![Container ship loading-700px](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Container_ship_loading-700px.jpg)
Containerization is a system of
intermodal freight transport
Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...
using
intermodal container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...
s (also called shipping containers and
ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* Iso ...
containers).
Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the process of unitization of cargoes in exports. Containerization is the predominant form of unitization of export cargoes, as opposed to other systems such as the barge system or palletization.
The containers have
standardized
Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...
dimensions. They can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another—
container ship
A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...
s,
rail transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
flatcar
A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...
s, and
semi-trailer truck
A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer ...
s—without being opened. The handling system is completely mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes
and special forklift trucks. All containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems.
Containerization originated several centuries ago but was not well developed or widely applied until after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, when it dramatically reduced the costs of transport, supported the post-war boom in
international trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy)
In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...
, and was a major element in
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
. Containerization eliminated manual sorting of most shipments and the need for dockfront warehouses. It displaced many thousands of dock workers who formerly handled
break bulk cargo
In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, refers to goods that are stowed on board ship in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bills of lading ...
. Containerization reduced congestion in ports, significantly shortened shipping time, and reduced losses from damage and theft.
Containers can be made from a wide range of materials such as steel, fibre-reinforced polymer, aluminum or a combination. Containers made from
weathering steel
Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rus ...
are used to minimize
maintenance
Maintenance may refer to:
Biological science
* Maintenance of an organism
* Maintenance respiration
Non-technical maintenance
* Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English
* Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doctrine ...
needs.
Origin
![LMS freight containers on lorry and rail wagon (CJ Allen, Steel Highway, 1928)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/LMS_freight_containers_on_lorry_and_rail_wagon_%28CJ_Allen%2C_Steel_Highway%2C_1928%29.jpg)
Before containerization, goods were usually handled manually as
break bulk cargo
In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, refers to goods that are stowed on board ship in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bills of lading ...
. Typically, goods would be loaded onto a vehicle from the factory and taken to a port warehouse where they would be offloaded and stored awaiting the next vessel. When the vessel arrived, they would be moved to the side of the ship along with other cargo to be lowered or carried into the hold and packed by dock workers. The ship might call at several other ports before off-loading a given consignment of cargo. Each port visit would delay the delivery of other cargo. Delivered cargo might then have been offloaded into another warehouse before being picked up and delivered to its destination. Multiple handling and delays made transport costly, time-consuming and unreliable.
Containerization has its origins in early
coal mining regions in England
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dead ...
beginning in the late 18th century. In 1766
James Brindley
James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century.
Early life
Born i ...
designed the box boat 'Starvationer' with ten wooden containers, to transport coal from
Worsley
Worsley () is a village in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, which in 2014 had a population of 10,090. It lies along Worsley Brook, west of Manchester.
Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county ...
Delph (quarry) to Manchester by
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...
. In 1795,
Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 – 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.
Life
Born at Alfreton in Derbyshire, he began his career assisting his father ...
opened the Little Eaton Gangway, upon which coal was carried in
wagons
A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people.
Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...
built at his Butterley Ironwork. The horse-drawn wheeled wagons on the gangway took the form of containers, which, loaded with coal, could be transshipped from canal
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s on the
Derby Canal
The Derby Canal ran from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Swarkestone to Derby and Little Eaton, and to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre, in Derbyshire, England. The canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793 and was fully completed in 179 ...
, which Outram had also promoted.
By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport. The
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...
in the UK was one of these. "Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were transferred to horse-drawn carts by crane." Originally used for moving coal on and off barges, "loose boxes" were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...
. By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones. The early 1900s saw the adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail.
Twentieth century
On 17 May 1917, Benjamin Franklin Fitch inaugurated exploitation of an experimental installation for transfer of the containers called demountable bodies based on his design in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
in the US. Later in 1919, his system was extended to over 200 containers serving 21 railway stations with 14 freight trucks.
In 1919, Stanisław Rodowicz, an
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
, developed the first draft of the container system in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. In 1920, he built a prototype of the biaxial wagon. The
Polish-Bolshevik War stopped development of the container system in Poland.
The US Post Office contracted with the
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
to move mail via containers in May 1921. In 1930, the
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad
The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...
began shipping containers between Chicago and Milwaukee. Their efforts ended in the spring of 1931 when the
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
disallowed the use of a flat rate for the containers.
In 1926, a regular connection of the luxury passenger train from London to Paris,
Golden Arrow/
Fleche d'Or, by
Southern Railway and
, began. For transport of passengers' baggage four containers were used. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on flat cars in the UK and "CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon of CIWL" in France. At the Second World Motor Transport Congress in Rome, September 1928, Italian senator
Silvio Crespi
Silvio Benigno Crespi (24 September 1868 in Milan – 15 January 1944 in Cadorago) was an Italian entrepreneur, inventor and politician. Firstborn of Cristoforo Benigno Crespi and Pia Travelli. He succeeded his father in running the firm of Cres ...
proposed the use of containers for road and railway transport systems, using collaboration rather than competition. This would be done under the auspices of an international organ similar to the Sleeping Car Company, which provided international carriage of passengers in sleeping wagons. In 1928
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
(PRR) started regular container service in the northeast US. After the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
and the subsequent Great Depression, many countries were without any means to transport cargo. The railroads were sought as a possibility to transport cargo, and there was an opportunity to bring containers into broader use. In February 1931 the first container ship was launched. It was called the Autocarrier, owned by Southern Railway UK. It had 21 slots for containers of Southern Railway.
