A shipping container, also called a container, freight container, intermodal container, ISO container, hi-cube container, box, conex box, or sea can, is a steel box that can be used more than once to move goods safely and efficiently in an intermodal freight transport system.
When it comes to SCF containers, there are a lot of different sizes and options. For example, there are containers for hanging clothes, half-height containers, bulk shift containers, and tanks. All of these have their uses, but they are very specific and would be better covered in another article. For now, we will focus on GP (general purpose) container shipping and the more common special equipment, such as reefer containers, open top containers, and flat rack containers.
How shipping containers came to be
Shipping containers have been used in modern container shipping for more than 50 years. From almost the first trip, mobile containers were used more and more, and people got used to them. In just five short decades, container ships will carry more than half of all ocean freight.
Even though moving things in boxes or containers wasn’t new, the modern intermodal container didn’t come about until Malcolm P. McLean and Keith Tantlinger came up with the idea that it would be much easier and faster to have one container that could be lifted from a truck and put on a ship without having to empty its contents first. Containers could then be moved easily between trucks, trains, and ships, making the whole logistics process much more efficient.
Advantages of shipping in containers
One of the most important benefits of container shipping is that it makes things run more smoothly. A big container ship could carry more than 200,000 sea containers in one year, or about 8,000 on one trip. To move the same amount of freight, it would take hundreds of planes and fleets of trucks. Using ships with higher ratings can cut CO2 emissions by a lot over the course of a trip.
There are shipping containers to buy, Since the imports more shipping containers than it exports, there is always a good supply of extra shipping containers for sale. Before you buy a shipping container, you should think about the following.
Do you want to send your shipping container to another country? If so, you need to make sure that the container is certified, has a plate, and follows ISO container rules.
Are you using it to store something?
Shipping containers can be a great alternative to building storage units that are just as safe. Shipping containers used for storage don’t have to follow the same ISO shipping standards, so they can be changed in different ways to fit your needs.
