Misplaced Pages

#632367

78-793: Embankment Pier is a pier on the River Thames in City of Westminster , London . It is located on the north bank of the river, immediately next to the Hungerford Bridge and directly outside the river entrance to Embankment Underground station . It is also conveniently close to Charing Cross railway station . The Embankment Pier is a departure point for the Thames River Sightseeing cruise, which operates between Westminster Pier and Greenwich Pier. Boat services go east (downriver) to Tower Bridge Quay for exploring

156-636: A 60-metre (200 ft) high bungee jump over the North Sea waves. The present pier is a successor of an earlier pier, which was completed in 1901 but in 1943 destroyed by the German occupation forces. The first recorded pier in England was Ryde Pier , opened in 1814 on the Isle of Wight , as a landing stage to allow ferries to and from the mainland to berth. It is still used for this purpose today. It also had

234-652: A U.S. patent in 1938 on their method of securing trailers to a flatcars using chains and turnbuckles. Other components included wheel chocks and ramps for loading and unloading the trailers from the flatcars. By 1953, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy , the Chicago and Eastern Illinois , and the Southern Pacific railroads had joined the innovation. Most of the rail cars used were surplus flatcars equipped with new decks. By 1955, an additional 25 railroads had begun some form of piggyback trailer service. During WWII,

312-565: A capacity of 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) in 890 cubic feet (25 m ), and a second measured 20 ft 0 in (6.10 m) by 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m) by 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m), with a capacity of 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) in 1,000 cubic feet (28 m ). In November 1932, in Enola, PA , the first container terminal in the world was opened by the Pennsylvania Railroad . The Fitch hooking system

390-481: A capacity of 5,500 kg (12,100 lb), and up to 3.1 by 2.3 by 2 metres (10 ft 2 in × 7 ft 6 + 1 ⁄ 2  in × 6 ft 6 + 3 ⁄ 4  in) size. This became the first post World War II European railway standard UIC 590, known as "pa-Behälter." It was implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. With

468-447: A dedicated double-stack container train service between Los Angeles and Chicago, transport volumes increased rapidly. Containerization greatly reduced the expense of international trade and increased its speed, especially of consumer goods and commodities. It also dramatically changed the character of port cities worldwide. Prior to highly mechanized container transfers, crews of 20 to 22 longshoremen would pack individual cargoes into

546-616: A leased share of the global ocean container fleet reaching 54% by 2020. In 2021, the average time to unload a container in Asia was 27 seconds, the average time in Northern Europe was 46 seconds, and the average time in North America was 76 seconds. There are five common standard lengths: US domestic standard containers are generally 48 ft (14.63 m) and 53 ft (16.15 m) (rail and truck). Container capacity

624-642: A leisure function in the past, with the pier head once containing a pavilion, and there are still refreshment facilities today. The oldest cast iron pier in the world is Town Pier, Gravesend , in Kent , which opened in 1834. However, it is not recognised by the National Piers Society as being a seaside pier. Following the building of the world's first seaside pier at Ryde, the pier became fashionable at seaside resorts in England and Wales during

702-475: A lengthy and complex series of compromises among international shipping companies, European railroads, US railroads, and US trucking companies. Everyone had to sacrifice something. For example, to McLean's frustration, Sea-Land's 35-foot container was not adopted as one of the standard container sizes. In the end, four important ISO ( International Organization for Standardization ) recommendations standardized containerization globally: Based on these standards,

780-666: A linear littoral quayside, and such piers are usually much shorter. Typically each pier would carry a single transit shed the length of the pier, with ships berthing bow or stern in to the shore. Some major ports consisted of large numbers of such piers lining the foreshore, classic examples being the Hudson River frontage of New York , or the Embarcadero in San Francisco . The advent of container shipping , with its need for large container handling spaces adjacent to

858-477: A new pier was built in 1933. It remained till the present day, but was partially transformed and modernized in 1999–2004. In Nieuwpoort, Belgium there is a pleasure pier on both sides of the river IJzer . Scheveningen , the coastal resort town of The Hague , boasts the largest pier in the Netherlands , completed in 1961. A crane, built on top of the pier's panorama tower, provides the opportunity to make

