A Look Back at Shipping Containers Through the Years

It’s hard to overstate the usefulness and durability of shipping containers. For basically a giant steel box, they have proven incredibly versatile. Besides the obvious use of transporting goods, they can be modified to suit all sorts of needs. Modern shipping containers can be transformed into long-term storage, mobile homes, offices, classrooms, and even mobile clinics. Shipping container sales remain high because they are so cheap that companies use them once and let them sit. That’s why so many can be obtained for even lower prices and modified for various needs.

Shipping Container Sales: The Versatility of Shipping Containers

In the Beginning

Shipping containers weren’t always so versatile or ubiquitous. Until the twentieth century, products were transported in either wooden crates, barrels, or exposed to the elements. With all these different sizes and shapes, efficient shipping was complicated. Also, this method brought spoilage risks, and the container often weighed more than the goods themselves.

Modern Times

In 1956, American businessman Malcolm McLean sought to make the industry of shipping more economical. He worked to develop a large, versatile container that could hold a lot of goods. His invention was, obviously, the metal shipping container. It was standardizing the container size and making them stackable that revolutionized the transportation industry.

The containers quickly became a commercial and international transport standard. More than 17 million are used, and shipping container sales show no signs of stopping as world trade increases. However, for the first few decades of their use, shipping containers remained primarily relegated to transportation.

Beyond Shipping Goods

In the 1980s, people at construction sites started to look for a place to secure big, bulky stuff on-site to deter theft. As a giant steel box with doors, a couple of locks and chains can turn any properly maintained steel container into a massive safe.

Their versatility only grew with demand. By the turn of the 21st century, shipping containers were being modified to serve as temporary housing for construction workers and similar laborers who needed to travel long distances for their contracts. From there, the modification of containers to offices and classrooms proved easy enough. As a result of recent health crises, shipping containers have also been used as mobile medical clinics and testing sites.

Shipping containers may not have a long history, but their presence has revolutionized transportation and other infrastructural fields. It’s almost impossible not to see a shipping container in daily life because there are so many of them, and they’re so helpful and versatile. Thanks to one man’s transportation vision, such containers are helping people across the globe.

Carolina Containers

Do you need extra storage, office, or retail space? A modified shipping container could be the solution. Carolina Containers is tops in shipping container sales. We have a wide selection of standard and modified shipping containers. Don’t see what you need? We can change it to your specifications. Contact us at 919-562-9187 and see what we can do for you.

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