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Topic Last Updated on 04-07-2024
Containers | British Beginnings
Today, more than 90 % of so-called general cargo (cargo of individual units transported in packaging) travels in containers. However, contrary to popular belief, these containers are not an American invention from the recent century. In the 1700s, efficiency-minded Englishmen started using big wooden boxes fixed on railcars to transport coal. Miners filled these boxes directly in the mine shafts, and then horses dragged the wagons to the pier on the Bridgewater Canal, which led to Manchester.
On the pier, boxes with coal were loaded by crane onto barges and sent to the factories of the textile capital of England. Compared to the tedious bustle of sacks and carts, this innovation saved a lot of time, energy, and money. With the growth of railroad networks, the English method of transporting goods became widespread in a variety of countries. Towards the middle of the 19th century, iron containers made their appearance.
After another half a century, we had closed containers designed for transportation on rapidly-developing automobiles. In the 1920s, the British came close to creating a unified container transportation system: the RCH standard, proposed by the logistics organization Railway Clearing House. It united the motley railroad industry into a single transportation complex. RCH containers are 5- and 10-foot-long wooden boxes, which were primarily used on British roads, but, due to their fragility, did not gain the trust of maritime shippers.
Giants of transportation
On the deck of the world’s largest container ship, the OOCL Hong Kong, you can fit four soccer fields! Of course, the owner of this giant, the Chinese shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line, won’t allow any hooligans to mess around on the deck. The container ship runs continuously between Shanghai and ports of Northern Europe — the British Felixstowe, Dutch Rotterdam, Polish Gdańsk, and German Wilhelmshaven. A full load is record-breaking: the ship can transport 21,413 standard 20-foot containers! Even imagining such a mass is frightening. If they were placed in a line end-to-end, they would stretch over 80 mi.
Crossed Wires, Crossed Train Tracks
In post-World War I America, amidst a booming economy, the industry diverged from the streamlined approach of their English counterparts. Numerous railroad companies developed individual technical solutions, often incompatible with each other. Furthermore, they resisted efforts to standardize these disparate systems. Consequently, establishing a national standard was deemed unfeasible. This lack of cohesion resulted in goods traveling from New York to San Francisco being reloaded multiple times, driven by fiercely competitive railway operators keen on utilizing their own locomotives and wagons within their designated zones.
In the early 1940s, companies like the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway transported car and ship engines in standard metallic containers. This method, known as “piggybacking,” involved transporting cargo in closed containers on open railroad platforms. The concept of globalizing container transport was on the horizon, with just a few steps remaining.
In 1942, in the Imperial Ministry of Railways of Germany, the Eisenbahn Behälter was born, a steel container that can accommodate approximately 20 t of general cargo. It was designed for any mode of transportation (except aviation and cart-drawn systems).
WHAT KINDS OF CONTAINERS ARE THERE?
Dry cargo
Universal containers for storing and transporting cargo containers with a refrigeration unit for storing and transporting perishable cargo.
Refrigerated
Containers with a refrigeration unit for storing and transporting perishable cargo.
Special
Custom-made containers for specific types of cargo.
Containers | Army Experiments
The giant flow of cargo crossing the oceans during World War II was being delivered in the tried and tested form of sacks, boxes, and crates. Just imagine hundreds of thousands of tons of goods that required not only the labor of thousands upon thousands of dockworkers but also innumerable hours of loading and unloading! However, this does not imply that the army engineers were just kicked back with their arms crossed. They were working on the development of container transport systems, but their introduction and testing were constantly delayed due to various constraints.
Only in 1948 did the US Army Transportation Corps present Transporter, a metal container with a capacity of 9,000 lbs. Its basis was 8’6” × 6’3” × 6’10” welded frame, sheathed with a corrugated steel sheet. It featured a double-leaf door built into the front wall and slinging rings welded to the upper corners of the bearing frame. Transporter became the core component of US Army logistics during the Korean War, and later, the basis for the standard Container Express (CONEX), which was adopted in 1952. By the mid-1960s, the US Army had a fleet of 100,000 containers, partially taking over the supply of American units in Vietnam.
The Birth of Containerization
Why only partially? Because Malcolm McLean, “the father of containerization,” who compacted the delivery of general cargo into a single complex, entered the game. According to one version, large losses forced McLean to think about bottlenecks in logistics. His trucks idled in port, waiting for goods, and of course a ship, plane, train, or truck only brings in a profit when it is carrying a load. In those years, transport ships spent half of the time at sea and the other half in ports loading and unloading. Therefore, if you see rows of inactive liners, you can deduce that something isn’t right. Planes should be flying, and not sitting on the tarmac.
How to Spare Some Change
Upon arriving at the pier, McLean witnessed dock workers laboriously unloading sacks from the hold. They would assemble several sacks into a cargo net, hoist it with a crane, and then transfer the bags to a truck on the dock, charging $6 per ton (equivalent to about $60 today). This scene sparked an intriguing, albeit not entirely original, idea in the businessman’s mind. Recognizing the need to expedite loading and unloading, he realized the key lay in dealing with larger objects. This notion evolved into a logistical revolution: for enhanced efficiency, these large items must be transferred seamlessly from door to door with minimal disruption. Over time, this approach acquired a specialized term: intermodality.
Intermodality (from Lat. modus, meaning “between”) is the seamless use of various types of transport in one transport system.
Why would the owner of a successful company like McLean Trucking, with a fleet ranked fifth largest in the nation, need to improve? One would think that 32 massive terminals, located across the entire country and serving almost 2,000 heavy-duty trucks would work well enough!
The answer, of course, lies in profits, as well as the federal structure of the US. Every state has its own established fees and taxes. Sometimes the border between states needed to be crossed just like an international one, with customs control and payment of fees.
Malcolm McLean’s Radical Solution
McLean was forced to think about optimizing the delivery costs of goods. For example, from New York to Florida, if transported by truck, they cross at least five states, each with their own regulations. In addition, transport via railroad would mean using the services of sworn competitors like the New York Central Railroad and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. This would again involve expenses and delays! Even if this problem could be solved radically, rejecting ground modes of transportation altogether?
For that reason, without hesitation, Malcolm McLean transitioned to ship ownership. By the time, laws prohibiting land transport companies from entering sea transport, McLean discovered a loophole. He formally exited the auto-transport business, selling his share of McLean Trucking. Instead, he purchased a shipping company along with two T2 series army tankers, widely manufactured during the war. Renaming the vessel Potrero Hills to SS Ideal X, with a displacement of 16,460 GRT, it became the world’s inaugural commercial container ship. Now, the focus shifted to handling containers.
Containers | First of Millions to Come
For this, McLean recruited the engineer and mechanic Keith Tantlinger, Vice President of Engineering at Fruehauf Trailer Corporation, from whom McLean had contracted the refurbishment of his trucks. It should be said that Tantlinger had already worked on some pilot projects that were highly acclaimed by his new boss. His main innovation was a sturdy frame with strengthened corner posts, welded from steel channel bars. This allowed the containers to be stacked in several tiers without fearing that fragile lower crates would be crushed by the ones above. To prevent the stacks from falling apart, Tantlinger developed a mounting system of corner fittings with locks, “Twistlock.”
The container’s walls and roof were made of corrugated steel sheets, each about 0.08 inches thick. Special preparation was needed for the bottom to support heavy weight. Steel beams were welded to create a sturdy lattice, topped with a steel sheet and pressed plywood up to 1.5 inches thick. A double-door for loading was hinged at one end of the box.