SECTION 10

#1732787090633

936-566: A pier has two decks. Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier in Galveston , Texas has a roller coaster, 15 rides, carnival games and souvenir shops. Early pleasure piers were of complete timber construction, as was with Margate which opened in 1824. The first iron and timber built pleasure pier Margate Jetty , opened in 1855. Margate pier was wrecked by a storm in January 1978 and not repaired. The longest iron pleasure pier still remaining

1014-456: A pier presents a set of different circumstances to fishing from the shore or beach, as you do not need to cast out into the deeper water. This being the case there are specific fishing rigs that have been created specifically for pier fishing which allow for the direct access to deeper water. In Blankenberge a first pleasure pier was built in 1894. After its destruction in the World War I ,

1092-443: A popular way to ship private cars and other vehicles overseas using 20- or 40-foot containers. Unlike roll-on/roll-off vehicle shipping, personal effects can be loaded into the container with the vehicle, allowing easy international relocation. In July, 2020, The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), a non-profit group established to further digitalisation of container shipping technology standards, published standards for

1170-542: A refitted tanker ship, the SS ; Ideal X , and sailed them from Newark, New Jersey to Houston, Texas . Independently of the events in Canada, McLean had the idea of using large containers that never opened in transit and that were transferable on an intermodal basis, among trucks, ships, and railroad cars. McLean had initially favored the construction of "trailerships"—taking trailers from large trucks and stowing them in

1248-432: A ship's cargo hold. This method of stowage, referred to as roll-on/roll-off , was not adopted because of the large waste in potential cargo space on board the vessel, known as broken stowage . Instead, McLean modified his original concept into loading just the containers, not the chassis, onto the ship; hence the designation "container ship" or "box" ship. (See also pantechnicon van and trolley and lift van .) During

1326-543: A smaller, half-size unit of 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) long, 4 ft 3 in (1.30 m) wide and 6 ft 10 + 1 ⁄ 2  in (2.10 m) high. CONEXes could be stacked three high, and protected their contents from the elements. The first major shipment of CONEXes, containing engineering supplies and spare parts, was made by rail from the Columbus General Depot in Georgia to

1404-402: A vehicle from the factory and taken to a port warehouse where they would be offloaded and stored awaiting the next vessel. When the vessel arrived, they would be moved to the side of the ship along with other cargo to be lowered or carried into the hold and packed by dock workers. The ship might call at several other ports before off-loading a given consignment of cargo. Each port visit would delay

1482-438: Is an important benefit of containerization. Once the cargo is loaded into a container, it is not touched again until it reaches its destination. The cargo is not visible to casual viewers, and thus is less likely to be stolen. Container doors are usually sealed so that tampering is more evident. Some containers are fitted with electronic monitoring devices and can be remotely monitored for changes in air pressure, which happens when

1560-647: Is at Southend-on-Sea , Essex , and extends 1.3 miles (2.1 km) into the Thames Estuary . The longest pier on the West Coast of the US is the Santa Cruz Wharf , with a length of 2,745 feet (837 m). Providing a walkway out to sea, pleasure piers often include amusements and theatres as part of their attractions. Such a pier may be unroofed, closed, or partly open and partly closed. Sometimes

1638-573: Is listed separately), and only 34,299,572 in the United States. In 2005, some 18 million containers made over 200 million trips per year. Some ships can carry over 14,500  twenty-foot equivalent units  (TEU), such as the Emma Mærsk , 396 m (1,299 ft) long, launched in August 2006. It has been predicted that, at some point, container ships will be constrained in size only by

SECTION 20

#1732787090633

1716-495: Is mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes and special forklift trucks. All containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems. Containerization originated several centuries ago but was not well developed or widely applied until after World War II , when it dramatically reduced the costs of transport, supported the post-war boom in international trade , and was a major element in globalization . Containerization eliminated manual sorting of most shipments and