Under auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
on September 30, 1931, on one of the platforms of the Maritime Station (Mole di Ponente), practical tests assessed the best construction for European containers as part of an international competition.
In 1931, in the US Benjamin Franklin Fitch designed the two largest and heaviest containers in existence. One measured by by with a capacity of in , and a second measured by by , with a capacity of in .
In November 1932 in
Enola, PA the first
container terminal
A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...
in the world was opened by the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
.
The Fitch hooking system was used for reloading of the containers.
The development of containerization was created in Europe and the US as a way to revitalize rail companies after the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, which had caused economic collapse and reduction in use of all modes of transport.
In 1933 in Europe under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce the
International Container Bureau (French: ''Bureau International des Conteneurs'', B.I.C.) was established. In June 1933, the B.I.C. decided on obligatory parameters for containers used in international traffic. Containers handled by means of lifting gear, such as cranes, overhead conveyors, etc. for traveling elevators (group I containers), constructed after July 1, 1933. Obligatory Regulations:
* Clause 1. Containers are, as regards form, either of the closed or the open type, and, as regards capacity, either of the heavy or the light type.
* Clause 2. The loading capacity of containers must be such that their total weight (load, plus tare) is: for containers of the heavy type; for containers of the light type; a tolerance of 5 percent excess on the total weight is allowable under the same conditions as for wagon loads.
In April 1935 BIC established a second standard for European containers:
From 1926 to 1947 in the US, the
Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway carried motor carrier vehicles and shippers' vehicles loaded on
flatcar
A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...
s between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois. Beginning in 1929,
Seatrain Lines
Seatrain Lines, officially the Over-Seas Shipping Company, was a shipping and transportation company conducting operations in the Americas and trans-Pacific regions. Seatrain Lines began intermodal freight transport in December 1928 by transporting ...
carried railroad boxcars on its sea vessels to transport goods between New York and Cuba.
In the mid-1930s, the
Chicago Great Western Railway
The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesota a ...
and then the
New Haven Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
began "
piggyback
Piggyback, piggy-back, or piggybacking may mean:
Transport
* Piggyback (transportation), something that is riding on the back of something else
Art, entertainment, and media
* Splash cymbal piggybacking, mounting a cymbal on top of an already ...
" service (transporting highway freight trailers on flatcars) limited to their own railroads. The Chicago Great Western Railway filed a US patent in 1938 on their method of securing trailers to a flatcars using chains and turnbuckles. Other components included wheel chocks and ramps for loading and unloading the trailers from the flatcars. By 1953, the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...
, the
Chicago and Eastern Illinois
The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago to southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Evansville. Founded in 1877, it grew aggressively and stayed relatively strong throughout the Great Depression and two Wor ...
, and the
Southern Pacific
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
railroads had joined the innovation. Most of the railcars used were surplus flatcars equipped with new decks. By 1955, an additional 25 railroads had begun some form of piggyback trailer service.
World War II
During WWII, the
Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...
used containers to more easily deal with various
breaks of gauge in the railroads. These non-stackable containers were about the size of the later
20-foot ISO container and perhaps made mainly of wood.
![Gueterwagen anagoria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Gueterwagen_anagoria.JPG)
During the same time, the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
started to combine items of uniform size, lashing them onto a pallet,
unitizing cargo to speed the loading and unloading of transport ships. In 1947 the
Transportation Corps
The Transportation Corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. Army. It is responsible for the movement of personnel and material by truck, rail, air, and sea. It is one of three U.S. Army logistics branches, the others being the Qua ...
developed the ''Transporter'', a rigid, corrugated steel container with a carrying capacity, for shipping household goods of officers in the field. It was long, , and high, with double doors on one end, mounted on skids, and had lifting rings on the top four corners. During the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
the Transporter was evaluated for handling sensitive military equipment and, proving effective, was approved for broader use. Theft of material and damage to
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
en crates convinced the army that steel containers were needed.
Mid-twentieth century
In April 1951, at
Zürich Tiefenbrunnen railway station
Zürich Tiefenbrunnen railway station (german: Bahnhof Zürich Tiefenbrunnen) is a railway station in the Swiss city of Zürich. It is located on the Lake Zürich right bank railway line, and is situated on the shore of Lake Zürich, in the See ...
, the Swiss Museum of Transport and ''
Bureau International des Containers
The Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal (originally french: Bureau International des Conteneurs, still abbreviated BIC, en, International Container Bureau) oversees standards for intermodal containers, commonly referred ...
