In 1795, Bejamin Outram opened the Little Eaton Gangway upon which coal was carried in wagons built at his Butterley Ironworks. The horse-drawn wheeled wagons on the Gangway took the form of Containers, which, loaded with coal, could be transhipped from canal barges on the Derby Canal which Outram had also promoted. By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one such. "Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where they were transferred to horse drawn carts by crane."Originally used for moving coal on and off barges, "loose boxes" were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal. By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones. The early 1900s saw the adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail. The US government used small standard-sized containers (steel boxes) during the Second World War, which proved an efficient means of unloading and distributing supplies. (Refer Wikipedia)
Standardisation Efforts:
| Corner Fittings |
While the above development of containers did hold promise due to secure and dry storage conditions coupled with higher shelf life and lower damages, the entire system of ships and the ports including cargo handling mechanisms needed a change. The use of containers spread rapidly but inconsistent sizes and corner fittings created major problems across the globe. Quoting Vincent Grey, the chairman of ISO TC104 during the early containerisation years: "What emerged from the ISO Committee were Standard Container sizes that did not match either Sea-Land's or Matson's boxes. The corner fittings were different from theirs and so were the container ratings, the test methods, the marking system, the chassis securing method, and so forth. This was not a wilful effort to isolate the two pioneering companies but was the result of broadening the scope of operations within which the containers would have to survive. The emergence of an ISO Container depended on an amalgamation of service environments of a world-wide distribution system.” The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) recommended standards as follows:
§ R-668 defined the terminology, dimensions and ratings (January -1968)
§ R-790 defined the identification markings (July -1968)
§
§ R-1897 set out the minimum internal dimensions of general purpose freight containers (October-1970)
Political Issues:
The subject of container standardisation was first discussed at a UN/IMCO Conference in Geneva, 1972. In 1974, the UNCTAD formed an Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Group on Container Standards. It was to prepare a Convention on International Multimodal Transport. The report of the Ad Hoc group contained some very critical comments about ISO TC104's manner of operating. It objected to the larger dimensions, which were recurrently discussed at ISO meetings. The developing countries (Group of 77 or G-77) criticised the technical committee for failing to take their interests into account. They feared that larger containers would make earlier investments obsolete. Their criticism further pertained to problems of container handling in ports, to the special characteristics of the commodities exported by developing countries, to the infrastructural alterations which larger container dimensions required, and to procedural faux pas of TC104 (i.e. TC104 meetings were exclusively held in industrial countries and the experts, which drafted container standards, also came from these countries). The developing countries pleaded for universal adherence and application of ISO standards and objected to the voluntary nature of standardisation. Their idea was to have ISO standards universally adopted by making them part of the Convention on International Multimodal Transport. Defendants of the ISO system reiterated that standards are seldom universally applicable. The acceptance of ISO standards should be based on their technical merits and they should remain up to date. Each country should choose its own pace of change (Miyamoto, 1978).
Palletised Transport Vs Containers:
The Scandinavian countries pursued palletised transportation as against the containerisation. Olsen lines, a Norwegian Shipping Company defended the above with the following argument: “With the pallet as an integral part of the packing for internal transport within the factory, we have found it expedient to use it as the basis for the planning of our transport routines as well, instead of making it necessary to repack or to subject it to additional packing in the form of containers." Combination of pallet and containerisation resulted in wastage of space in the container and hence the idea failed.
Current Container Standards:
There are five common standard lengths, 20-ft (6.1 m), 40-ft (12.2 m), 45-ft (13.7 m), 48-ft (14.6 m), and 53-ft (16.2 m). United States domestic standard containers are generally 48 ft (15 m) and 53-ft (rail and truck). Container capacity is often expressed in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU, or sometimes teu).
An equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard 20 ft (length) × 8 ft (width) container. As this is an approximate measure, the height of the box is not considered, for instance the 9 ft 6 in (2.9 m) High cube and the 4-ft 3-in (1.3 m) half height 20 ft (6.1 m) containers are also called one TEU. Similarly, the 45-ft (13.7 m) containers are also commonly designated as two TEU, although they are 45 and not 40 feet (12 m) long. Two TEU are equivalent to one forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU).
An equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard 20 ft (length) × 8 ft (width) container. As this is an approximate measure, the height of the box is not considered, for instance the 9 ft 6 in (2.9 m) High cube and the 4-ft 3-in (1.3 m) half height 20 ft (6.1 m) containers are also called one TEU. Similarly, the 45-ft (13.7 m) containers are also commonly designated as two TEU, although they are 45 and not 40 feet (12 m) long. Two TEU are equivalent to one forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU).
Container Numbering, FCL, LCL:
Each container is allocated a reporting mark (ownership code) up to four characters long ending in the letter U, followed by a number up to 9 digits long.
A full container load (FCL) is an ISO standard container that is loaded and unloaded under the risk and account of one shipper and only one consignee. In practice, it means that the whole container is intended for one consignee. FCL container shipment tends to have lower freight rates than an equivalent weight of cargo in bulk. FCL is intended to designate a container loaded to its allowable maximum weight or volume, but FCL in practice on ocean freight does not always mean a full payload or capacity.
