you spend finding a driver are spent out of your own allowance, not the railroad's.
Both ends are rarely on one schedule
BNSF says its intermodal facilities are tiered into two groups with specific free times and daily storage charges, set out in the rules guide it publishes to its customer portal. Assume nothing carries over from the origin ramp to the destination ramp on the same lane.
Storage is a release condition
All storage charges must be paid on equipment before it leaves BNSF property, in the railroad's own words. That turns a billing argument into a stopped shipment, which is a very different problem from a disputed invoice arriving next month.
The rules live in a circular, and they move
Norfolk Southern publishes an Intermodal Rules Circular, revised 23 July 2025 on norfolksouthern.com and read 2026-07-28. BNSF keeps its Intermodal Rules and Policies Guide in the customer portal. Read the one belonging to the railroad that will actually be holding your box.
None of these are exotic. They are the ordinary cost of a mode where somebody else's yard is part of your supply chain, and they are the reason an intermodal quote that looks cheap on the line-haul can settle at a different number three weeks later.
Where this sits next to what we sell
SMKlog sells U.S. domestic parcel labels straight from the calculator, with no account to open. SMKlog sells parcel labels only and does not arrange pallet or freight shipments. An intermodal provider prices the lane, the weight, the commodity and the dates against its own tariffs.
Intermodal questions
What is intermodal freight shipping?
A container moves by truck from your dock to a rail ramp, by train between ramps, and by truck again at the far end, on one booking. BNSF calls the road legs drayage and defines them as the short-distance transport of goods between an intermodal terminal and a nearby warehouse or distribution center.
How much longer does intermodal take than a truck?
Union Pacific puts its own service about one day longer in transit than a truckload move. BNSF publishes the pace behind that figure: expedited service averaging about 800 miles per day and standard service about 600, measured from the origin cutoff to availability at the destination ramp.
When does intermodal stop making sense?
When the road legs grow long against the rail leg. Union Pacific's own example is a ramp-to-warehouse dray of more than 300 miles, where it says the economics do not work quite as well. Short drays at both ends and a long middle are what the mode is built for.
How much weight fits in a 53-foot domestic container?
Loup Logistics publishes a maximum gross of 80,000 pounds including the tractor, with the steer axle not over 12,000 pounds and the drive and container axle groups not over 34,000 pounds each. It suggests keeping intermodal shipments to a maximum of 42,500 pounds to stay clear of overweight trouble.
Which ramp charge do shippers miss most often?
Storage. BNSF runs free time from notification to out gate, and notification is when the railroad says the box is available, not when a driver could collect it. BNSF also requires storage charges to be paid on equipment before it leaves BNSF property, so an unresolved invoice holds the load.
Does SMKlog book intermodal moves?
No. SMKlog sells parcel labels only and does not arrange pallet or freight shipments. An intermodal price depends on the ramp pair, the equipment provider and the dray at each end, and none of that comes out of a parcel rate call.