I read somewhere that over 60% of world cargo is moved in containers!  That probably means about 90% of your home contents have already been in a 'Shipping Container' at least once. 

The modern container was designed in the 1950's and 60's as an 'Intermodal' means of transferring goods from a lorry, to a train, to a ship and so on.  Intermodal literally means compatible with different modes of transport.  Containers are now a standard size with width, height and length all being universal to allow handling equipment around the world to cater for the bulk movement of goods with minimum handling.

So where did it begin? 

In 1804 some 70 men and 18 tonnes of iron ore was carried five miles by an engine on wheels invented by the Cornishman, Richard Trevithick.  You could say the first container transport system was therefore in South Wales, UK, but the contents still had to be transferred by hand.  Unfortunately the track broke when the train reached 5 mph!

The railway age began in 1830 with Stevenson's Rocket winning a contest for the fastest steam engine.  The Liverpool and Manchester line became the first regular long-distance passenger service in the world, and in its first year 460,000 people travelled on it.

One hundred years later and Malcolm McLean, a farmers boy from Robeson County, North Carolina is accredited by many as the modern inventor of the ISO shipping container.  This guy built up his own trucking business and sold it for a reputed $6 million in 1955.  He used the proceeds to buy Pan Atlantic Tanker Company and renamed it Sea-Land.  This enabled him to introduce and experiment with an idea had 20 years earlier. 

Anyone who knows a truck driver will know someone who always knows better!  "If I were them, I wouldn't do it like that!", you would hear in a many a truck stop around the world today.  That's because truckers have time to think, spending hours a day mulling over their own thoughts at the wheel or waiting to be offloaded.  Many reckon that Malcolm McLean, after spending days waiting for the stevedores to load a bulk cargo ship came upon the solution that is the intermodal system.  With his truck driver's mentality he thought of the idea of using a crane to lift off a trailer (container) and place it on a ship, with a crane at the destination to unload the ship when it arrived.  No stevedores!  No manual handling giving quick loading/unloading and secure loads.

It was 26 April 1956 that McLean had converted an old tanker, to handle 58 containers. 'Ideal X' left Port Newark and headed down the East Coast of the US, and around Florida to Houston.  The first container ship sailing.

Even with the railways, the canals and the oceans carrying goods long distances, the container pods still need to be taken to be loaded or offloaded.  This can only be done by road - that's where the sideloader (or container lift vehicle) came into being.  In the last 30 years, New Zealand's Steelbro and Sweden's Hammar have been developing the means to lift on and lift off fully laden containers from a truck to the ground.  An operation which takes 10 minutes saves hours and provides a safe environment at your doorstep.

During this century, new techniques will be developed.  New, more manoeuvrable equipment will be rolled out to meet the needs of modern health and safety as well as efficiency.  Rail services WILL be used more for transferring goods across the UK from the docks to a nearby siding.  EwePack will be there to deliver the best intermodal transport solution.