Evolution of Container Shipping essays

Evolution of Container Shipping essays This report will provide information about containers and the shipment of containers in the past and present. It will tell how the idea of shipping goods in containers came about and how those ideas have progressed into what is now known as the container fleet of today. It will explain what the first containers were like and what the containers of this modern industry are like now. It will also look into the future of shipping with containers. This report shall completely inform and even interest the layman person in the modernization of container shipping. Firstly is to explain exactly what containers are. They are large boxes that actually come in a few sizes, but they all have a similar rectangular shape. The most common sizes of todays containers are 8 feet wide, 8 feet high and either 20 feet or 40 feet long. Others may be 24 feet, 28 feet, 44 feet or 48 feet long and there are, in addition, many other sizes than those. Despite all of their different sizes, one thing they do all have in common is how they are measured. They are all measured in TEUs. TEU stands for Twentyfoot Equivalent Unit. It is a measurement of the containers volume. One very important aspect about these large boxes is that they need to be made strong. This is so they can withstand rough weather at sea aboard a ship while stacked on top of one another. The bottom container in some stacks needs to support up to ten containers while on land as well. They need to be able to last for about 8 to 20 years, so they are generally made out of steel or aluminum. Since th ese containers spend much of their time at sea and are always outdoors, they need to be waterproof. These are a few physical attributes that help explain what containers may look like. There a few different types of containers, but they all meet the dimensions and requirements mentioned in the above paragraph. The first and most common is the metal box container with just a layer of dunn...