The History of the Container for the Transportation of Goods
The inventor of the container and the father of containerization is the American Malcolm McLean. It is considered that he was watching workers unloading the car; they were picking up sacks of cotton and carrying on the board of the vessel. It was a very time-consuming and grievously slow process. The truck driver and owner of a small transport company, McLean, had an idea of carrying all at once from the truck. However, the gap between the idea and the realization was of nineteen years.
The beginning of containerization was originated by Malcolm McLean. McLean proposed an integrated solution; he invented not only the container but the container ship and container platform, but his most significant innovation was the creation of the working model of the container transportation (Ham & Rijsenbrij, 2012). To the time when McLean started the implementation of these inventions, his transportation company had 37 terminals. In addition, he purchased the shipping company Pan-Atlantic Steamship for $7 million (Ham & Rijsenbrij, 2012).
McLean designed the steel container, which one may compactly place on the ship. Also, he converted a former oil tanker “Ideal X” to a container ship and has developed the port facility for land transportation. Malcolm McLean overcame numerous bureaucratic obstacles and offered his services of the container carriage. Under the terms of the contract with the Military Sea Transportation Service of the USA, company SeaLand pledged to deliver the containers directly to the place of deployment of military units during the Vietnam War. Monthly SeaLand was sending 1200 containers to Vietnam.
Finally, less than 15 years of its existence, SeaLand has become the leading transportation and shipping company in the world; it had 27 thousands of containers, 36 container ships, and representations in more than 30 leading ports of the world (Ham & Rijsenbrij, 2012). The globalization of the world economy has become another powerful stimulation in the development of container transportation. In 1969, SeaLand was sold for 530 million dollars of R. J. Reynolds Industries, Inc., and in 1999, it was purchased by the Danish giant Maersk. The new company was named Maersk Sealand, later changed to Maersk Line (Ham & Rijsenbrij, 2012).
The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Containerization
The containerization is advantageous for a number of reasons:
- It preserves cargo;
- There is no need to reload the goods while changing the carriers;
- It requires fewer expenses for the package of products;
- It accelerates the process of loading and unloading operations;
- It reduces the terms of delivery of cargoes;
- It simplifies the process of cargo delivery to the consignee’s warehouse;
- It simplifies and unifies transport documentation and forwarding operations;
- It provides more opportunities for the computerization of the management of the delivery process.
The main drawback of containerization is the necessity of the restoration of empty containers that have failed to take a return cargo. On average, they account for 15% of the total number of containers carried by the vessel. Obviously, it causes additional expenses. However, the advantages far exceed the disadvantages, and it is the main reason for the triumph of the containerization.
The Future of the Containerization
Today, more than 90 % of the world’s general cargo is carried in containers (Ham & Rijsenbrij, 2012). In recent decades, container transportation has gained a reputation as the most secure and convenient method of goods delivery in various fields. Transportation of transit cargoes in containers is one of the most promising trends in the global economy, trade, and transport industry. It is the most technologically advanced method of transportation, and it has a great future.
The dynamics of transportation of cargoes by sea transport is one more confirmation of this fact. The long-term outlook for the container shipping industry remains generally positive, taking into account the continuing increase in the level of containerization in trade.
Reference
Ham, H., & Rijsenbrij, J. (2012). Development of Containerization. Amsterdam: IOS Press.