The Creation of the Cargo Container- How Shipping Containers Changed the World

Have you ever wondered how cargo containers were created? Well you know I have! If you follow my blog you know that I am a self proclaimed cargo container geek and you can blame my mentor and friend Howard "Hands" Keene for that. However, I can't be blamed for the invention of the container, that falls onto the shoulders of Malcolm McLean.

In 1955 he was running a trucking company in North Carolina when he bought a steamship line and came up with the idea to remove the wheels from his trucks and strengthen the sides of the trailers and stack them on his newly acquired steamship decks. His prototype "ideal X" could store 56 containers on deck and Malcolm became the father of containerization.

Around the same time Oakland, California based Matson Navigation Company conducted research on ways to control rising costs and discovered loading and unloading freight in the traditional manner was inefficient and a containerization program they implemented revolutionized transport to the Hawaiian Islands. The rest is history!

Containerization started a revolution in trade and in the loading and unloading of cargo. Longshoremen were replaced with cranes and the industry was turned on its head. By 2005, roughly 50 years after McLean invented the cargo container roughly 90% of all goods were moved by containerization.

This YouTube video by the Wall Street Journalwill give you an incredible insight into an industry and tool (cargo container) that has had a profound impact on the world as we know it. !