Watco Moves

Commodity: Intermodal containers Location: Butler Intermodal Terminal – Shell Rock, Iowa Customer: Various

Intermodal freight plays a large and important role in the U.S. and global supply chain. The colorful containers on chassis we pass on the highway or see stacked on trains and vessels contain everything from electronics to car parts, hay bales, and more. America’s 25 largest ports handled 54 million containers in 2018. Nearly 14.5 million containers were shipped by rail that year, and millions more move by truck each year. The demand for intermodal freight made one of Watco’s newest operations, the Butler Intermodal Terminal (BIT) in Shell Rock, Iowa, a great opportunity. The terminal is a collaboration between Valor Victoria, Union Pacific (UP), the Iowa Northern Railway (IANR), Watco Terminal & Ports Services (WTPS), and Watco Supply Chain Services (WSCS). The terminal serves as a hub for intermodal traffic outside of the congested Chicago area, and reduces highway miles for delivery of shipments arriving from the west coast.

“Basically, what we’re doing here is receiving containers, on rail, that are coming from overseas

loaded with all different kinds of merchandise and goods for retail stores and distribution centers around the area,” said Terminal Manager Joey Casey. “After our inbound customers unload them, the containers are reloaded with grain, and put back on the rail to go back overseas.”

Valor Victoria creates and develops relationships with freight customers in the area, while UP transports the eastbound intermodal shipments from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California to interchange with the IANR, who provides the final-mile delivery to the terminal. From there, the Watco team provides unloading, loading, and drayage services for our customers.

“Building this team has gone very well. We started with a very solid team. No one really had any intermodal experience or ran the big reach stackers we use to move the containers, but we’ve only gotten better,” Casey said. “Due to the Chinese New Year, which was happening when we started,

and then the Coronavirus, we had some downtime early on. We used that time to train and learn more. Now that we’re seeing more traffic, we’re perfectly positioned to handle it.”

Much of the traffic they see is consumer goods. They receive products destined for big box retailer distribution centers, plumbing equipment suppliers, furniture retailers, and more. They also provide the surrounding agriculture-heavy area with another outlet for grain exports, because containers returning to the west coast ports are loaded with grain bound for foreign markets.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, stores have had problems keeping up with demand, and this new intermodal hub has played a role in making sure consumers have access to the products they need. The team at Butler, WSCS, and other partners work together to ensure this new intermodal hub is benefiting our customers and the surrounding communities.