[nkurz]

Possibly off topic, but I'll ask it here anyway in case someone can point me in the right direction: I'd like to ship a preloaded and privately owned 20 ft shipping container from urban West Coast US to rural East Coast US. From what I can tell, probably would make sense as truck-train-truck intermodal freight transport. But this seems to be rare enough I'm not finding a lot of information online, at least given those search terms. Are there better terms to search for? Who would I talk to about this for what is likely a one-time shipment?

[walrus01]

For a one-off shipment what you want is a freight forwarder. They will arrange the truck pickup at origin, rail transport, and truck transport to offload at destination. Truck transport at destination will need to be customized because you probably need a self-unloading trailer that can set it down on the ground, not a regular truck such as if it were going to another container yard.

You might have difficulty shipping a standard 20 or 40' container by rail within the US unless it has a standard set of ownership markings on it.

[ivraatiems]

Sounds like you want freight shipping? E. g. these kinds of services: http://www.fedex.com/us/freight/portal/?

(Not endorsing Fedex, just an example. Lots of other companies do this too.)

You could also consider hiring a moving company.

[nkurz]

Sounds like you want freight shipping?

No, I've shipped pallets of freight before, using Fedex among others. The issue is that I've got one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit, and I want to get it across the country full of stuff.

It's possible Fedex has provisions to do this if paid enough, but I think I'm looking for something more specialized. Like this, but I'm looking for more specific recommendations: http://rapidexpressfreight.com/freight-services/rapid-expres...