Multimodal operation : Cargo moving from Leicester in UK to Pretoria in South Africa – Cargo is packed in Leicester and moved by truck to the port of Felixstowe by a transport service provider (could also be termed as an Intermodal service provider) under the employ of the carrier..
multimodal
Cargo moves from Felixstowe to the discharge port in South Africa – say Durban..
From Durban port a transport service provider (could also be termed as an Intermodal service provider) under the employ of the carrier moves the cargo by rail from to Pretoria Rail Terminal followed by a road move to the consignee’s premises or a full road move from Durban port to consignee’s premises in Pretoria..
The rail and road service may be provided by the same transport service provider or could be done by two different service providers..
Here, neither the seller nor the buyer are arranging any contracts other than their contract of carriage with the carrier..
In this case, the carrier issues a Combined Transport Bill of Lading or a Multimodal Bill of Lading, and the whole operation is called a Multimodal Operation and it involves a single contract :
Between Seller or Buyer and Carrier for sea movement from Felixstowe to Durban
The costs/risks for such contracts will of course depend on the Incoterms® used for this trade..
More often than not, the above movements on the land leg are outsourced by the carrier to transport service providers as a lot of the carriers don’t have their own infrastructure to carry out these movements.. However, here the carrier enters into direct contract with their service providers..