1794-542: Is often expressed in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU, or sometimes teu ). An equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard 20 ft (6.10 m) (length) × 8 ft (2.44 m) (width) container. As this is an approximate measure, the height of the box is not considered. For instance, the 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) high cube and the 4 ft 3 in (1.30 m) half height 20 ft (6.10 m) containers are also called one TEU. 48' containers have been phased out over

1872-477: Is the one at Southend. First opened as a wooden pier in 1829, it was reconstructed in iron and completed in 1889. In a 2006 UK poll, the public voted the seaside pier onto the list of icons of England. Many piers are built for the purpose of providing boatless anglers access to fishing grounds that are otherwise inaccessible. Many "Free Piers" are available in larger harbors which differ from private piers. Free Piers are often primarily used for fishing. Fishing from

1950-511: Is the process of unitization of cargoes in exports. Containerization is the predominant form of unitization of export cargoes today, as opposed to other systems such as the barge system or palletization. The containers have standardized dimensions. They can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another— container ships , rail transport flatcars , and semi-trailer trucks —without being opened. The handling system

2028-561: The Australian Army used containers to more easily deal with various breaks of gauge in the railroads. These non-stackable containers were about the size of the later 20-foot ISO container and perhaps made mainly of wood. During the same time, the United States Army started to combine items of uniform size, lashing them onto a pallet, unitizing cargo to speed the loading and unloading of transport ships. In 1947

2106-575: The Little Eaton Gangway , upon which coal was carried in wagons built at his Butterley Ironwork. The horse-drawn wheeled wagons on the gangway took the form of containers, which, loaded with coal, could be transshipped from canal barges on the Derby Canal , which Outram had also promoted. By the 1830s, railroads were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway in

2184-733: The Port of San Francisco , then by ship to Yokohama, Japan, and then to Korea, in late 1952. Transit times were almost halved. By the time of the Vietnam War the majority of supplies and materials were shipped by CONEX. By 1965 the U.S. military used some 100,000 Conex boxes, and more than 200,000 in 1967. making this the first worldwide application of intermodal containers. After the US Department of Defense standardized an 8-by-8-foot (2.44 by 2.44 m) cross section container in multiples of 10-foot (3.05 m) lengths for military use, it

2262-624: The Tower of London , Tower Bridge and St Katharine Docks before continuing to Greenwich Pier and then returning. The pier is operated by Uber Boat by Thames Clippers and has ticket booths for both Thames River Sightseeing and Thames Clippers . North bank South Bank This article about transport in London is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pier Piers have been built for several purposes, and because these different purposes have distinct regional variances,

2340-532: The Transportation Corps developed the Transporter , a rigid, corrugated steel container with a 9,000 lb (4,100 kg) carrying capacity, for shipping household goods of officers in the field. It was 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) long, 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), and 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) high, with double doors on one end, mounted on skids, and had lifting rings on

2418-627: The Victorian era , peaking in the 1860s with 22 being built in that decade. A symbol of the typical British seaside holiday, by 1914, more than 100 pleasure piers were located around the UK coast. Regarded as being among the finest Victorian architecture, there are still a significant number of seaside piers of architectural merit still standing, although some have been lost, including Margate , two at Brighton in East Sussex , one at New Brighton in

Embankment Pier - Misplaced Pages Continue

2496-829: The White Pass and Yukon Corporation . Her first trip carried 600 containers between North Vancouver, British Columbia, and Skagway, Alaska, on November 26, 1955. In Skagway, the containers were unloaded to purpose-built railroad cars for transport north to Yukon, in the first intermodal service using trucks, ships, and railroad cars. Southbound containers were loaded by shippers in Yukon and moved by rail, ship, and truck to their consignees without opening. This first intermodal system operated from November 1955 until 1982. The first truly successful container shipping company dates to April 26, 1956, when American trucking entrepreneur McLean put 58 trailer vans later called containers, aboard

2574-783: The Wirral and three at Blackpool in Lancashire . Two piers, Brighton's now derelict West Pier and Clevedon Pier , were Grade 1 listed . The Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare is the only pier in the world linked to an island. The National Piers Society gives a figure of 55 surviving seaside piers in England and Wales. Container shipping Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers , or ISO containers ). Containerization, also referred as container stuffing or container loading ,

