Shipping containers at a terminal in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey

A container freight train in the UK

Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport cargo transport using standard ISO containers (known as shipping containers or isotainers) that can be loaded and sealed intact onto container ships, railroad cars, planes, and trucks. Not to be confused with Port Elizabeth New Jersey Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal is the name for the port facility in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in a container or Vehicle, using multiple modes of Transportation ( Cargo (or freight) refers to goods or produce transported generally for Commercial gain by ship, aircraft, train, Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one place to another Container ships are Cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers in a technique called Containerization. A railroad car or railway carriage is a Vehicle on a rail transport system (railroad or railway that is used for the carrying of Cargo or Overview Fixed-wing aircraft range from small training and recreational aircraft to Wide-body aircraft and military cargo aircraft. This article is about the semi-truck For the North American use of the word see Pickup truck.

History

A container ship being loaded by a portainer crane in Copenhagen Harbour. Container ships are Cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers in a technique called Containerization. A container crane (also known as a portainer, container handling gantry crane, quay crane, ship-to-shore crane, ship-to-shore gantry crane Copenhagen (ˌkəʊpənˈheɪgən ˌkəʊpənˈhɑːgən ˈkəʊpənˌheɪgən ˈkəʊpənˌhɑːgən kʰøb̥ənˈhɑʊ̯ˀn kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn is the capital and largest city

Twistlocks which capture and constrain containers. Forklifts designed to handle containers have similar devices.

The introduction of containers resulted in vast improvements in port handling efficiency, thus lowering costs and helping lower freight charges and, in turn, boosting trade flows. Almost every manufactured product humans consume spends some time in a container.

Origins

Although having its origins in the late 1780s or earlier, the global standardisation of containers and container handling equipment was one of the important innovations in 20th century logistics. Logistics is the management of the flow of Goods, Information and other resources including Energy and people between the point of origin and the point

By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to trucks or ships, but these containers were invariably small by today's standards. Originally used for shipping coal on and off barges, 'loose boxes' were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, on places like the Bridgewater Canal. Year 1780 ( MDCCLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The Bridgewater Canal is a Canal in North West England, connecting Runcorn, Manchester, and Leigh. By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones. The early 1900s saw the adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail. Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar

In the United Kingdom, several railway companies were using similar containers by the beginning of the 20th century and in the 1920s the Railway Clearing House standardised the RCH container. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar The British Railway Clearing House (RCH was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by numerous pre-grouping railway companies Five or ten foot long, wooden and non-stackable, these early standard containers were a great success but the standard remained UK-specific.

From 1926 to 1947, in the US, the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway carried motor carrier vehicles and shippers' vehicles loaded on flatcars between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, often called the North Shore Line, was an Interurban Railroad line that operated between Chicago A flatcar (also flat car) is a piece of Railroad rolling stock that consists of an open flat deck on four or six wheels or a pair of trucks (US or Wisconsin ( or wɪˈskɑnsɨn (French Ouisconsin) is one of the fifty United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The State of Illinois ( roughly ill-i-NOY is a state of the United States of America, the 21st to be admitted to the Union. Beginning in 1929, Seatrain Lines carried railroad boxcars on its sea vessels to transport goods between New York and Cuba. SeaTrain Lines was a Shipping company most responsible for the introduction of the standard international Shipping container, most commonly 8 foot high by 8 foot A boxcar (the American term the British call this kind of car a " goods van " while in Australia they are usually referred to as " In the mid-1930s, the Chicago Great Western Railway and then the New Haven Railroad began "piggy-back" service (transporting highway freight trailers on flatcars) limited to their own railroads. The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. By 1953, the CB&Q, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois and the Southern Pacific railroads had joined the innovation. The Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. The Chicago and Eastern Illinois was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago to southern Illinois, St Most cars were surplus flatcars equipped with new decks. By 1955, an additional 25 railroads had begun some form of piggy-back trailer service.

