During the mid-20th century, loading and unloading goods onto a ship was an extremely labour intensive and time-consuming exercise. There was very little order as to the shapes and sizes of the units being loaded, with barrels, sacks and wooden crates of differing dimensions being the only transportation structures available. The process was due for a shake up, and with this is mind, we enter the first steps towards the evolution of shipping containers.
England and The Coal Mining Industry
Coal mining in England in the late 1700s saw a big push in the development of containers. Horse-drawn wagons were engineered to carry wooden boxes containing large amounts of coal from the mines, which were then transhipped from canal barges and loaded onto ferries. Soon, the wooden boxes were carried on the railroads. Although the boxes could be easily stacked, they were not sturdy or easy to handle, leading them to then be made from iron instead of timber in the 1840s.
World War II
During World War II, the evolution of shipping containers was propelled even further when the US Army used specialised containers to accelerate the task of loading and unloading war machinery and other supplies. Called ‘transporters’ the reusable shipping containers offered an average capacity of over 4,000 kgs and they were made of rigid steel.
Modernisation in the 1950s
Malcom P McLean, a trucking business owner from North Carolina, USA, bought a steamship company in 1955 so he could transport entire truck trailers with their cargo still inside. This approach was towards a system called ‘intermodalism’, in which shipping containers could be carried using ships, trucks and trains without ever having to transport goods from one container to another.
In 1956-58 ‘intermodal containers’ were carried from Newark to Houston in a refitted oil tanker. They could be simply lifted off one carrier and put on another by gantry cranes. This was the first step towards the shipping container industry as we know it, and now, more than 60% of the goods shipped via the ocean are inside intermodal shipping containers.
Globalisation in the 1960s and 1970s
In the late 1960s McLean insisted on standardising shipping container sizes to dramatically reduce labour and time, and by the mid-1970s all cargo lines were using modern-day shipping containers. The ISO standard was adopted, and all shipping containers were manufactured with standard sizes of 10, 20, 30 and 40 feet in length and 8 or 8.6 feet in height, meaning they could be moved across the world with ease. Nowadays an average cargo ship can handle more than 16,000 shipping containers on a single voyage, and mega cargo ships are engineered to carry over 20,000 containers.
Explore Our Range at South West Containers
Shipping containers have come a very long way, and with each improvement, our industry has cemented itself as a vital part of the industrial world. If you require a new or used shipping container, explore the range we have on offer at South West Containers.
If you would like more information on our stock or services, please get in touch with our team.