It took a trucker***
It took a trucker to concieve of this simple solution
to a logistical problem. Once upon a time the trucker drove his loaded truck to the port where his time was consumed in lines awaiting longshoremen, warehouse workers to off load him onto a ship or warehouse. The load was open and vulnerable to pilferage and productivity was
compromised. Costs to cover losses to handling the goods too much were astromical.
Enter the shipping container. It is facinating how something so simple has made such an impact.
It revolutionized the shipping industry. The trucker no longer had so much time waiting to be unloaded. The goods were no longer vulnerable to pilferage at the dock and damage to shipments was decreased substantially.
2 comments:
The original "shipping container" made it's first widespread usage in the U.S. in the form of strong boxes used on stage coaches and safes aboard trains. Prior to this discover of how to quickly exchange cargo and protect it, the early sailiong ships used locked chests to transport valuables, however they did make it easier for the pirates to cart them away and bury them. Locked storage and shipping containers have been around since the invention of mankind in one form or another, I don't want some cowboy boot, snuff chewing, trucker wearing bid overalls taking credit for something that was already in use long before the big trucks that pour out carbon materials along our highways adding to the problem of global warming and distruction of our protyective shield, the ozone layer. Next you will try to convince us that some trucker invented refrigetatoion so produce would be deliverd in a "fresh" condition. I know this one trucker that was so far behind that he had to put a propane heater in his van to keep his load of portatoes from freezing. If you can keep a vban cool enough to keep ice cream frozen, why can't some trucker invented a heated van? I guess eventually someone will invent a way a trucker can change his wheel base on his trailer to adjust for loads. Even the Pony Express riders had containers that they could exchange at a full gallup, let's see some trucker try to unlaod his self container at full speed! this industry has a long way to go.
I probably can't count the number of containers I have loaded, lashed, and unlashed on Homer City dock. I heard about one such contain carrying a small vehicle on a barge(manual transmission) that had come out of gear and the e-brake cable snapped. I was told it wasn't pretty - every panel bashed.
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