'' (BIC) held demonstrations of container systems, with the aim of selecting the best solution for Western Europe. Present were representatives from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy and the United States. The system chosen for Western Europe was based on the Netherlands' system for consumer goods and waste transportation called ''Laadkisten'' (literally, "loading bins"), in use since 1934. This system used
roller container
A roller container is a container type that can be carried by trucks to be pushed to ground level by help of a hook and level arm with the container possibly sliding on steel roller wheels.
Its original usage was in the collection of bulk waste ...
s that were moved by rail, truck and ship, in various configurations up to a capacity of , and up to size. This became the first post World War II European railway standard
UIC 590, known as "pa-Behälter." It was implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.
With the popularization of the larger ISO containers, support for pa containers was phased out by the railways. In the 1970s they began to be widely used for transporting waste.
In 1952 the US Army developed the Transporter into the CONtainer EXpress or
CONEX box
The CONEX box (Container, express) was a type of cargo container developed during the Korean War that was used to transport and store supplies during the Korean and Vietnam War, Vietnam wars. It was reinvented by Malcom McLean to form the standard ...
system. The size and capacity of the Conex were about the same as the Transporter, but the system was made ''modular'', by the addition of a smaller, half-size unit of long, wide and high.
[Development of Containerization // J. van Ham, J. Rijsenbrij]
Steel containers
(page 8) CONEXes could be stacked three high, and protected their contents from the elements.
[
The first major shipment of CONEXes, containing engineering supplies and spare parts, was made by rail from the Columbus General Depot in Georgia to the ]Port of San Francisco
The Port of San Francisco is a semi-independent organization that oversees the port facilities at San Francisco, California, United States. It is run by a five-member commission, appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Board of Supervisors. Th ...
, then by ship to Yokohama, Japan, and then to Korea, in late 1952. Transit times were almost halved. By the time of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
the majority of supplies and materials were shipped by CONEX. By 1965 the US military used some 100,000 Conex boxes, and more than 200,000 in 1967. making this the first worldwide application of intermodal containers.[ After the ]US Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
standardized an cross section container in multiples of lengths for military use, it was rapidly adopted for shipping purposes.
In 1955, former trucking company owner Malcom McLean
Malcolm Purcell McLean (November 14, 1913 – May 25, 2001; later known as Malcom McLean) was an American businessman. He was a transport entrepreneur who invented the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and inte ...
worked with engineer Keith Tantlinger
Keith Walton Tantlinger (March 22, 1919 – August 27, 2011) was a mechanical engineer and inventor. As Vice President of Engineering at the Fruehauf Trailer Corporation his inventions played a major role in containerization. Working with a Frueh ...
to develop the modern intermodal container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...
. The challenge was to design a shipping container
A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...
that could efficiently be loaded onto ships and would hold securely on sea voyages. The result was an tall by wide box in -long units constructed from thick corrugated steel. The design incorporated a twistlock
A twistlock or twist lock, together with matching corner castings, as defined in norms including ISO 1161:1984, form a standardized (rotating) connector system, for connecting and securing intermodal, and predominantly ISO-standard internatio ...
mechanism atop each of the four corners, allowing the container to be easily secured and lifted using cranes. After helping McLean create the successful design, Tantlinger convinced him to give the patented designs to industry. This began international standardization of shipping containers.
Purpose-built ships
The first vessels purpose-built to carry containers had begun operation in 1926 for the regular connection of the luxury passenger train between London and Paris, the Golden Arrow/ Fleche d'Or. Four containers were used for the conveyance of passengers' baggage. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to the ports of Dover or Calais. In February 1931 the first container ship in the world was launched. It was called the Autocarrier, owned by Southern Railway UK. It had 21 slots for containers of Southern Railway.
The next step was in Europe was after WW II. Vessels purpose-built to carry containers were used between UK and Netherlands and also in Denmark in 1951. In the United States, ships began carrying containers in 1951, between Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington and Alaska. None of these services was particularly successful. First, the containers were rather small, with 52% of them having a volume of less than . Almost all European containers were made of wood and used canvas lids, and they required additional equipment for loading into rail or truck bodies.
The world's first purpose-built container vessel was ''Clifford J. Rodgers'', built in Montreal in 1955 and owned by the White Pass and Yukon Corporation. Her first trip carried 600 containers between North Vancouver, British Columbia, and Skagway, Alaska, on November 26, 1955. In Skagway, the containers were unloaded to purpose-built railroad car
A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...
s for transport north to Yukon, in the first intermodal service using trucks, ships, and railroad cars. Southbound containers were loaded by shippers in Yukon and moved by rail, ship, and truck to their consignees without opening. This first intermodal system operated from November 1955 until 1982.
The first truly successful container shipping company dates to April 26, 1956, when American trucking entrepreneur McLean put 58 ''trailer vans'' later called containers, aboard a refitted tanker ship, the , and sailed them from Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...]
