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Containerization is a system of intermodal cargo transport using standard ISO containers that can be loaded on container ships, railroad cars, and trucks. There are two common standard sizes, one 20 ft. long and the other twice as long at 40
ft. Container capacity (of ships, ports, etc) is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU,
or sometimes teu). A twenty-foot equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo equal to one standard 20
ft. (length) × 8 ft. (width) × 8.5 ft. (height) container (approximately 40.92 m3). Most containers today are of the
40-ft. variety and thus are 2 TEU. Two TEU are referred to as one FEU or "Forty-foot equivalent unit". These two
terms of measurement are used interchangeably. "High cube" containers have a height of 9.5 ft., while half-height containers,
used for heavy loads, have a height of 4.25 ft.
It is an important element of the logistics revolution that changed freight
handling in the 20th century. Malcolm McLean invented the
shipping container in the 1930s in New Jersey, and later founded Sea-Land corporation.
It is said that while sitting at a dock waiting for cargo he trucked in to be reloaded onto a ship, McLean realized that
rather than loading and unloading the truck, the truck itself, with some minor modifications, could be the container that is
transported.
Containerization revolutionized cargo shipping. Today, approximately 90% of cargo moves by containers stacked on transport
ships. Over 200 million containers per year are now moved between those ports.
The widepread use of ISO standard containers influenced modifications in other freight moving standards, gradually forcing
removable truck bodies or swap bodies into the same sizes and shapes (without however the strength needed to be
stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallets which fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles.
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