Containerization

The intermodal shipping container is a large steel box that is built in a small number of standard sizes to allow transportation of goods by ship, truck, train, and even airplane. The container as simple of an object that it is has had a profound social and economic impact. The impact was first initially felt by actors in the shipping industry, particularly port workers and shipping companies. With any type of effective new technology the containers impact became much wider affecting not only the shipping industry, but local development and the global economy. During the early 1950’s the majority of goods transported on water over long distances were primarily shipped by what is called break bulk shipping in which goods were transported loose or packaged in boxes, bags, barrels, or other types of small containers depending on what type of good needed to be shipped. One of the major costs in break bulk shipping is the time and labor that was spent loading and unloading ships at portside. The problem was always to try to download the goods with little to no damage if possible. One analysis in the late 1950s concluded that 60-75% of the cost of transporting cargo by sea was made up of portside costs, while another study of a specific ship voyage found cargo handling made up about 37% of total costs (Levinson, 2006). These costs not only included labor, but the loss of time and damage including theft to cargo waiting to be loaded onto a ship while other goods were being unloaded. A cargo ship typically spent as much time in port being loaded and unloaded as it did sailing. One of the exceptions was when a ship carried only one single type of good, such as oil. For such cases both ships and port facilities had been specialized to allow more rapid loading and unloading at a very much lower cost. This specialized bulk shipping had become industrialized, in contrast to break bulk shipping of more diverse or finished goods, the loading/unloading of which had changed

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