. Independently of the events in Canada, McLean had the idea of using large containers that never opened in transit and that were transferable on an intermodal basis, among trucks, ships, and railroad cars. McLean had initially favored the construction of "trailerships"—taking trailers from large trucks and stowing them in a ship's cargo
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
hold. This method of stowage, referred to as roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
, was not adopted because of the large waste in potential cargo space on board the vessel, known as broken stowage In nautical terminology, stowage is the amount of room available for stowing materials aboard a ship, tank or an airplane.
In container shipping, stowage planning refers to the arrangement of containers on board a container vessel. The stowage of ...
. Instead, McLean modified his original concept into loading just the containers, not the chassis, onto the ship; hence the designation "container ship" or "box" ship.[Cudahy, Brian J.]
"The Containership Revolution: Malcom McLean's 1956 Innovation Goes Global"
''TR News''. (c/o National Academy of Sciences). Number 246. September–October 2006[Levinson (2006), ''The Box''.] (See also pantechnicon van
A pantechnicon van was originally a furniture removal van drawn by horses and used by the British company "The Pantechnicon" for delivering and collecting furniture which its customers wished to store. The name is a word largely of British Engl ...
and trolley and lift van The trolley was a platform body with four relatively small wheels mounted underneath it, the front two on a turntable undercarriage. It was drawn by a pair of horses and the driver's seat was mounted on the headboard.
The lift van was a sturdy wo ...
.)
Toward standards
During the first 20 years of containerization, many container sizes and corner fittings were used. There were dozens of incompatible container systems in the US alone. Among the biggest operators, the Matson Navigation Company Matson may refer to:
* Matson (surname)
*Matson, Gloucester, England, a suburb of Gloucester
*Matson, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* 2586 Matson, an asteroid
* Matson, Inc., a shipping company, formerly Matson Navigation Company
* Matson F ...
had a fleet of containers, while Sea-Land Service, Inc
SeaLand, a division of the Maersk Group, is an American intra-regional container shipping company headquartered in Miramar, Florida with representation in 29 countries across the Americas. The company offers ocean and intermodal services using ...
used containers. The standard sizes and fitting and reinforcement norms that now exist evolved out of a series of compromises among international shipping companies, European railroads, US railroads, and US trucking companies. Four important ISO (International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
) recommendations standardized containerization globally:[Rushton, A., Oxley, J., Croucher, P. (2004). ''The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management''. Kogan Page: London.]
* January 1968: ISO 668
ISO 668 - Series 1 freight containers — Classification, dimensions and ratings is an ISO international standard which classifies intermodal freight shipping containers ''nominally'', and standardizes their sizes, measurements and weight spec ...
defined the terminology, dimensions and ratings.
* July 1968: R-790 defined the identification markings.
* January 1970: R-1161 made recommendations about corner fittings.
* October 1970: R-1897 set out the minimum internal dimensions of general purpose freight containers.
Based on these standards, the first TEU container ship was the Japanese ' from shipowner NYK, which started sailing in 1968 and could carry 752 TEU containers.
In the US, containerization and other advances in shipping were impeded by the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
(ICC), which was created in 1887 to keep railroads from using monopolist pricing and rate discrimination, but fell victim to regulatory capture
In politics, regulatory capture (also agency capture and client politics) is a form of corruption of authority that occurs when a political entity, policymaker, or regulator is co-opted to serve the commercial, ideological, or political interests ...
. By the 1960s, ICC approval was required before any shipper could carry different items in the same vehicle or change rates. The fully integrated systems in the US today became possible only after the ICC's regulatory oversight was cut back (and abolished in 1995). Trucking and rail were deregulated in the 1970s and maritime rates were deregulated in 1984.
Double-stacked rail transport, where containers are stacked two high on railway cars, was introduced in the US. The concept was developed by Sea-Land and the Southern Pacific railroad. The first standalone double-stack container car (or single-unit 40-ft COFC well car) was delivered in July 1977. The five-unit well car, the industry standard, appeared in 1981. Initially, these double-stack railway cars were deployed in regular train service. Ever since American President Lines initiated in 1984 a dedicated double-stack container train service between Los Angeles and Chicago, transport volumes increased rapidly.
Effects
Containerization greatly reduced the expense of international trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy)
In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...
and increased its speed, especially of consumer goods and commodities. It also dramatically changed the character of port cities worldwide. Prior to highly mechanized container transfers, crews of 20 to 22 longshoremen
A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes.
After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...
would pack individual cargoes into the hold of a ship. After containerization, large crews of longshoremen were not necessary at port facilities, and the profession changed drastically.
Meanwhile, the port facilities needed to support containerization changed. One effect was the decline of some ports and the rise of others. At the Port of San Francisco
The Port of San Francisco is a semi-independent organization that oversees the port facilities at San Francisco, California, United States. It is run by a five-member commission, appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Board of Supervisors. Th ...
