What are the Modes of Transportation and why is there a Lack of Intermodal Information?
For land trade, the filing requirements indicate that the mode of transportation is to be recorded as the method of transportation in use when the shipment enters or departs the United States. Thus, if a shipment was sent from Kansas City to the Port of Laredo for export and went via rail from Kansas City to Dallas and then was shifted to truck and arrived and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border by truck, it is supposed to be reported as a truck shipment. By nature of the activity, many international trade shipments involve more than one mode. However, due to the way international trade statistics are currently defined and collected, it is not possible to report on the modes of transportation used throughout the entire journey of the shipment from the foreign point of origin to the final destination in the United States (as an example, for imports). Thus, the mode in the North American Transborder Freight Data is supposed to represent the mode by which they enter or exit the United States.
