What Are Shipping Containers?

Answer 1

Though you probably don’t realize it, odds are almost everything you buy was carried and delivered through the use of shipping containers. Shipping containers were developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a means of making the transport of goods over long distances much more efficient. By making sure that all of these goods were shipped in containers of similar size, they could be carried further and faster by more machines. These containers also have standardized design features that help them to be strapped to the beds of trucks, to the interior of ships, and to the beds of railcars. This helps them to carry and protect the cargo on long distance transports, such as those from Chinese factories to American retailers and warehouses. It is estimated that the vast majority of the world’s cargo is stored in a shipping container at some point in time between production and sale.

Shipping containers can be purchased by anyone and are mass-manufactured to help ensure they aren’t too expensive. They aren’t cheap, however, costing a few thousand dollars each. Fortunately, shipping containers can last for decades, and as they have changed little in design since their inception, there is a steady supply of used shipping containers entering the market. Most companies do not need them, however companies who are shipping large goods or large quantities of goods over a very long distance will tend to use them. This is because shipping containers are extremely large, the standard size is in fact capable of holding two cars parked bumper to bumper. As such, small companies would have trouble using up all that space, and would waste money on shipping.

The abundance of shipping containers means that in many places there are many more containers than there are things to put in them. This is especially true in the United States, which receives more goods than it exports. As such, many people are looking for ways to recycle containers. Most of them are converted into scrap, however there have been attempts to turn them into low-cost mobile homes and even Swimming Pools, since they are sturdy and waterproof. There is even an effort to develop a “collapsible” container that could be sent back to China efficiently even when empty.