, the former piers used for loading and unloading were no longer required, but there was little room to build the vast holding lots needed for storing and sorting containers in transit between different transport modes. As a result, the Port of San Francisco essentially ceased to function as a major commercial port, but the neighboring Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. As of 2011 it was the f ...
emerged as the second largest on the US West Coast. A similar fate occurred with the relationship between the ports of Manhattan and New Jersey. In the UK, the Port of London
The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Sea ...
and Port of Liverpool
The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed Dock (maritime), dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, Merseyside, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Great Float, Birkenhead Docks between ...
declined in importance. Meanwhile, Britain's Port of Felixstowe
The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's busiest container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a han ...
and Port of Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe, and the world's largest seaport outside of East Asia, located in and near the city of Rotterdam, in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. From 1962 until 2004, it was the List o ...
in the Netherlands emerged as major ports.
In general, containerization caused inland port
An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port.
Examples
The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...
s on waterways incapable of receiving deep-draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...
ship traffic to decline in favor of seaport
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
s, which then built vast container terminals next to deep oceanfront harbors in lieu of the dockfront warehouses that had formerly handled break bulk cargo. With intermodal containers, the jobs of packing, unpacking, and sorting cargoes could be performed far from the point of embarkation. Such work shifted to gigantic warehouses in rural inland towns, where land and labor were much cheaper than in oceanfront cities. This fundamental transformation of where warehouse work was performed freed up valuable waterfront real estate near the central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
s of port cities around the world for redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.
Description
Variations on redevelopment include: ...
and led to a plethora of waterfront revitalization projects (such as warehouse districts).
The effects of containerization rapidly spread beyond the shipping industry. Containers were quickly adopted by trucking and rail transport industries for cargo transport not involving sea transport. Manufacturing also evolved to adapt to take advantage of containers. Companies that once sent small consignments began grouping them into containers. Many cargoes are now designed to precisely fit containers. The reliability of containers made just in time manufacturing
Lean manufacturing is a production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and to customers. It is closely related to another concept called just-in-time manufacturing (J ...
possible as component suppliers could deliver specific components on regular fixed schedules.
In 2004, global container traffic was 354 million TEUs, of which 82 percent were handled by the world's top 100 container ports.
Twenty-first century
, approximately 90% of non-bulk cargo
Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities.
Description
Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude oi ...
worldwide is moved by containers stacked on transport ships; 26% of all container transshipment
Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination.
One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...
is carried out in China. For example, in 2009 there were 105,976,701 transshipments in China (both international and coastal, excluding Hong Kong), 21,040,096 in Hong Kong (which is listed separately), and only 34,299,572 in the United States. In 2005, some 18 million containers made over 200 million trips per year. Some ships can carry over , such as the ''Emma Mærsk
''Emma Mærsk'' is the first container ship in the of eight owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group. When launched in 2006, she was the largest container ship ever built, and in 2010 she and her seven sister ships were among the longes ...
'', long, launched in August 2006. It has been predicted that, at some point, container ships will be constrained in size only by the depth of the Straits of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, linking the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This so-called Malaccamax
Malaccamax is a naval architecture term for the largest tonnage of ship capable of fitting through the Strait of Malacca. Bulk carriers and supertankers have been built to this tonnage, and the term is chosen for very large crude carriers (VLCC). ...
size constrains a ship to dimensions of in length and wide.
Few foresaw the extent of the influence of containerization on the shipping industry
Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people ( passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used thro ...
. In the 1950s, Harvard University economist Benjamin Chinitz predicted that containerization would benefit New York by allowing it to ship its industrial goods more cheaply to the Southern US than other areas, but he did not anticipate that containerization might make it cheaper to import such goods from abroad. Most economic studies of containerization merely assumed that shipping companies would begin to replace older forms of transportation with containerization, but did not predict that the process of containerization itself would have a more direct influence on the choice of producers and increase the total volume of trade.
The widespread use of ISO standard containers has driven modifications in other freight-moving standards, gradually forcing removable truck bodies or swap bodies into standard sizes and shapes (though without the strength needed to be stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallet
A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. A pallet is the structural foundat ...
s that fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles.
Improved cargo security is an important benefit of containerization. Once the cargo is loaded into a container, it isn't touched again until it reaches its destination. The cargo is not visible to casual viewers, and thus is less likely to be stolen. Container doors are usually sealed so that tampering is more evident. Some containers are fitted with electronic monitoring devices and can be remotely monitored for changes in air pressure, which happens when the doors are opened. This reduced thefts that had long plagued the shipping industry. Recent developments have focused on the use of intelligent logistics optimization to further enhance security.
The use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...
sizes. The majority of the rail networks in the world operate on a gauge track known as standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
, but some countries (such as Russia, India, Finland, and Lithuania) use broader gauges, while others in Africa and South America use narrower gauges. The use of container trains in all these countries makes transshipment between trains of different gauges easier.
Containers have become a popular way to ship private cars and other vehicles overseas using 20- or 40-foot containers. Unlike roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
vehicle shipping, personal effects can be loaded into the container with the vehicle, allowing easy international relocation.
In July, 2020, The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), a non-profit group established to further digitalisation of container shipping technology standards, published standards for the digital exchange of operational vessel schedules (OVS).
