The Most Important Box In The World

More than 90% of everything we buy has been transported by ship, making the seas the busiest superhighway on Earth. This is primarily due to shipping being the most cost-effective mode of cargo transportation, mainly attributable to the ingenious invention of a simple box-shaped object, of which more than 17 million exist: the shipping container.

Complete the sentence: Today, when someone says shipping container, everybody in the World thinks about the same image, the metal box-like structure that you see piled in ports everywhere. Before they existed, shipping was chaos. Goods of all shapes and sizes were crammed into a ship's available nooks and crannies, each individually loaded and unloaded by armies of dockworkers. It was slow, costly, and hugely inefficient. A boat could spend as much time loading and unloading in port as at sea.

Enter Malcolm McLean, a trucking magnate with a vision. McLean dreamt of a world where shipping was as easy as loading a truck. He designed a sturdy, stackable steel box that could easily move from a car to a ship and back. But McLean didn't stop there. He convinced the world to accept a standard size for his containers: 20-foot and 40-foot long. It took a while, but the industry eventually embraced McLean's standards, flipping the script on shipping.

The significance of shipping containers cannot be overstated. As shipping costs dropped and efficiency rose, the global economy flourished. McLean revolutionized the industry, fostering simplicity and consistency. Standardization is crucial in our electronic devices, diverse industries, and international trade, ensuring coherence, compatibility, and efficiency. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest solution.

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