Toward the end of World War II, the United States Army began using specialized containers to speed up the loading and unloading of transport ships. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The army used the term "transporters" to identify the containers, for shipping household goods of officers in the field. A "Transporter" was a reusable container, 8. 5 feet (2. 6 m) long, 6. 25 feet (1. 91 m) wide, and 6. 83 feet (2. 08 m) high, made of rigid steel with a carrying capacity of 9,000 pounds. During the Korean War the transporter was evaluated for handling sensitive military equipment, and proving effective, was approved for broader use. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the Theft of material and damage to wooden creates, in addition to handling time, by stevedores at the Port of Pusan, proved to the army that steel containers were needed. In 1952 the army began using the term CONEX, short for "Container Express". The first major shipment of CONEX's (containing engineering supplies and spare parts) were shipped by rail from the Columbus General Depot in Georgia to the Port of San Francisco, then by ship to Yokohama, Japan, and then to Korea, in late 1952. Columbus is a City in Muscogee County, Georgia, United States. The Port of San Francisco lies on the western edge of the San Francisco Bay near the Golden Gate. is the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture, located in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshū and is a major commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Shipment times were cut almost in half. By the time of the Vietnam War the majority of supplies and materials were shipped with the CONEX. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia After the U.S. Department of Defense standardized an 8'x8' cross section container in multiples of 10' lengths for military use it was rapidly adopted for shipping purposes. The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government ^[1][2]

These standards were adopted in the United Kingdom for containers and rapidly displaced the older wooden containers in the 1950s.

Even the railways of the USSR had their own small containers. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 ^[3]

Purpose-built ships

Main article: Container Ship

The first vessels purpose-built to carry containers began operation in Denmark in 1951. Container ships are Cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers in a technique called Containerization. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Ships began carrying containers between Seattle and Alaska in 1951. Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent The world's first truly intermodal container system used the purpose-built container ship the Clifford J. Rodgers, built in Montreal in 1955 and owned by the White Pass and Yukon Route. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec The White Pass and Yukon Route ( WP&Y, WP&YR) is a Canadian and U Its first trip carried 600 containers between North Vancouver, British Columbia and Skagway, Alaska, on November 26, 1955; in Skagway, the containers were unloaded to purpose-built railroad cars for transport north to the Yukon, in the first intermodal service using trucks, ships and railroad cars. This page is about the two distinct British Columbia municipalities that use the name and are often jointly referred to as "North Vancouver" British Columbia (ˌbrɪtɨʃ kəˈlʌmbiə ( BC) ( (la Colombie-Britannique C Skagway (ˈskægweɪ is a first-class borough in Alaska, on the Alaska Panhandle. Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent Events 43 BC - The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian" later "Caesar Augustus" A railroad car or railway carriage is a Vehicle on a rail transport system (railroad or railway that is used for the carrying of Cargo or Yukon (ˈjuːkɒn is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three territories. Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in a container or Vehicle, using multiple modes of Transportation ( Southbound containers were loaded by shippers in the Yukon, moved by rail, ship and truck, to their consignees, without opening. This first intermodal system operated from November 1955 for many years.

The U. S. container shipping industry dates to 1956, when trucking entrepreneur Malcom McLean put 58 containers aboard a refitted tanker ship, the Ideal-X, and sailed them from Newark to Houston. Malcom Purcell McLean (born “Malcolm” but late in life he changed his given name to its historic traditional Scottish spelling ( November 14 1913 – May What was new in the USA about McLean's innovation was the idea of using large containers that were never opened in transit between shipper and consignee and that were transferable on an intermodal basis, among trucks, ships and railroad cars. McLean had initially favored the construction of "trailerships" - taking trailers from large trucks and stowing them in a ship’s cargo hold. This method of stowage, referred to as roll-on/roll-off, was not adopted because of the large waste in potential cargo space onboard the vessel, known as broken stowage. See also Merchant ship Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro Ships are ferries designed to carry wheeled Cargo such as Instead, he modified his original concept into loading just the containers, not the chassis, onto the ships, hence the designation container ship or "box" ship. Container ships are Cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers in a technique called Containerization. ^[4][5] See also pantechnicon van and trolley and lift van. This article deals with the horse-drawn vehicle For the modern equivalent find Pantechnicon in the Truck article The trolley was a platform body with four relatively small wheels mounted underneath it the front two on a turntable undercarriage