2652-507: The health of sandy beaches and navigation channels . Pleasure piers were first built in Britain during the early 19th century. The earliest structures were Ryde Pier , built in 1813/4, Trinity Chain Pier near Leith, built in 1821, Brighton Chain Pier , built in 1823. and Margate Jetty 1823/24 originally a timber built pier. Only the oldest of these piers still remains. At that time,

2730-494: The 1960s, ICC approval was required before any shipper could carry different items in the same vehicle or change rates. The fully integrated systems in the US today became possible only after the ICC's regulatory oversight was cut back (and abolished in 1995). Trucking and rail were deregulated in the 1970s and maritime rates were deregulated in 1984. Double-stacked rail transport , where containers are stacked two high on railway cars,

2808-608: The American and then the international standard for corner fittings for shipping containers. This began international standardization of shipping containers. The first vessels purpose-built to carry containers had begun operation in 1926 for the regular connection of the luxury passenger train between London and Paris, the Golden Arrow / Fleche d'Or . Four containers were used for the conveyance of passengers' baggage. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to

2886-731: The International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in Venice on September 30, 1931, on one of the platforms of the Maritime Station (Mole di Ponente), practical tests assessed the best construction for European containers as part of an international competition. In 1931, in the U.S., B. F. Fitch designed the two largest and heaviest containers in existence. One measured 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) by 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m) by 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m) with

2964-493: The Southern US than other areas, but he did not anticipate that containerization might make it cheaper to import such goods from abroad. Most economic studies of containerization merely assumed that shipping companies would begin to replace older forms of transportation with containerization, but did not predict that the process of containerization itself would have a more direct influence on the choice of producers and increase

3042-827: The U.S., the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway carried motor carrier vehicles and shippers' vehicles loaded on flatcars between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois. Beginning in 1929, Seatrain Lines carried railroad boxcars on its sea vessels to transport goods between New York and Cuba. In the mid-1930s, the Chicago Great Western Railway and then the New Haven Railroad began " piggyback " service (transporting highway freight trailers on flatcars) limited to their own railroads. The Chicago Great Western Railway filed

3120-802: The UK and "CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon of CIWL" in France. At the Second World Motor Transport Congress in Rome, September 1928, Italian senator Silvio Crespi proposed the use of containers for road and railway transport systems, using collaboration rather than competition. This would be done under the auspices of an international organ similar to the Sleeping Car Company, which provided international carriage of passengers in sleeping wagons. In 1928 Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) started regular container service in

3198-491: The UK was one of these, making use of "simple rectangular timber boxes" to convey coal from Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, where a crane transferred them to horse-drawn carriages. Originally used for moving coal on and off barges, "loose boxes" were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal . By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones. The early 1900s saw

Embankment Pier - Misplaced Pages Continue

3276-420: The UK, the Port of London and Port of Liverpool declined in importance. Meanwhile, Britain's Port of Felixstowe and Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands emerged as major ports. In general, containerization caused inland ports on waterways incapable of receiving deep- draft ship traffic to decline in favor of seaports , which then built vast container terminals next to deep oceanfront harbors in lieu of

3354-577: The adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail. On 17 May 1917, Louisville, Kentucky native Benjamin Franklin "B. F." Fitch (1877–1956) launched commercial use of "demountable bodies" in Cincinnati, Ohio , which he had designed as transferable containers. In 1919, his system was extended to over 200 containers serving 21 railway stations with 14 freight trucks. In 1919, Stanisław Rodowicz, an engineer , developed

3432-496: The aim of selecting the best solution for Western Europe. Present were representatives from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy and the United States. The system chosen for Western Europe was based on the Netherlands' system for consumer goods and waste transportation called Laadkisten (literally, "loading bins"), in use since 1934. This system used roller containers that were moved by rail, truck and ship, in various configurations up to

3510-534: The container revolution. On January 29, 1963, McLean's company SeaLand released its patent rights, so that Tantlinger's inventions could become "the basis for a standard corner fitting and twist lock". Tantlinger was deeply involved in the debates and negotiations which in back-to-back votes in September 1965 (on September 16 and 24, respectively) led to the adoption of a modified version of the Sea-Land design as

