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April 13, 2000 9:10 AM, EDT

In an industry increasingly populated with electronic trading exchanges, marketplaces for intermodal services have been conspicuous by their absence. That situation, however, is not likely to prevail for much longer.

Webmodal, a company based in suburban Chicago, will be going live with an intermodal marketplace during the second quarter of this year, said its chief executive officer, Chris Kravas. “Our business concept calls for providing a full, Web-based service that is traditionally provided by the IMCs,” or intermodal marketing companies.

Kravas refused to share further details, except to say that his management team boasts a great deal of intermodal industry experience. Webmodal received funding last fall from Net Value Holdings, an Internet investment company in San Francisco.

Freightwise.com, a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, made its initial debut in January as a multimodal exchange that will also contend for electronic intermodal business. Full service is expected within the next few months.

For the full story, see the Apr. 10 print edition of Transport Topics. .