For the general understanding of Combined Transport, several distinctions can be made.1.Unaccompanied or accompanied Combined Transport
- unaccompanied when the loading units (swap bodies, containers and semi-trailers) travel alone
- accompanied (Rolling Road) when the whole lorry is forwarded with its driver
- Vertical transshipment is when a top loaded stackable (container) loading unit is lifted by crane, or when a non-stackable swap-body or craneable semi-trailer is lifted using specialised grapple arms attached to the spreader of cranes or reachstackers. The loading unit is transshipped by lifting and transferring.
- Horizontal transshipment is used in accompanied Combined Transport, when the full truck drives onto the RoLa wagon, or in the unaccompanied Combined Transport of semi-trailers when terminal tractors position the trailer onto a dedicated wagon that can receive the trailer without being lifted either through a loading tray or using a fold-out feature.
- Shuttle trains are open access services offered by a professional CTO, where theoretically every slot of the train may be occupied by a loading unit delivered by a different shipper. The booking of these trains are made slot-by-slot or by group reservations according to contracts with shippers.
- Company trains are intermodal trains where the entire train is filled by a single shipper (=”company”) while the organisation of the service is typically carried out by the CTO. The commercial risk for the filling of company trains rests with the shipper who ordered the train.
- Port hinterland traffic implies mostly goods that are packed into ISO containers, which arrive in or leave Europe by sea typically from or to other continents. These top-loaded containers can be most effectively loaded to intermodal flat-wagons by automated cranes.
- Continental traffic takes place between an origin and destination both lying in Europe. A wide array of intermodal loading units are used for this type of traffic from semi-trailers through all types of swap-bodies to pallet-wide high cube containers. Loading can be horizontal or vertical requiring more diverse rail-wagons.
- Mixed traffic means a train which carries both port hinterland and continental units.