LCL is "a quantity of cargo less than that required for the application of a carload rate. A quantity of cargo less than that fills the visible or rated capacity of an inter-modal container." also can be defined as "a consignment of cargo which is inefficient to fill a shipping container. It is grouped with other consignments for the same destination in a container at a container freight station".
Types of Containers:
Various container types are available for different needs:
· General purpose dry van for boxes, cartons, cases, sacks, bales, pallets, drums in standard, high or half height
· High cube palletwide containers for europallet compatibility
· Temperature controlled from −25 °C to +25 °C reefer
· Open top bulktainers for bulk minerals, heavy machinery
· Open side for loading oversize pallet
· Flushfolding flat-rack containers for heavy and bulky semi-finished goods, out of gauge cargo
· Platform or bolster for barrels and drums, crates, cable drums, out of gauge cargo, machinery, and processed timber
· Ventilated containers for organic products requiring ventilation
· Tank containers for bulk liquids and dangerous goods
· Rolling floor for difficult to handle cargo
· Gas bottle
· Generator
· Collapsible ISO container
· Swapbody
Containerization issues:
1. Increased Efficiency leading to potential job losses:
A 1998 study of post-containerization employment at United States ports found that container cargo could be moved nearly twenty times faster than pre-container break bulk. The new system of shipping also allowed for freight consolidating jobs to move from the waterfront to far inland somewhere, which also decreased the number of waterfront-jobs.
2. Terrorist & Smuggling Hazards:
Containers have been used to smuggle contraband. The vast majority of containers are never subjected to scrutiny due to the large number of containers in use. In recent years there have been increased concerns that containers might be used to transport terrorists or terrorist materials into a country undetected. The U.S. government has advanced the Container Security Initiative (CSI), intended to ensure that high-risk cargo is examined or scanned, preferably at the port of departure.
3. Reuse / Recycling Empty containers
Containers are intended to be used constantly, being loaded with a new cargo for a new destination soon after being emptied of the previous cargo. This is not always possible, and in some cases the cost of transporting an empty container to a place where it can be used is considered to be higher than the worth of the used container. This can result in large areas in ports and warehouses being occupied by empty containers left abandoned. However, empty containers may also be recycled in the form of shipping container architecture, or the steel content salvaged.
4. Loss at sea
Containers occasionally fall from the ships that carry them, usually during storms; it is estimated that over 10,000 containers are lost at sea each year. For instance, on November 30, 2006, a container washed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, along with thousands of bags of its cargo of tortilla chips. Containers lost at sea do not necessarily sink, but seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect. Freight from lost containers has provided oceanographers with unexpected opportunities to track global ocean currents, notably a cargo of Friendly Floatees.
BBC Container Tracking Project
The Box or BBC Box (BIC code: NYKU8210506) is a single ISO intermodal container that started to be tracked by BBC News in September 2008. The intention was to track the container for a period of one year, in a project to study international trade and globalization. The Box was fitted with tracking equipment and it started off empty, travelling to its first destination under the BBC branding. The first cargo was a consignment of whisky from a Glasgow-based bottling plant to Shanghai, China. On arrival in Shanghai, the Box was met and reported on by British school pupils on a trip to China. The voyage of this container was as follows:
Route; 1: Port of Southampton→ 2:Greenock→ 3:Southampton→ 4:Port of Singapore→ 5:Port of Shanghai→ 6:Port of Los Angeles→ 7:Port of New Jersey→ 8:Santos, Brazil→ 9:Hong Kong→ 10:Port of Yokohama→ 11:Laem Chabang, Thailand→ 12:Southampton
1. Empty Container - From Southampton Maritime, England to a "dry port" at Coatbridge, Scotland (by rail, behind Freightliner 66594 NYK Spirit of Kyoto) to Paisley, Scotland (by road)
2. Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky – From Paisley via Greenock, Scotland (by road) via Port of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Port of Southampton (on board Vega Stockholm) via Suez Canal and Gulf of Aden: reloaded at Port of Singapore, to Port of Shanghai China (on board Copenhagen Express)
3. Tape Measures, Cosmetics, gardening products for “Big Lots” - From Port of Shanghai via Japan and Pacific Ocean to Port of Los Angeles, United States (on board NYK Star Light) via New Jersey (by rail) to Pennsylvania (by road)
4. Ink / Spearmint flavouring / additives / polyester fibre – From New York (on board Iwato IMO9106807) to Santos, Brazil (by sea).
5. Monosodium glutamate and auto parts – From Santos via Cape of Good Hope and Singapore (on board Aquitania, IMO 9178288), reloaded at Port of Hongkong to Port of Yokohoma Japan (on board NYK Clara, IMO9355408)
6. Various Consolidated cargo - From Yokohoma (on board Ratana Thida/230, IMO 9117129) to Laem Chabang, Thailand
7. Tinned catfood – From Lat Krabang, Bangkok, Thailand to Southampton, UK.
Summary:
References: Wikipedia, The Standardised Container – Gateway technologies in Cargo Transportation (TM Egyedi), “The Box that changed the World” by Professor Arthur Donovan)
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