Shipping and Railways, Transportation and Logistics! Intermodal freight transport involves transportation of freight in an intermodal container vehicle, using multiple modes, such as rail, ship and truck. A shipping yard seen during a rain storm, full of intermodal containers, awaiting loading onto big rig trucks or railway cars by intermodal cranes. These containers may have been offloaded from big rig trucks or railway cars, to head out in an alternative transport mode.