3588-615: The delivery of other cargo. Delivered cargo might then have been offloaded into another warehouse before being picked up and delivered to its destination. Multiple handling and delays made transport costly, time-consuming and unreliable. Containerization has its origins in early coal mining regions in England beginning in the late 18th century. In 1766 James Brindley designed the box boat 'Starvationer' with ten wooden containers, to transport coal from Worsley Delph (quarry) to Manchester by Bridgewater Canal . In 1795, Benjamin Outram opened

3666-768: The depth of the Straits of Malacca , one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, linking the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This so-called Malaccamax size constrains a ship to dimensions of 470 m (1,542 ft) in length and 60 m (197 ft) wide. Few foresaw the extent of the influence of containerization on the shipping industry . In the 1950s, Harvard University economist Benjamin Chinitz predicted that containerization would benefit New York by allowing it to ship its industrial goods more cheaply to

3744-512: The digital exchange of operational vessel schedules (OVS). Contrary to ocean shipping containers owned by the shippers, a persisting trend in the industry is for (new) units to be purchased by leasing companies. Leasing business accounted for 55% of new container purchases in 2017, with their box fleet growing at 6.7%, compared to units of transport operators growing by just 2.4% more TEU, said global shipping consultancy Drewry in their 'Container Census & Leasing and Equipment Insight', leading to

3822-433: The dockfront warehouses and finger piers that had formerly handled break bulk cargo. With intermodal containers, the jobs of packing, unpacking, and sorting cargoes could be performed far from the point of embarkation. Such work shifted to so-called " dry ports " and gigantic warehouses in rural inland towns, where land and labor were much cheaper than in oceanfront cities. This fundamental transformation of where warehouse work

3900-840: The doors are opened. This reduced thefts that had long plagued the shipping industry. Recent developments have focused on the use of intelligent logistics optimization to further enhance security. The use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge sizes. The majority of the rail networks in the world operate on a 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge track known as standard gauge , but some countries (such as Russia, India, Finland, and Lithuania) use broader gauges , while others in Africa and South America use narrower gauges . The use of container trains in all these countries makes transshipment between trains of different gauges easier. Containers have become

3978-597: The first TEU container ship was the Japanese Hakone Maru  [ de ; jp ] from shipowner NYK, which started sailing in 1968 and could carry 752 TEU containers. In the US, containerization and other advances in shipping were impeded by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), which was created in 1887 to keep railroads from using monopolist pricing and rate discrimination, but fell victim to regulatory capture . By

SECTION 50

#1732787090633

4056-503: The first 20 years of containerization, many container sizes and corner fittings were used. There were dozens of incompatible container systems in the US alone. Among the biggest operators, the Matson Navigation Company had a fleet of 24-foot (7.32 m) containers, while Sea-Land Service, Inc used 35-foot (10.67 m) containers. The standard sizes and fitting and reinforcement norms that now exist evolved out of

4134-662: The first draft of the container system in Poland . In 1920, he built a prototype of the biaxial wagon. The Polish-Bolshevik War stopped development of the container system in Poland. The U.S. Post Office contracted with the New York Central Railroad to move mail via containers in May 1921. In 1930, the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad began shipping containers between Chicago and Milwaukee. Their efforts ended in

4212-599: The fishing and cargo industries and serves as a port for large cruise ships in the area. Many other working piers have been demolished, or remain derelict, but some have been recycled as pleasure piers. The best known example of this is Pier 39 in San Francisco . At Southport and the Tweed River on the Gold Coast in Australia , there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains

4290-407: The hold of a ship. After containerization, large crews of longshoremen were not necessary at port facilities, and the profession changed drastically. Meanwhile, the port facilities needed to support containerization changed. One effect was the decline of some ports and the rise of others. At the Port of San Francisco , the former piers used for loading and unloading were no longer required, but there

4368-564: The image of a Victorian cast iron pleasure pier. However, the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age . Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the principal purpose. However, there is considerable overlap between these categories. For example, pleasure piers often also allow for the docking of pleasure steamers and other similar craft, while working piers have often been converted to leisure use after being rendered obsolete by advanced developments in cargo-handling technology. Many piers are floating piers, to ensure that

