How business has benefited from this single invention

Most people do not understand or recognize the importance of the humble shipping container. Before container shipping was adopted globally, all goods were manually loaded into sacks, barrels and wood crates that were loaded directly onto cargo ships – this is called bulk shipping. 

Unloading

With this method, it can take up to 3 weeks to unload and load each vessel! The current gigantic container ships can be loaded and unloaded in 24 hours thanks to the arrival of the sea container, also known as intermodal freight containers. But who had the fantastic idea to invent the container? How has a global logistics company profited from this silent revolution?

McLean

Many people think that the shipping container was invented in China… which is not true. Indeed, the first shipping container was invented and patented in 1956 by American Malcolm McLean. Not a sailor, but a truck driver, McLean owned the largest truck fleet in the South of the US.

Malcolm Purcell McLean born 1913 in North Carolina, was an American entrepreneur, often referred to as “the father of containerization”.

He saved his money and bought his first truck in 1934. During those years, all cargo was loaded and unloaded in wooden boxes of odd dimensions. The process was very slow and certainly not standardized. After observing this slow and inefficient process for 20 years, he finally decided to step back and develop a standardized method for loading goods from trucks to ships and warehouses. 

In 1956, he developed the metal shipping container, which replaced the traditional method of handling dry goods and revolutionized the transportation of goods and cargo around the world. He then founded Sea-Land Service, one of the pioneers in intermodal freight transport.

Shipping

Malcolm then bought the Pan Atlantic Tanker Company, which owned a group of quite rusty tankers. He renamed the new company Sea-Land Shipping. This shipping company finally allowed him to experiment with better ways to load and unload trucks and ships. And did you know this company is currently a subsidiary of the MAERSK Group, known for its big light blue container ships?

After many experiments, the final design is what we now know as a sea container. Ultra strong, uniform, theft proof and easy to load, unload, truck, rail, ship and safe to store. 

Standardization

MacLean used an American-born container size of 35 feet long. Because containers were now also being used in Asia and Europe, the need arose for a more universal measure of length. During tumultuous international meetings, everyone had by now developed their own sizes. But the standard size eventually became: 20x8x8 feet. (=1 TEU). Weights, precise construction of the containers, storage order in the holds of the ships, etc. were also determined.

Because loading and unloading was so much faster and more organized, the cost of loading the freight was reduced by more than 90%. Thus, the cost of the products you sell or buy is significantly reduced thanks to the shipping container. Malcolm McLean’s invention of the shipping container certainly changed the world and with it the lives of all people on the planet.