The Shipping Container

Before nineteen fifty-six, cargo handling was chaotic and profoundly inefficient everywhere. Stevedores spent weeks loading goods laboriously. Ship turnaround stretched to thirty days consistently. Labor represented forty to sixty percent of total costs. Malcolm McLean, a trucking owner, became obsessed with containerization. Instead of unloading from trucks onto ships, what if the truck itself became the container? He designed a standardized aluminum box fitting onto rail cars, trucks, and ships. The box locked sealed and moved without opening contents. Cargo costs dropped ninety-seven percent dramatically. Ship turnaround port time fell from thirty days to three days.