Towards standards

During the first twenty years of growth containerization meant using completely different, and incompatible, container sizes and corner fittings from one country to another. There were dozens of incompatible container systems in the U. S. alone. Among the biggest operators, the Matson Navigation Company had a fleet of 24-foot containers while Sea-Land Service, Inc used 35-foot containers. Matson Navigation Company, a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin, is a private Shipping company with roots extending into the late 19th century Sea-Land Service Inc (often referred to by a variety of variations on its name including Sea-Land Services, Sea-Land Corporation, or SeaLand) was a The standard sizes and fitting and reinforcement norms that exist now evolved out of a series of compromises among international shipping companies, European railroads, U. S. railroads, and U. S. trucking companies. Four important ISO recommendations standardised containerisation globally^[6]

• January 1968 - R-668 defined the terminology, dimensions and ratings
• July 1968 - R-790 defined the identification markings
• January 1970 - R-1161 made recommendations about corner fittings
• October 1970 - R-1897 set out the minimum internal dimensions of general purpose freight containers

In the United States, at first, containerization grew despite the unfavourable regulatory structure of the 1960s. But the United States' present fully integrated systems became possible only after the Interstate Commerce Commission's regulatory oversight was cut back (and later abolished in 1995), trucking and rail were deregulated in the 1970s and maritime rates were deregulated in 1984. The Interstate Commerce Commission (or ICC) was a Regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 which was signed ^[7]

Today

Containerization has revolutionized cargo shipping. Today, approximately 90% of non-bulk cargo worldwide moves by containers stacked on transport ships; 26% of all containers originate from China. Bulk cargo is Commodity Cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National As of 2005, some 18 million total containers make over 200 million trips per year. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. There are ships that can carry over 14,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), for example the "Emma Mærsk", 396 m long, launched August 2006. Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (often TEU or teu) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of Container ships and Container Capacity By normal calculations Emma Mærsk's cargo capacity is significantly greater than the listed capacity — between and. It has even been predicted that, at some point, container ships will be constrained in size only by the depth of the Straits of Malacca—one of the world's busiest shipping lanes—linking the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The Strait of Malacca is a narrow 805 km (500 mile stretch of water between Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) and the Indonesian island of Sumatra The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions This so-called Malaccamax size constrains a ship to dimensions of 470 m in length and 60 m wide (1542 feet by 197 feet). Malaccamax is a Naval architecture term for the largest size of ship capable of fitting through the -deep Strait of Malacca. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit ^[5]

However, few initially foresaw the extent of the influence containerization would bring to the shipping industry. In the 1950s, Harvard University economist Benjamin Chinitz predicted that containerization would benefit New York by allowing it to ship industrial goods produced there more cheaply to the Southern United States than other areas, but did not anticipate that containerization might make it cheaper to import such goods from abroad. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive Most economic studies of containerization merely assumed that shipping companies would begin to replace older forms of transportation with containerization, but did not predict that the process of containerization itself would have some influence on producers and the extent of trading. ^[5]

A converted container used as an office at a building site. In the fields of Architecture and Civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the Building or assembling of Infrastructure

The widespread use of ISO standard containers has driven modifications in other freight-moving standards, gradually forcing removable truck bodies or swap bodies into the standard sizes and shapes (though without the strength needed to be stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallets that fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles. A Swap body is a standard freight container for road and rail transport A pallet (ˈpæːlɨt (sometimes called a skid) is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a Forklift, Pallet

Improved cargo security is also an important benefit of containerization. The cargo is not visible to the casual viewer and thus is less likely to be stolen and the doors of the containers are generally sealed so that tampering is more evident. This has reduced the "falling off the truck" syndrome that long plagued the shipping industry.

Use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge sizes in different countries. Rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the two parallel rails that make up a railway track. The majority of the rail networks in the world operate on a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) gauge track known as standard gauge but many countries (such as Russia, Finland, and Spain) use broader gauges while many other countries in Africa and South America use narrower gauges on their networks. The standard gauge (also named the Stephenson gauge after George Stephenson, or Normal gauge) is a widely-used Rail gauge. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Broad gauge Railways use a Rail gauge (distance between the rails greater than the Standard gauge of. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a A narrow gauge railway (or narrow gauge railroad) is a Railway that has a Track gauge narrower than the of Standard gauge railways The use of container trains in all these countries makes trans-shipment between different gauge trains easier.

Some of the largest global companies containerizing shipments today are Patrick Global Shipping, Bowen Exports, and Theiler & Sons Goods, LLC.