Contrary to ocean shipping containers owned by the shippers, a persisting trend in the industry is for (new) units to be purchased by leasing companies. Leasing business accounted for 55% of new container purchases in 2017, with their box fleet growing at 6.7%, compared to units of transport operators growing by just 2.4% more TEU, said global shipping consultancy Drewry in their 'Container Census & Leasing and Equipment Insight', leading to a leased share of the global ocean container fleet reaching 54% by 2020.
In 2021, the average time to unload a container in Asia was 27 seconds, the average time in Northern Europe was 46 seconds, and the average time in North America was 76 seconds.
Container standards
ISO standard
There are five common standard lengths:
*
*
*
*
*
US domestic standard containers are generally and (rail and truck). Container capacity is often expressed in twenty-foot equivalent unit
The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box whic ...
s (TEU, or sometimes ''teu''). An equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard (length) × (width) container. As this is an approximate measure, the height of the box is not considered. For instance, the ''high cube'' and the ''half height'' containers are also called one TEU. 48' containers have been phased out over the last ten years in favor of 53' containers.
The maximum gross mass for a dry cargo container was initially set at , and for a container (including the high cube) . Allowing for the tare mass of the container, the maximum payload mass is therefore reduced to approximately for , and for containers.
It was increased to 30,480 kg for the 20' in 2005, then further increased to a max of 36,000 kg for all sizes by the amendment 2 (2016) of the ISO standard 668 (2013).
The original choice of height for ISO containers was made in part to suit a large proportion of railway tunnels, though some had to be modified. The current standard is high. With the arrival of even taller hi-cube containers at and double stacking rail cars, further enlargement of the rail loading gauge
A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...
is proving necessary.
Air freight containers
While major airlines use containers that are custom designed for their aircraft and associated ground handling equipment the IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
has created a set of standard aluminium container sizes of up to in volume.
Other container system standards
Some other container systems (in date order) are:
* (1922) NYC container
* (1924) von-Haus-zu-Haus (''house to house''; Germany)
* Japanese railway containers: Containers used by the Japan Freight Railway Company
, or , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It provides transportation of cargo nationwide throughout Japan. Its headquarters are in Shibuya, Tokyo near Shinjuku Station.
The Japan Railways Group was foun ...
* (1925) Mack
* (1927) English Railway container
* (1928) Victorian Railways
The Victorian Railways (VR), trading from 1974 as VicRail, was the state-owned operator of most rail transport in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companie ...
– refrigerated container
* (1929) International Competition
* (1930) GWR Container
* (1931) International Chamber of Commerce
* (1933) International Container Bureau:
* (1936) South Australian Railways
South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...
Wolseley break of gauge
With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...
* (1946) Queensland Rail
Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...
ways milk container, , road-rail
* (1974) RACE
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
(Australia) – slightly wider than ISO containers to fit slightly wider Australian Standard pallet
A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. A pallet is the structural foundat ...
s
* (1994) ACTS
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
roller containers for intermodal transport by rail and road (Central Europe)
* (1998) PODS
* (2005?) SECU
Secu is a commune in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the wes ...
(Sweden, Finland, UK) – big container.
* Pallet-wide containers are used in Europe and have length () and height like ISO-containers, but they are wide externally and internally to fit EUR-pallet
The EUR-pallet, also known as Euro-pallet or EPAL-pallet, is the standard European pallet as specified by the UIC pallet working group and the UIC 435-2 leaflet. Pallets conforming to the standardization are eligible for the European Pallet Poo ...
better. They are meant for transport inside Europe and are often accepted in ships.
* (2014) The IPPC's Sea Container Task Force
The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is a 1951 multilateral treaty overseen by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that aims to secure coordinated, effective action to prevent and to control the introduction and ...
(SCTF) finalises the Cargo Transport Units Code (CTU Code).
* (2021) The National Standard of the People's Republic of China is GB/T 39919-2021 .
Container loading
Full container load
A full container load (FCL) is an ISO standard
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
container that is loaded and unloaded under the risk and account of one shipper and one consignee. In practice, it means that the whole container is intended for one consignee. FCL container shipment tends to have lower freight rate
A freight rate (historically and in ship chartering simply freight) is a price at which a certain cargo is delivered from one point to another. The price depends on the form of the cargo, the mode of transport (truck, ship, train, aircraft), the w ...
s than an equivalent weight of cargo
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
in bulk. FCL is intended to designate a container loaded to its allowable maximum weight or volume, but FCL in practice on ocean freight does not always mean a full payload or capacity - many companies will prefer to keep a 'mostly' full container as a single container load to simplify logistics and increase security compared to sharing a container with other goods.
Less-than-container load
Less-than-container load (LCL) is a shipment
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ext ...
that is not large enough to fill a standard cargo container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
. The abbreviation LCL formerly applied to "less than (railway) car load" for quantities of material from different shippers or for delivery to different destinations carried in a single railway car
A railroad car, railcar ( American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...
for efficiency. LCL freight was often sorted and redistributed into different railway cars at intermediate railway terminal
A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...
s en route to the final destination.
Groupage is the process of filling a container with multiple shipments for efficiency.
