The Intermodal Containers

We must have all seen those massive metal boxes being transported by truck, or train, or if lucky - you might have seen an entire ship of these colorful containers being moved when you happen to pass by any industrial zone or a port area, but have you ever thought, what is so special about these containers that they are so widespread? 

This article exactly points to that question and aims to solve it, find out below to uncover the answer!

An Intermodal Container, is a massive metal box to us, or a standard shipping size box which is used by businesses to move all forms of cargo across the world from small toys to large cars (SUVS) which can all fit inside the boxes in various numbers. Some containers can fit packed cartons perfectly with a very high density due to their perfect shape, while others such as cars can only fit 1 due to its shape. 

Ever since the introduction of these containers, the world has entirely shifted to them, with minor exceptions of goods that cannot be ideally fitted into the containers such as crude oil, refined fuels, LNG, coal, iron ore, bauxite, grain, fertilizer, and even livestock. 

The boxes are a very recent invention, and in this article we discover why these took over the world and their benefits.

The earliest signs of a boxed method of transporting goods can be traced back as early as 1795, when Englishman Benjamin Outram’s coal containers used the container system, however for some reason this idea did not become vastly popular until after World War 2.

In 1956, the founding father of the container - Malcom Purcell McLean (1913–2001), an American businessman and trucking fleet owner unveiled the container, though he was not the authentic inventor, he can be accredited to making it widespread across the world.

McLean used to witness the extreme inefficiency of goods being manually loaded on trucks, trains and ships by hand which took several hours if not days that would bleed money for some businesses. With his new invention going from a raw concept to being formally recognized and designed for rough conditions, the cost and time required for goods transportation was significantly reduced. 

By the end of the 20th Century, the Intermodal Containers became a monopoly with a staggeting 90% of all cargo traffic going by containers.

In the time before the containers were invented, the ships used to be much smaller, which used to be a big task to load or unload either ways. Today, the size of cargo ships has nearly quadrupled as the intermodal container making the loading and unloading part much easier. 

In the recent decades, shipbuilding industries are receiving orders for larger and larger ships, with the current largest ship in active service being the MSC Irina and the MSC Loreto, which has a maximum capacity to hold a staggering 24,346 containers at maximum capacity. 

A majority of shipping companies have increased their size to the maximum possible, which is typically 399 Meters in length. The size is kept under control as ships need to pass through very narrow points in some routes such as the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal in Egypt.

The Intermodal has evolved significantly since its birth in 1956, however the world is still primarily ruled by 2 types, which are:

A. 20 Foot Container - Also known as TEU or twenty equivalent unit is the world standard in measurement of containers, such as the ship's capacity to hold containers measured in TEU. This is the smaller version with the following dimentions:

• Length: 6.058 m (19 ft 10.5 in) 

• Width: 2.438 m (8 ft) 

• Height: 2.591 m (8 ft 6 in)

B. 40 Foot Container - This is the elder brother of the TEU which is made for larger capacity. While TEU's continue to rule, FEU's or forty equivalent units now are gaining more attention as double the amount of cargo can be moved in the same amount of time and paperwork. The dimensions for the FEU are:

• Length: 12.192 m (40 ft)

• Width: 2.438 m (8 ft)

• Height: 2.591 m (8 ft 6 in)