May intermodal volumes posted annual games, according to data provided to LM by the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA).

Total May volume, at 1,618,761 units, increased 4.4% annually, following a 0.6% annual decline in April.

Trailers, at 39,839, headed up 7.9% annually, and domestic containers, at 783,590, posted an 8.6% annual gain. All domestic equipment, which is comprised of trailers and domestic containers, at 823,429, also was up 8.6% annually. ISO, or international, containers, at 795,332, eked out a 0.4% annual gain.

Through the first five months of 2026, IANA reported that total volume, at 7,725,501 units, were up 0.8% annually. Domestic containers, at 2,957,463, are up 5.1% annually, and trailers, at 152,139, are down 2.1% annually. All domestic equipment, at 3,109,602, are up 4.8% annually. ISO containers fell 4.7%, to 2,997,138.

On a recent IANA-hosted call earlier this month, IANA Director of Economics Andrew Sibold that the impact of the Iran conflict has been significant for domestic intermodal. For March and April (May data is not yet available), he said domestic intermodal share is over 50%, which he said was unusual.

“[April] was the second consecutive month in which domestic dominated the intermodal mix,” said Sibold. “It has been roughly a trend since January.”

With fuel prices having seen significant gains over the course of the Iran conflict, Sibold said that intermodal has seen some gains, with industry stakeholders’ modal shifts from long-haul trucking to intermodal.

Addressing the slight year-to-date volume gains, he explained that a year ago at this time, there was still a fair amount of tariff-driven pull-forward activity, which impacted annual comparisons.

“With a high domestic share, that is kind of a structural thing, where there is a lot of international weakness, due to some imports being swapped out for some of the domestic freight,” said Sibold.

To that end, he explained that what is happening now represents a break in kind of how intermodal has historically worked, given the overall rise in domestic and domestic ostensibly overtaking international as the big structural shift.

“Probably the most straightforward answer to it is the effect of the price shock and also the drop in imports coming from tariffs that could also be debated,” he said. “It's not quite certain whether the diesel price is actually driving the switch, so this could be largely tariff-driven.”

Larry Gross, president of Gross Transportation Consulting, said on the call that there are two independent things simultaneously happening in intermodal right now.

One is on the international side, in terms of import levels, driven by tariffs, being depressed and related difficulties, coupled with tailwinds on the domestic side, with fuel being a key part of that.

“I would say that there is a tightening of truckload supply, mainly driven by exterior events, which are government actions, with regard to English proficiency, immigration non-domiciled CDLs, and, and, and tighter trucking regulations with regard to zombie truckers,” he said. “Now those folks are being forced out of the business. A lot of the less reputable driver training institutes are being forced out of the business. This created a tightening in the truckload supply, and as consequence higher rates, and that's where intermodal has an opening in terms of truckload conversion, you know, so we've got some tailwinds now, and we're starting to see that, I think, in the domestic numbers.”

And Sibold pointed to what he called a miniature rally in domestic manufacturing, paced by AI data construction efforts and also the secondary effects of the White House’s federal reconciliation bill, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” that was signed into law last summer. Which helped to incentivize corporate investments into domestic manufacturing.

“You are starting to see some of those effects,” he said. “If domestic manufacturing was not [increasing], it would not be as easy for intermodal to make that swap and capture some of that domestic share. There is also the trucking labor story, too. It will be interesting to see how this develops going forward.”

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