By Karen Takle Quinn, Ph.D.
With his book The Box (Princeton University Press, 2006), Marc Levinson delivers an engrossing account of how the modern shipping container has revolutionized the flow of goods around the world. As Levinson notes, people now take for granted their access to an enormous selection of goods from all over the world. This unglamorous, little-noticed, and some call “ugly” shipping container has changed the world in more ways than most of us realize. I might never have read this fascinating story, if it had not been for its inclusion in Business Week best 2006 list.
Levinson delivers a detailed and engaging account of how this box came to be. Of particular note is his chronicle of Malcolm P. McLean, a North Carolina truck driver, who 50 years ago, after building a freight empire, gambled everything to create the first company with containerized ships. Levinson explains that today on the wharfs across the world rows of enormous cranes go into action almost as soon as an arriving ship ties up. These cranes are huge steel structures, some more than 200 feet high and often weighing millions pounds. They are positioned so that several truck lanes and even trains can pass underneath. These cranes move forward riding on rails that run parallel to the sides of the ships. Each crane extends above the dock far enough to span the width of the ship. It is said that some of these ships may be wider than the Panama Canal. The trucks, trains, and other vehicles with incoming containers are driven underneath the appropriate stacking crane. The crane picks up containers and moves them to their appropriate destination.
Back long before the Second World War, and even after it ended, brawny longshoremen carried bags of goods, i.e. coffee, on their shoulders, but they are nowhere to be seen today. My uncle went to sea at the tender age of 13 or 14, learning his profession onboard sailing ships. Later he became the captain of motorized ships that combined cargo and passengers sailing from New York around South America to San Francisco. The shipping industry first began with sailing ships, then moved up to more powerful and faster motorized vessels. The biggest expense in this worldwide transfer of goods process was loading cargo from land transporters to the ships at the port of departure and then unloading selected cargo to motorized or animal-driven vehicles at the other end of the ocean voyage.
Today the intricate and integrated actions of the cranes and other equipment required to load and unload a vessel are programmed into the computers long before the ship arrives. The computer applications determine which vehicle should be summoned to the terminal at what time in order to load or pick up the cargo. Everyday in every major port in the world thousands of containers arrive and depart by truck, train or other means. The result of all this hectic activity is a nearly seamless system for shipping goods around the world.
“The Trucker” chapter begins by telling the story of how Malcolm Purcell McLean, a visionary North Carolina trucking entrepreneur, and others were able to bring down significantly the cost and time of loading and unloading cargo. This fundamental insight was radical in the 1950s but is common practice today. The paradigm shift occurred as a result of a trucker’s dream. Some might say that the shipping industry is now more focused on moving cargo than on sailing ships. This shift began with a ship that was loaded in Newark with one crane placing a container onboard every seven minutes. In April 1956, this rather small ship was loaded in less than 8 hours. Previously ships could be anchored in port for days or weeks while their cargo was hand loaded. McLean’s persistence in pushing containerization was vital in the 1960’s to the USA war efforts in Vietnam. In the winter of 1965, there was a rapid build-up of the USA military forces in Vietnam. This build-up may have created the greatest logistical mess in the history of the US Armed Forces. The greatest single expense in pre-container days was the loading and unloading of vessels.
Just as computer technologies have revolutionized the flow of information, the shipping container has revolutionized the production, manufacture, marketing, international flow and availability of goods. According to many “the box” has changed all of our lives, and some suggest that its impact is as influential as the Internet with its email, websites, blogs, and other spin-offs. There is much to be learned, appreciated, and pondered from reading this well written and well-documented volume.
Karen Takle Quinn, Ph.D. can be reached at [email protected]
© 2007, Karen Takle Quinn, Ph.D.
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