LCL is "a quantity of cargo
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
less than that required for the application of a carload rate. A quantity of cargo less than that which fills the visible or rated capacity of an inter-modal container." It can also be defined as "a consignment of cargo which is inefficient to fill a shipping container. It is grouped with other consignments for the same destination in a container at a container freight station
A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...
".
Issues
Hazards
Containers have been used to smuggle
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
contraband
Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...
or stolen cars. The vast majority of containers are never subjected to scrutiny due to their large numbers. In recent years there have been increased concerns that containers might be used to transport terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
s or terrorist materials into a country undetected. The US government has advanced the Container Security Initiative
The Container Security Initiative (CSI) a.k.a. the 24-Hour Rule was launched in 2002 by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Its purpose was to increase security for container ...
(CSI), intended to ensure that high-risk cargo is examined or scanned, preferably at the port of departure.
Empty containers
Containers are intended to be used constantly, being loaded with new cargo for a new destination soon after emptied of previous cargo. This is not always possible, and in some cases, the cost of transporting an empty container to a place where it can be used is considered to be higher than the worth of the used container. Shipping line
A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships.
Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo:
# Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...
s and container leasing companies have become expert at repositioning empty containers from areas of low or no demand, such as the US West Coast, to areas of high demand, such as China. Repositioning within the port hinterland has also been the focus of recent logistics optimization work. Damaged or retired containers may be recycled in the form of shipping container architecture
Shipping container architecture is a form of architecture using steel intermodal containers (shipping containers) as the main structural element. It is also referred to as cargotecture, a portmanteau of cargo with architecture, or "arkitaine ...
, or the steel content salvaged. In the summer of 2010, a worldwide shortage of containers developed as shipping increased after the recession, while new container production had largely ceased.
Loss at sea
Containers occasionally fall from ships, usually during storms. According to media sources, between 2,000[Containers Overboard!]
TT Club
'' (Maritime insurers). Accessed: 26 February 2011. and 10,000 containers are lost at sea each year. The World Shipping Council The World Shipping Council (WSC) is the primary industry trade association representing the international liner shipping industry, which offers regularly scheduled service on fixed schedules. Most liner carriers are container shipping lines. The W ...
states in a survey among freight companies that this claim is grossly excessive and calculated an average of 350 containers to be lost at sea each year, or 675 if including catastrophic events.
' (World Shipping Council). Accessed: 11 July 2013. For instance, on November 30, 2006, a container washed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
, along with thousands of bags of its cargo of Doritos Chips. Containers lost in rough waters are smashed by cargo and waves, and often sink quickly.[ Although not all containers sink, they seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect. Freight from lost containers has provided ]oceanographer
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...
s with unexpected opportunities to track global ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, s ...
s, notably a cargo of Friendly Floatees
Friendly Floatees are plastic bath toys (including rubber ducks) marketed by The First Years and made famous by the work of Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who models ocean currents on the basis of flotsam movements. Ebbesmeyer studied the ...
.
In 2007 the International Chamber of Shipping
The International Chamber of Shipping is one of the world's principal shipping organisations, representing around 80% of the world's merchant tonnage through membership by national shipowners' associations. It is concerned with maritime regulatory, ...
and the World Shipping Council The World Shipping Council (WSC) is the primary industry trade association representing the international liner shipping industry, which offers regularly scheduled service on fixed schedules. Most liner carriers are container shipping lines. The W ...
began work on a code of practice for container storage, including crew training on parametric rolling
Parametric may refer to:
Mathematics
* Parametric equation, a representation of a curve through equations, as functions of a variable
*Parametric statistics, a branch of statistics that assumes data has come from a type of probability distribu ...
, safer stacking, the marking of containers, and security for above-deck cargo in heavy swell.[Murdoch & Tozer]
A Master's guide to Container Securing
''Lloyd's Register
Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...
& Standard P&I Club''. Accessed: 26 February 2011.
In 2011, the MV Rena
MV ''Rena'' was a container ship owned by the Greek shipping company Costamare Inc. through one of its subsidiaries, Daina Shipping Co. The ship was built in 1990 as ''ZIM America'' for the Israeli shipping company Zim by Howaldtswerke-Deutsc ...
ran aground off the coast of New Zealand. As the ship listed, some containers were lost, while others were held on board at a precarious angle.
Trade union challenges
Some of the biggest battles in the container revolution were waged in Washington, D.C.. Intermodal shipping got a huge boost in the early 1970s, when carriers won permission to quote combined rail-ocean rates. Later, non-vessel-operating common carrier
A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...
s won a long court battle with a US Supreme Court decision against contracts that attempted to require that union labor be used for stuffing and stripping containers at off-pier locations.
As pest vector
Containers are often infested with pests. Pest introductions are significantly clustered around ports, and containers are a common source of such successful pest transfers. The IPPC Sea Container Task Force
The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is a 1951 multilateral treaty overseen by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that aims to secure coordinated, effective action to prevent and to control the introduction and ...