4446-453: The introduction of steamships and railways for the first time permitted mass tourism to dedicated seaside resorts . The large tidal ranges at many such resorts meant that passengers arriving by pleasure steamer could use a pier to disembark safely. Also, for much of the day, the sea was not visible from the shore and the pleasure pier permitted holidaymakers to promenade over and alongside the sea at all times. The world's longest pleasure pier

4524-589: The need for dock front warehouses, while displacing many thousands of dock workers who formerly simply handled break bulk cargo . Containerization reduced congestion in ports, significantly shortened shipping time, and reduced losses from damage and theft. Containers can be made from a wide range of materials such as steel, fibre-reinforced polymer, aluminum or a combination. Containers made from weathering steel are used to minimize maintenance needs . Before containerization, goods were usually handled manually as break bulk cargo . Typically, goods would be loaded onto

4602-666: The northeast U.S. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in New York and the subsequent Great Depression, many countries were without any means to transport cargo. The railroads were sought as a possibility to transport cargo, and there was an opportunity to bring containers into broader use. In February 1931 the first container ship was launched. It was called the Autocarrier, owned by Southern Railway UK. It had 21 slots for containers of Southern Railway. Under auspices of

4680-461: The pier stretching far enough off shore to reach deep water at low tide. Such piers provided an economical alternative to impounded docks where cargo volumes were low, or where specialist bulk cargo was handled, such as at coal piers . The other form of working pier, often called the finger pier, was built at ports with smaller tidal ranges. Here the principal advantage was to give a greater available quay length for ships to berth against compared to

4758-603: The piers raise and lower with the tide along with the boats tied to them. This prevents a situation where lines become overly taut or loose by rising or lowering tides. An overly taut or loose tie-line can damage boats by pulling them out of the water or allowing them so much leeway that they bang forcefully against the sides of the pier. Working piers were built for the handling of passengers and cargo onto and off ships or (as at Wigan Pier ) canal boats. Working piers themselves fall into two different groups. Longer individual piers are often found at ports with large tidal ranges , with

SECTION 60

#1732787090633

4836-583: The popularization of the larger ISO containers, support for pa containers was phased out by the railways. In the 1970s they began to be widely used for transporting waste. In 1952 the U.S. Army developed the Transporter into the CONtainer EXpress or CONEX box system. The size and capacity of the Conex were about the same as the Transporter, but the system was made modular , by the addition of

4914-496: The ports of Dover or Calais. In February 1931 the first container ship in the world was launched. It was called the Autocarrier, owned by Southern Railway UK. It had 21 slots for containers of Southern Railway. The next step was in Europe after WW II. Vessels purpose-built to carry containers were used between UK and Netherlands and also in Denmark in 1951. In the United States, ships began carrying containers in 1951, between Seattle , Washington and Alaska. None of these services

4992-399: The shipping berths, has made working piers obsolete for the handling of general cargo, although some still survive for the handling of passenger ships or bulk cargos. One example, is in use in Progreso, Yucatán , where a pier extends more than 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico , making it the longest pier in the world. The Progreso Pier supplies much of the peninsula with transportation for

5070-462: The shipping industry "was moving cargo, not sailing ships". He visualized and helped to bring about a world reoriented around that insight, which required not just standardization of the metal containers themselves, but drastic changes to every aspect of cargo handling. In 1955, McLean and Tantlinger's immediate challenge was to design a shipping container that could efficiently be loaded onto ships and would hold securely on sea voyages. The result

5148-456: The spring of 1931 when the Interstate Commerce Commission disallowed the use of a flat rate for the containers. In 1926, a regular connection of the luxury passenger train from London to Paris, Golden Arrow / Fleche d'Or , by Southern Railway and French Northern Railway , began. For transport of passengers' baggage four containers were used. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on flat cars in

5226-407: The term pier tends to have different nuances of meaning in different parts of the world. Thus in North America and Australia , where many ports were, until recently, built on the multiple pier model, the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility. In contrast, in Europe , where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers, the term is principally associated with