ISO standard

Dimensions and payloads

There are five common standard lengths, 20-ft (6. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit 1 m), 40-ft (12. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International 2 m), 45-ft (13. 7 m), 48-ft (14. 6 m), and 53-ft (16. 2 m). United States domestic standard containers are generally 48-ft and 53-ft (rail and truck). The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Container capacity is often expressed in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU, or sometimes teu). An equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard 20 ft (length) × 8 ft (width) container. As this is an approximate measure, the height of the box is not considered, for instance the 9 ft 6 in (2. 9 m) High cube and the 4-ft 3-in (1. 3 m) half height 20-ft containers are also called one TEU. Similarly, the 45-ft (13. 7 m) containers are also commonly designated as two TEU, although they are 45 and not 40 feet long. Two TEU are equivalent to one forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU).

The use of Imperial measurements to describe container size (TEU, FEU) reflects the fact that US Department of Defense played a major part in the development of containers. US customary units, also known in the United States as English units or Imperial units (in reference to the British Empire) (but see English The overwhelming need to have a standard size for containers, in order that they fit all ships, cranes, and trucks, and the length of time that the current container sizes have been in use, makes changing to an even metric size impractical.

The maximum gross mass for a 20-ft dry cargo container is 24,000kg, and for a 40-ft (including the 2. 87 m (9 ft 6 in) high cube container), it is 30,480 kg. Allowing for the tare mass of the container, the maximum payload mass is therefore reduced to approximately 21,600 kg for 20-ft, and 26,500 kg for 40-ft containers. Tare (tɛər weight sometimes called unladen weight is the weight of an empty vehicle or container ^[8]

Since November 2007 48-ft and 53-ft containers are used also for international ocean shipments. At the moment (April 2008) the only ocean company who offer such containers is APL^[9]. American President Lines Ltd (now simply referred to as APL) is the world's seventh-largest container transportation and Shipping company providing However, APL containers have slightly different sizes and weights than standard 48-ft and 53-ft containers (that are used in the US by rail and truck services).

Standard containers

The 40-ft container is the most popular container worldwide. Longer container types have become more common, especially in North America. Shorter containers (e. g. 10-ft containers) are rare.

The following table shows the weights and dimensions of the three most common types of containers worldwide. The weights and dimensions quoted below are averages, different manufacture series of the same type of container may vary slightly in actual size and weight.

20-ft, "heavy tested" containers are available for heavy goods (e. g. heavy machinery). These containers allow a maximum weight of 67,200 lb (30,480 kg), an empty weight of 5,290 lb (2,400 kg), and a net load of 61,910 lb (28,080 kg).

Types

Various container types are available for different needs:^[10]

• General purpose dry van for boxes, cartons, cases, sacks, bales, pallets, drums in standard, high or half height
• High cube palletwide containers for europallet compatibility
• Temperature controlled from −25 °C to +25 °C reefer
• Open top bulktainers for bulk minerals, heavy machinery
• Open side for loading oversize pallet
• Flushfolding flat-rack containers for heavy and bulky semi-finished goods, out of gauge cargo
• Platform or bolster for barrels and drums, crates, cable drums, out of gauge cargo, machinery, and processed timber
• Ventilated containers for organic products requiring ventilation
• Tank containers for bulk liquids and dangerous goods
• Rolling floor for difficult to handle cargo
• Gas bottle
• Generator
• Collapsible ISO
• Swapbody

Numbering

Main article: ISO 6346

Each container is allocated a reporting mark (ownership code) up to four characters long ending in the letter U, followed by a number up to 9 digits long. A pallet (ˈpæːlɨt (sometimes called a skid) is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a Forklift, Pallet A refrigerated container or reefer is a shipping container used in Intermodal freight transport that is refrigerated for the transportation of A dangerous good is any Solid, Liquid, or Gas that can harm people other living Organisms property or the environment ISO 6346 is an International standard for coding identification and marking of freight containers. A reporting mark is an identification assigned by the Association of American Railroads (AAR to rail carriers and other companies operating in North America.