(SCTF) promulgates the Cargo Transport Units Code (CTU), prescribed pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...
s and other standards (see ) and recommendations for use in container decontamination, inspection and quarantine. The SCTF also provides the English translation of the National Standard of China ( GB/T 39919-2021).
Other uses for containers
Shipping container architecture
Shipping container architecture is a form of architecture using steel intermodal containers (shipping containers) as the main structural element. It is also referred to as cargotecture, a portmanteau of cargo with architecture, or "arkitaine ...
is the use of containers as the basis for housing and other functional buildings for people, either as temporary or a permanent housing, and either as a main building or as a cabin or as a workshop. Containers can also be used as sheds or storage areas in industry and commerce.
Tempo Housing in Amsterdam stacks containers for individual housing units.
Containers are also beginning to be used to house computer data centers, although these are normally specialized containers.
There is now a high demand for containers to be converted in the domestic market to serve specific purposes. As a result, a number of container-specific accessories have become available for a variety of applications, such as racking for archiving, lining, heating, lighting, powerpoints to create purpose-built secure offices, canteens and drying rooms, condensation control for furniture storage, and ramps for storage of heavier objects. Containers are also converted to provide equipment enclosures, pop-up cafes, exhibition stands, security huts and more.
Public containerised transport is the concept, not yet implemented, of modifying motor vehicles to serve as personal containers in non-road passenger transport.
The ACTS roller container standards have become the basis of containerized firefighting equipment throughout Europe.
Containers have also been used for weapon systems, such as the Russian Club-K, which allow the conversion of an ordinary container system into a missile boat, capable of attacking surface and ground targets, and the CWS (Containerized Weapon System) developed for the US Army that allow for the rapid deployment of a remote controlled machine gun post from a container.
BBC tracking project
On September 5, 2008, the BBC embarked on a year-long project to study international trade and globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
by tracking a shipping container on its journey around the world.
See also
* 2000s energy crisis
* Conflat
Conflat is a United Kingdom railway term for a short wheelbase flat wagon container wagon.
British Railways used several standard types of wagon. The Conflat A, which could carry one type 'B', or two type 'A', containers, was the most common ...
* Container terminal design process
Container port design process is a set of correlated practices considered during container port design, aiming to transfer general business mission into detailed design documents for future construction and operation.
The design process involves ...
* Double-stack rail transport
Double-stack rail transport is a form of intermodal freight transport in which railroad cars carry two layers of intermodal containers. Invented in the United States in 1984, it is now being used for nearly seventy percent of United States inter ...
* Henry Robinson Palmer
Henry Robinson Palmer (1795–1844) was a British civil engineer who designed the world's second monorail and the first elevated railway. He is also credited as the inventor of corrugated metal roofing, still one of the world's major building m ...
described an early principle of containerization.
* Inter-box connector
A twistlock or twist lock, together with matching corner castings, as defined in norms including ISO 1161:1984, form a standardized (rotating) connector system, for connecting and securing intermodal, and predominantly ISO-standard internatio ...
* Intermodal container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...
* List of cargo types Primary maritime cargo types
References
{{Container shipping companies
Intermodal containers
Economic globalization
Freight transport
...
* List of world's busiest container ports
This article lists the world's busiest container ports (ports with container terminals that specialize in handling goods transported in intermodal shipping containers), by total number of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) transported through ...
* Little Eaton Gangway
The Little Eaton Gangway, officially the Derby Canal Railway, was a narrow gauge industrial wagonway serving the Derby Canal, in England, at Little Eaton in Derbyshire.
The Derby Canal
In 1792, Benjamin Outram was asked to prepare plans for a ...
1798
* Multimodal transport
Multimodal transport (also known as combined transport) is the transportation of goods under a single contract, but performed with at least two different modes of transport; the carrier is liable (in a legal sense) for the entire carriage, even th ...
* NYC container 1922
* Shipping portal
* Stowage plan for container ships
Stowage plan for container ships or bay plan is the plan and method by which different types of container vessels are loaded with containers of specific standard sizes. The plans are used to maximize the economy of shipping and safety on board.
...
* Tanktainer
A tank container or tanktainer is an intermodal container for the transport of liquids, gases and powders as bulk cargo. It is built to the ISO standards, making it suitable for different modes of transportation; as such, it is also called an ISO ...
s
* Unit load
The term unit load refers to the size of an assemblage into which a number of individual items are combined for ease of storage and handling, for example a pallet load represents a unit load which can be moved easily with a pallet jack or forkli ...
Notes
References
Further reading
* – Novel set in U.S., wherein mystery surrounding a containerized shipment serves as the MacGuffin
In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. The term was originated by Angus MacPhail for ...
* – How Container Ships Changed the World
* – Containerization from the 1950s to the Present
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* ASTM
ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, an ...
D 5728 Standard Practice for Securement of Cargo in Intermodal and Unimodal Surface Transport
* – types, inspection, climate, stowage, securing, capacity
*
* – a guidebook for first responders during the initial phase of a dangerous goods/hazardous materials incident
*
* – A good pictorial introduction to containers
{{Container shipping companies
Intermodal containers
Economic globalization