Ocean Shipping Containers Explained
Starting a new business that gets a large part of its inventory from overseas? In that case, you will need to familiarize yourself with all aspects of shipping by sea, the most common method of overseas transport. In particular, you will need to learn about one of the most important components of shipping products by sea: the ocean shipping container. Here is a closer look at this important topic.
History
The ocean shipping container was the idea of a man named Malcom McLean, who was the owner of a trucking company. McLean found it very annoying that is took a long time to load containers from his trucks onto ships for transport overseas. He realized that one of the reasons it took so long was that the containers came in a wide range of shapes and sizes which made loading and unloading them onto ships awkward and time-consuming.
McLean decided that the way to fix this problem was to create containers that come in standardized sizes. A key advantage of using containers of uniform size was that dock workers could easily handle them and, also, the containers could be stacked on top of one another quickly, which cut down on the loading time. McLean's innovations, which included various supporting infrastructure for the containers in addition to the standardized container themselves, spread throughout the shipping industry quickly and revolutionized the transportation of goods by ship.
Types
Several types of ocean shipping containers are currently in use. The two common dimensions for shipping containers are 20 feet and 40 feet. The stand height for a container is between 7 feet, 6 inches and just over 7 feet, 10 inches. The standard width is just over 7 feet, 8 inches. If you have goods that need to be refrigerated during transport, there are refrigerated containers available. Also, although most containers have roofs, some products need to be loaded through the top of the container. For these products, open-top shipping containers are used.
Full Container Load or Less Container Load
When starting a new business, you may not need to use all of the space in a shipping container. Fortunately, you do not have to pay for a full container load (FCL) in this instance. You can purchase space on a shipping container even if your goods do not fill the container. This is called a less container load (LCL) and can save you a significant amount of money.
To learn more, contact a company that offers ocean containers.