Containers on the Port of Singapore

Air freight containers

A number of LD-designation Unit Load Device containers. The Port of Singapore refers to the collective facilities and terminals that conduct maritime trade handling functions in Singapore 's harbours and which A unit load device, or ULD is a Pallet or container used to load luggage freight and mail on Wide-body aircraft and specific Narrow-body aircraft

Main article: Unit Load Device

While major airlines use containers that are custom designed for their aircraft and associated ground handling equipment the IATA has created a set of standard container sizes, the LD-designation sizes are shown below:

LD-1, -2, -3, -4, and -8 are those most widely used, together with the rectangular M3 containers.

Containerization issues

Increased Efficiency

Although there have been few direct correlations made between containers and job losses, there are a number of texts associating job losses at least in part with containerization. A 1998 study of post-containerization employment at United States ports found that container cargo could be moved nearly twenty times faster than pre-container break bulk. ^[11] The new system of shipping also allowed for freight consolidating jobs to move from the waterfront to far inland somewhere, which also decreased the number of waterfront jobs.

On the other hand, containerisation has reduced waste and cargo costs and increased trade.

Hazards

Containers have been used to smuggle contraband. The English word contraband, reported in English since 1529 from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling" derived via Italian contrabando from Latin The vast majority of containers are never subjected to scrutiny due to the large number of containers in use. In recent years there have been increased concerns that containers might be used to transport terrorists or terrorist materials into a country undetected. Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion The U. S. government has advanced the Container Security Initiative (CSI), intended to ensure that high-risk cargo is examined or scanned, preferably at the port of departure. The Container Security Initiative ( CSI) was launched in 2002 by the U

Empty containers

Containers are intended to be used constantly, being loaded with a new cargo for a new destination soon after being emptied of the previous cargo. This is not always possible, and in some cases the cost of transporting an empty container to a place where it can be used is considered to be higher than the worth of the used container. This can result in large areas in ports and warehouses being occupied by empty containers left abandoned. However, empty containers may also be recycled in the form of shipping container architecture, or the steel content salvaged. Shipping container architecture is a form of Architecture utilizing Steel Shipping containers as structural element because of their inherent strength

Loss at sea

Containers occasionally fall from the ships that carry them, usually during storms; it is estimated that over 10,000 containers are lost at sea each year. ^[12] For instance, on November 30, 2006, a container washed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, along with thousands of bags of its cargo of Doritos Chips. North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States Doritos-iljpg|thumb|Mexican Nacho Flavored Doritos Israel (old style]] Doritos (dəˈriːɾoʊz is a brand of flavored Tortilla chips produced since 1966 by the American Containers lost at sea do not necessarily sink, but seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect. Freight from lost containers has provided oceanographers with unexpected opportunities to track global ocean currents, notably a cargo of Friendly Floatees. Oceanography (from the greek words Ωκεανός meaning Ocean and γράφω meaning to write also called oceanology or An ocean current is continuous directed movement of Ocean water. Friendly Floatees are ^[13]

In 2007 the International Chamber of Shipping and the World Shipping Council began work on a code of practice for container storage, including crew training on parametric rolling, safer stacking and marking of containers and security for above-deck cargo in heavy swell. The World Shipping Council ( WSC) is the peak Industry trade group representing general cargo and container Shipping lines The WSC is headquartered ^[14]

Double-stack containerization

Part of a United States double-stack container train loaded with 53 ft (16. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the 2 m) containers.

A railroad car with a 20' tank container and a conventional 20' container.

Most flatcars cannot carry more than one standard 40 foot container, but if the rail line has been built with sufficient vertical clearance, a double-stack car can accept a container and still leave enough clearance for another container on top. A flatcar (also flat car) is a piece of Railroad rolling stock that consists of an open flat deck on four or six wheels or a pair of trucks (US or A double-stack car, also called a stack car for short or a well car due to its shape is a type of Railroad car specially designed to carry intermodal This usually precludes operation of double-stacked wagons on lines with overhead electric wiring. However, the Betuweroute, which was planned with overhead wiring from the start, has been built with tunnels that do accommodate double-stacked wagons so as to keep the option to economically rebuild the route for double stacking in the future. The Betuweroute is a Double track Freight Railway from Rotterdam to Germany. The overhead wiring would then have to be changed to allow double stacking. ^[15] Lower than standard size containers are run double stacked under overhead wire in China. ^[16]

