History of Shipping Containers | LOTUS Containers
Trade before 1956: It’s no doubt how much importance do shipping containers possess to the logistics and supply chain industry. Traveling back to centuries reminds us of the days when most of the things were done manually and how arduous it was to transport goods via ocean. Before the advent of containerization, the widest possible ways to transport goods over the seas were- gunny bags, basket, wooden crates, sacks, tubs, drums, barrels, boxes, etc. Goods were mostly handled manually as break-bulk cargoes. They were taken through a series of pickups and loads from manufacturing plant to the warehouse, then from warehouse to port and from port to the vessel, and then from vessels, they were carried in an unsafe and unprotected manner to the port of destination. Unsafe because one can imagine what security does tubs, drums, sacks, gunny bags could offer. Being a shipper, would you think of transporting your valuable assets (let’s say 1000 set of newly launched mobile phones) from China to Australia in a tub? Think of the risks like robbery, theft, accidents, and bad weather associated with the traditional shipment method. Later on, the boxes of various kinds began to be used because this was the only way to move cargoes in a safe way without causing much damage to the goods.
Earlier, the ships were capable of carrying 5,000 tons of goods. And the biggest challenge was the loading of goods on ships. The dockers had to pile the goods onto a wooden pallet which was hoisted in a belt and deposited in the hold. Then, the dockers carted each cargo boxes on the deck, hanging the pallet with hooks until it settled at the right place. Although, seaports used to have cranes and forklifts most of the goods were lifted and shifted using manpower which was way too risky and took lots of life on the port. Every week someone was found to meet with an accident. In the year 1950, the port of New York- the safest port alone witnessed half a dozen serious incidents per day.
Besides, the loading and unloading of cargoes was the most arduous and time-consuming thing. This is because it was much labor force-oriented and cargoes were handled separately, not altogether in a box-like cargo container. Thus, a vessel used to spend much of its time at port than in the sea. Study says the SS warrior ship meant to travel on the route- New York to Bremerhaven took ten days to load & unload, more than the transit time. Sometimes, the total journey used to take even three months, including, sorting, loading, traveling, and unloading. Shippers with perishable items were often devastated from their goods being rotten. Most of the cargoes used to destroy along its voyage because of inefficient storage.
The debut of shipping containers: Before the advent of shipping containers in the trade industry, containers like boxes were used by the US Army to transport supplies materials to soldiers in the war area during the Korean and Vietnam War. The first time when shipping containers came into existence was the year 1956, when Malcolm McLean, an American truck driver proposed his ‘big box’ idea for the very first time. Born in 1913, McLean owned a successful transportation business in North Carolina, in the US. He is tagged as an entrepreneur because he was frustrated with the current cargo shipping method and thus brought up an idea that completely revolutionized the world. Although the concept of intermodal containers came to him very early in 1937 it took almost 19 years for the successful execution. The idea dragged his mind while he often waited long to deliver cotton bags on his truck to the port in New Jersey.
Prior to the birth of shipping containers, boxes of similar types were already in use for rail freight. But its advent in ocean freight was aimed towards achieving more efficiency in overall shipment operations regarding cargo safety, timely delivery, systematic organization, etc.
McLean thought instead of breaking bulk and loading cargoes individually, why not to load the entire truck on deck in one go. He gained further knowledge of shipping lines and after going through several experiments, he finally came up with large massive steel boxes that could be stacked, were sturdy, lockable and durable. The original idea was little modified, thus instead of loading the entire truck, only the containers of the trucks were loaded without the chassis. Finding the concept of great usefulness, freight shipping companies were eager to adopt it in their shipping operations.
But the US government stood against the concept of shipping lines being owned by trucking companies and did not allow for this. The visionary man beat his brain out and credited a loan worth $22 million to buy tankers used in World War-II. He converted one of those tankers-Potrero Hills to a ship and named her Ideal X. She started her voyage from New Jersey to Houston carrying 58 containers and 15, 000 tons of petroleum on April 26, 1956. Ever since the day is exquisitely celebrated as a shipping container's birthday.
Before 1960, world trade in merchandise was less than 20% of the world’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). But ever since the invention of shipping containers, it has risen to 50% (at current date) and is one of the biggest contributors to globalization. This great idea brought the world so closer and made the world’s economy enormous.
Since then, various advancements and modifications were brought up in the containerization- from its functionality to its different types, like- dry van, insulators, reefers, tankers, etc. The cost of shipping fell significantly boosting the global trade which is now practiced with great efficiency. Their invention and further evolution led to the biggest transformation.
At LOTUS Containers, we pay a great tribute to the pioneer of containerization- Malcolm McLean who revolutionized the entire logistics and gave us a way to serve people from all over the world. We hold pride in simplifying shipping operations by providing a wide range of cargo containers fleet aided with worldwide intermodal transportation services.
