IntlMOVE: History of Shipping Containers

IntlMOVE is a leader in the international moving industry.

When you are ready to ship your household goods and personal effects to your new country, IntlMOVE will load your items into a shipping container.

Once the container reaches your new country’s port, IntlMOVE will deliver your household goods to your new home.

The advent of the container is relatively new to the shipping world.

Without the development of this shipping necessity, our lives would be a lot different.

Although it’s not something most of us think about, the innovation of the shipping container was one of the most important innovations of the 20^th century.

Modernizing shipping containers has revolutionized the international shipping and trading industry.

Not only do modern containers improve port handling efficiency, but they also lower costs.

Both of which have helped increase trade flows.

Containers have been around for hundreds of years.

Containers were used on railways to transport goods, but they were not nearly the size they are today.

Some of the earliest large containers were wood and non-stackable.

They were about 5 to 10 feet long and used mostly in the United Kingdom.

In 1929, Seatrain Lines began carrying railroad boxcars on its ships for trade between New York and Cuba.

Other railways began shipping boxcars or flatbeds to ease shipping restraints.

The United States Army began using shipping containers toward the end of World War II to speed up the transportation of goods between ships.

The containers were called, “transporters.”

The transporters were 8 feet long, 6.25 feet wide and 6.83 feet high.

They were reusable, made with steel and could support 9,000 pounds.

The use of the transporter expanded during the Korean War because of the damage and theft that took place with wooden crates.

Steel containers were more secure and potential thieves could not see what was in the containers.

Steel containers were first used for major shipments by 1952.

The USA Army coined the term CONEX, short for “Container Express.”

Shipment times were almost cut in half!

The military standardized an 8’ x 8’ cross container in 10’ lengths by the Vietnam War.

Companies soon took advantage of these new containers and the rest is history.

International trade and international shipments became much more prevalent and cost efficient.

The world’s first intermodal container, which means it uses more than one form of transportation, completed its first journey in 1955.

The containers now had the ability to be shipped by rail, ship and truck.

The first container ship, the Clifford J. Rodgers, was built in Montreal in 1955.

The ship carried 600 containers on its first trip between North Vancouver, British Columbia and Skagway, Alaska.

The containers were unloaded onto railroad cars, ships and trucks to their final destinations.

The earliest container ships were made from converted tankers.

When containers started being used worldwide, there was no standardization so they were incompatible with one another and some of the ships, railways and trucks.

Standardization has really improved the process.

Worldwide, almost 90 percent of non-bulk cargo moves by ship in stackable containers.

Twenty-six percent of all containers originate from China.

Some ships can even carry 15,200 twenty-foot containers or twenty-foot equivalent units.

Capacity of ships are measured in twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), which is the number of containers measure 20’ x 8’x 8.5’ that a vessel can carry.

However, most containers used today to ships goods are 40’ in length.