History of Shipping Containers
Many people think the Shipping Container was invented in China -- not true. The first shipping container was invented and patented in 1956 by an American named Malcolm Mc Lean.
fleet in the South and the fifth largest trucking company in all theUnited States. He saved his money
Mc Lean was not an ocean shipper, but was a trucker and by 1956 he owned the largest trucking After observing this slow and inefficient process for 20 years, he finally decided to step back and and boughthis first truck in 1934. During those years all cargo wasloaded and unloaded in odd sized wooden crates. The process was very slow and certainly not standardized.
He re-named the new shipping company Sea-Land Shipping. With this shipping company he could develop some standardized way of loading cargo from trucks to ships and warehouses.
Malcolm then purchased Pan Atlantic Tanker Company, which owned a bunch of fairly rusted tankers. theft resistant, stackable, easy to load, unload, truck, rail, ship, and certainly store.finally experiment with better ways to load and un-load trucks and ships. After many experiments, his final design is what we know now as the Shipping Container. ...super strong, uniform design,
So in fact, although Mc Lean had the first concept and working system in 1956, it was the US militaryMatson, on the West coast of the US also attempted the container concept, but failed sorely. The final boost to standardize Mc Lean's concept was the US Navy and by the early 70's were globally accepted.who finally did what was necessary to make the ISO shipping container accepted by every shipping
In 1956, loose cargo cost $5.86 per ton to load. Using an ISO shipping container, line and every country of the world.
Because it was so much faster and organized to load-unload, the costof loading freight was reduced by more than 90%. Thus, the cost of products you sell or buy were reduced greatly because of the invention and standardization of the ISO shipping container.
the cost was reduced to only .16 cents per ton.
The shipping container invention of Malcolm Mc Lean has certainly changed the world and thus, it has
changed the lives of every human on the planet.
There were many who had similar concepts previously but McLean was simply the guy who really made
the "standardized container" concept work globally.
A few of his awards and recognitions:
- In 2000 he was awarded "Man Of The Century" by the International Maritime Hall of Fame, and an
honorary Degree by the Merchant Marine Academy.
- Awarded Patent 2,853,968 by the US Patent office in 1958 which was recognized globally.
- Honored by Fortune Magazine and American Heritage Magazine.
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