5304-462: The top four corners. During the Korean War the Transporter was evaluated for handling sensitive military equipment and, proving effective, was approved for broader use. Theft of material and damage to wooden crates convinced the army that steel containers were needed. In April 1951, at Zürich Tiefenbrunnen railway station , the Swiss Museum of Transport and Bureau International des Containers (BIC) held demonstrations of container systems, with

5382-423: The total volume of trade. The widespread use of ISO standard containers has driven modifications in other freight-moving standards, gradually forcing removable truck bodies or swap bodies into standard sizes and shapes (though without the strength needed to be stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallets that fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles. Improved cargo security

5460-429: Was 354 million TEUs , of which 82 percent were handled by the world's top 100 container ports. As of 2009 , approximately 90% of non- bulk cargo worldwide is moved by containers stacked on transport ships; 26% of all container transshipment is carried out in China. For example, in 2009 there were 105,976,701 transshipments in China (both international and coastal, excluding Hong Kong), 21,040,096 in Hong Kong (which

5538-494: Was an 8 feet (2.44 m) tall by 8 ft (2.44 m) wide box in 10 ft (3.05 m)-long units constructed from 2.5 mm ( 13 ⁄ 128  in) thick corrugated steel. The design incorporated a twistlock mechanism atop each of the four corners, allowing the container to be easily secured and lifted using cranes. Several years later, as a Fruehauf executive, Tantlinger went back to McLean and convinced him to relinquish control of their design to help stimulate

5616-407: Was established. In June 1933, the B.I.C. decided on obligatory parameters for containers used in international traffic. Containers handled by means of lifting gear, such as cranes, overhead conveyors, etc. for traveling elevators (group I containers), constructed after July 1, 1933. Obligatory Regulations: In April 1935 BIC established a second standard for European containers: From 1926 to 1947 in

5694-531: Was introduced in the US. The concept was developed by Sea-Land and the Southern Pacific railroad. The first standalone double-stack container car (or single-unit 40-ft COFC well car) was delivered in July 1977. The five-unit well car, the industry standard, appeared in 1981. Initially, these double-stack railway cars were deployed in regular train service. Ever since American President Lines initiated in 1984

5772-534: Was little room to build the vast holding lots needed for storing and sorting containers in transit between different transport modes. As a result, the Port of San Francisco essentially ceased to function as a major commercial port, but the neighboring Port of Oakland emerged as the second largest on the US West Coast. A similar fate occurred with the relationship between the ports of Manhattan and New Jersey . In

5850-477: Was particularly successful. First, the containers were rather small, with 52% of them having a volume of less than 3 cubic metres (106 cu ft). Almost all European containers were made of wood and used canvas lids, and they required additional equipment for loading into rail or truck bodies. The world's first purpose-built container vessel was Clifford J. Rodgers , built in Montreal in 1955 and owned by

5928-843: Was performed freed up valuable waterfront real estate near the central business districts of port cities around the world for redevelopment and led to a plethora of waterfront revitalization projects (such as warehouse districts ). The effects of containerization rapidly spread beyond the shipping industry. Containers were quickly adopted by trucking and rail transport industries for cargo transport not involving sea transport. Manufacturing also evolved to adapt to take advantage of containers. Companies that once sent small consignments began grouping them into containers. Many cargoes are now designed to precisely fit containers. The reliability of containers made just in time manufacturing possible as component suppliers could deliver specific components on regular fixed schedules. In 2004, global container traffic

6006-416: Was rapidly adopted for shipping purposes. In 1955, former trucking company owner Malcom McLean worked with engineer Keith Tantlinger to develop the modern intermodal container . All the containerization pioneers who came before McLean had thought in terms of optimizing particular modes of transport. McLean's "fundamental insight" which made the intermodal container possible was that the core business of

6084-588: Was used for reloading of the containers. The development of containerization was created in Europe and the U.S. as a way to revitalize rail companies after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , which had caused economic collapse and reduction in use of all modes of transport. In 1933 in Europe, under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Container Bureau (French: Bureau International des Conteneurs , B.I.C.)

#632367