Source: adapted from Hayuth, Y. (1987) Intermodality: Concept and Practice, Essex: Lloyds of London Press.
While containerization is mostly driven by technical and infrastructure issues, intermodalism is mainly an issue driven by managerial and operational considerations. Since the 1980s, containerization, and intermodalism have been converging, implying that containerization was the main driver of intermodalism. Technical improvements that containerization brought to transportation systems enabled new forms of management, operations, and organization that were not possible previously. This was also related to regulatory changes that enabled ownership across transportation modes, the merging of transport operators, or complex partnerships. Thus, the driving forces of containerization and intermodalism are mutually interrelated.