By Phil Sullivan, Senior Vice President, Managed Services
Supply chain disruptions aren’t going away. What used to be the exception is now the norm — unexpected delays, capacity crunches, and shifting regulations have become everyday hurdles. In this new reality, flexibility and resilience matter more than ever.
Relying on just one mode of transport puts shippers at risk. It’s like putting all your eggs in one basket: if something disrupts their preferred mode, their entire supply chain could collapse. This is where multimodal logistics comes into play. A multimodal logistics partner, supported by a strong technology strategy, can help shippers roll with the punches. With the ability to consider alternative transport routes, work with capacity constraints, and move freight freely between modes, multimodal logistics gives shippers a built-in contingency plan for this era of disruption. With the right logistics partner, multimodal can radically increase shippers’ agility and responsiveness, reducing the negative impact that disruptions have on cost and service levels.
What’s causing the spike in disruptions?
Before considering multimodal advantages in depth, let’s pause to ask — what’s causing this upward spike in disruptions? The reasons are complex and multifaceted:
- Geopolitical instability and changing trade routes are commingling with sanctions and regional conflicts, affecting supply chain flows.
- Trucking shortages and driver availability are creating capacity constraints that make long-haul trucking unreliable for time-sensitive shipments.
- Port congestion and container shortages are triggering large backlogs at major ports, causing delays and unpredictable transit times.
- Regulatory shifts are affecting sustainability and trade compliance that further slow freight down.
- Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires are affecting routes and damaging infrastructure.
- Finally, global tariff disputes are currently the primary driver of disruptions, forcing carriers to prioritize shipments and allocate capacity based on advanced staging of goods, ultimately tightening overall capacity.
All these factors create bottlenecks that drive up costs and affect service. In this climate, multimodal logistics is an effective way to manage risk and give shippers more options, helping them stay flexible even when the unexpected occurs.
Why multimodal?
While this advantage of mode diversification is well known, there’s a formidable counterargument. Managing multiple transport modes introduces new complexity: more contracts to manage, and more logistical hurdles.
A key advantage of a multimodal logistics partner like Odyssey is that they can manage this complexity for you. To shippers, multimodal logistics can be a singular, connected experience that cuts across modes.
Leveraging data for greater connection
When combined with powerful advances in logistics technology, Odyssey’s multimodal solutions are even more seamless. Pooling data sources across modes into a single source of truth allows Odyssey to offer a deeply connected experience to shippers. Our AI tools draw on a unified data lake to give shippers more accurate and more agile recommendations about mode and route choice, as well as optimizing capacity across shipments.
With powerful data technology offering deeper visibility in every mode, multimodal logistics becomes an integrated, singular experience for shippers. New data technology has pushed it beyond a mere collection of mode choices, making it a distinctly powerful option that allows shippers to uphold a higher level of service regardless of disruptions.
The importance of the right partner
While multimodal is extremely powerful, it’s not necessarily a universally applicable solution. Shippers need to choose the right partners to manage their freight. In choosing who to partner with, shippers should know that good multimodal partners will never offer a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. As part of its customer onboarding process, Odyssey works to develop an intimate understanding of shipping needs, providing tailored, tech-forward solutions that integrate with customers’ existing systems and processes.
At Odyssey, we start every customer relationship with a deep dive into your operations, constraints, and systems. From there, we build tailored, tech-enabled solutions that integrate seamlessly into your supply chain.
Interested in seeing if Odyssey’s multimodal network can help you weather the current wave of disruptions? Get in touch with one of our experts and let’s start a conversation.
