Shipping containers play a crucial role in intermodal freight transport. These containers offer standardized sizes that are easy to transport by ship, plane, train, and truck. Now, a crucial shortage is affecting intermodal shipping. It’s not a lack of shipping containers themselves that’s the problem, nor the trucks that transport them. What’s missing are the chassis that trucks use to carry those containers.
The chassis is the frame that supports and controls the container in transit. Without them, container trucks can’t complete the trips that are so vital to the larger intermodal freight transport network and global supply chain. Let’s take a closer look at the role of the chassis and the effects the current shortage has on logistics in the US and across the globe.