Norfolk Southern Corporation has rolled out a pilot incentive program for intermodal shipping partners that aims to drive market efficiencies, grow capacity at its international intermodal terminals, and advance key sustainability goals.

The Dual Mission Reward Program is being tested at Landers Intermodal Facility in Chicago, the company’s largest terminal handling international freight, and at the railroad’s Kansas City Intermodal Facility. Under the industry-first pilot, truck carriers and steamship lines can earn a $200 incentive every time a drayage driver brings in and departs with a shipping container, completing a “dual mission.”

Norfolk Southern developed the initiative while brainstorming with customers and truckers on ways to help unclog pandemic-related bottlenecks across the transportation supply-chain. Beyond increasing efficiencies, the initiative has the potential to generate significant sustainability benefits.

At Landers alone, Norfolk Southern calculates the initiative has the potential to eliminate roughly 46,000 truck trips, reduce fuel use by 546,000 gallons, and avoid over 5,600 metric tons of carbon emissions annually if truckers complete a dual mission at least 50% of the time.

Currently, truckers who deliver an international container to a Norfolk Southern intermodal terminal leave empty about 85% of the time. That’s due largely to marketplace challenges associated with coordinating the journey of containers between customers in the U.S. and abroad. Norfolk Southern pays the $200 reward once a truck carrier or steamship line completes dual missions at least half the time over a certain period.

-via Press Release