History

• // — Southern Pacific Railroad, with Malcom McLean, (SP) came up with the idea of the first double-stack intermodal car in 1977. Malcom Purcell McLean (born “Malcolm” but late in life he changed his given name to its historic traditional Scottish spelling ( November 14 1913 – May ^[4][17] SP then designed the first car with ACF Industries that same year. American Car and Foundry (often abbreviated as ACF) is a manufacturer of Railroad rolling stock and Locomotives. ^[18][19] At first it was slow to become an industry standard, then in 1984 American President Lines, started working with the SP and that same year, the first all "double stack" train left Los Angeles, California for South Kearny, New Jersey, under the name of "Stacktrain" rail service. American President Lines Ltd (now simply referred to as APL) is the world's seventh-largest container transportation and Shipping company providing Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West Kearny (ˈkɑɹni is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Along the way the train transfered from the SP to Conrail. Consolidated Rail Corporation, also known as Conrail, began operations on April 1, 1976 as a federally funded takeover of the major railroad It saved shippers money and now accounts for almost 70 percent of intermodal freight transport shipments in the United States, in part due to the generous vertical clearances used by U. Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in a container or Vehicle, using multiple modes of Transportation ( S. railroads. These line are diesel operated with no overhead wiring. Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit Electrical energy to Trams Trolleybuses or Trains at a distance from the
• — Double stacking is also used in Australia between Adelaide, Parkes, Perth and Darwin. Transport in Australia is a highly significant part of the infrastructure of the Australian economy since the distances are large and the country has a relatively low population Adelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth largest city in Australia with a Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. These are diesel only lines with no overhead wiring. Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit Electrical energy to Trams Trolleybuses or Trains at a distance from the
• — Double stacking is proposed in India for selected freight-only lines. These would be electrified lines with specially high overhead wiring. Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit Electrical energy to Trams Trolleybuses or Trains at a distance from the

Other uses for containers

Shipping container architecture is the use of containers as the basis for housing and other functional buildings for people, either as temporary housing or permanent, and either as a main building or as a cabin or workshop. Shipping container architecture is a form of Architecture utilizing Steel Shipping containers as structural element because of their inherent strength Containers can also be used as sheds or storage areas in industry and commerce.

Companies

Biggest ISO container companies

Other container systems

• Haus-zu-Haus (Germany)
• RACE (container) (Australia)
• Hellenic Container Transport Ltd (Greece)

International

Before the International Standard Container appeared, various countries had their own containers. Railways of Australia Container Express or RACE was a slightly wider version of the standard ISO shipping container able to take 2 Australia Standard These containers were generally small, and not able to be stacked one upon another. Clearly the idea of containerisation is not new, though the implementation of the ISO container was much better done.

Australia

• Less than Car Load (LCL) ^[21]

Germany

• Von Haus zu Haus (from House to House)

United Kingdom

• a small container

See also

References

Further reading

Economy

• Brian J. Cudahy (April 2006). Box Boats. Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2568-2.   — How Container Ships Changed the World
• Frank Broeze (2002). The Globalisation of the Oceans. International Maritime Economic History Association. ISBN 0-9730073-3-8.   — Containerisation from the 1950s to the Present
• Stewart Taggart (October 1999). The 20-Ton Packet. Wired Magazine. Wired is a full-color monthly American Magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993
• Port Industry Statistics. American Association of Port Authorities.
• Marc Levinson (2006). The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger is a book by Marc Levinson charting the historic rise of the Shipping Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-12324-1.  

Technique

• ASTM D 5728 Standard Practice for Securement of Cargo in Intermodal and Unimodal Surface Transport
• Transport Information Service : containers. ASTM International ( ASTM) originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials is an international Standards organization that develops and publishes German Insurance Association. — types, inspection, climate, stowage, securing, capacity
• Container Handbook. German Insurance Association (2006).
• Emergency Response Guidebook (PDF). Transport Canada, the U. S. Department of Transportation, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transport of Mexico (2004). — a guidebook for first responders during the initial phase of a dangerous goods/hazardous materials incident
• Container Dimensions and Capacity. Export 911.

In Fiction

• William Gibson (August 2007). Spook Country. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 0-399-15430-2.   — Novel set in U. S. , wherein mystery surrounding a containerized shipment serves as the MacGuffin