Transloading involves the transport of goods requiring more than one mode of transport. It’s mainly used where one mode of transport (either land, sea or air) isn’t enough to ship the goods from the origin to the destination point.

An example of this is international shipment, which involves multiple modes of transport, for instance, a truck, followed by an airplane overseas, followed by a truck again. It can also be used to transport bulk goods that are first transported by train, such as coal or grain, and then by ship.

Unlike crossdocking, the transloading approach requires storage facilities such as warehouses or rail yards, to transfer goods from one mode of shipment to another. In the storage facility, the goods are palletized and sorted in preparation for loading onto the other carrier. For bulk goods, specialized handling and storage are usually provided.