Putting More Go-Go in Cargo- Containers and World Trade WILLIAM C. GROW Ships are taking to the containerships may scorch the waves highway, trucks are sprouting wings, with speeds up to 50 miles an hour. and railroads are crossing the oceans Helicopters or other air vehicles will in a transportation revolution that lift the containers from flatcars, ships, is sweeping the world. It's called or airplanes and transport them to containerization. container yards, warehouses, or even In this dazzling new technique, to retail stores. products are moved from origin to Through rates will be common. Cus- destination—from Illinois to France, toms and immigration procedures will California to Hawaii, Ottawa to be simplified. Movement of containers Saigon—in containers about the size will be governed by computers. of a truck trailer. The container may Present-day containers are usually 8 move first by truck, then by rail to a feet wide, 8 feet high, and mostly from port where it is lifted onto a ship. At 20 to 40 feet long. Many are refrig- a foreign port, it is lifted off the ship erated and maintain an optimum and placed on wheels to go by rail or temperature and humidity for the truck to the distributing warehouse. products they carry. They may be Sometimes the containers move by filled with packages of fruit, poultry, airplane, too. vegetables, meat, or any other com- So, a container is in effect a ship's modity. At the point of production, hold, a truck trailer, a railroad boxcar, the container is filled and the door and even an airplane fuselage. Tradi- locked. From that point on, the tional differences between land, sea, individual packages are not handled. and air carriers cancel out in a highly Advantages are many. One study integrated operation. estimates shipping cost savings of 38 Cost savings are so impressive that percent. Stevedoring costs are reduced U.S. and foreign port cities are hastily 82 percent, loss and damage claims revamping their facilities in a race for 75 percent, and ship operating costs the lion's share of container shipping. by 35 percent. Total investment in containerships in Containers weighing up to 30 tons the near future is expected to reach $ 1 can be loaded or discharged with billion. Some Japanese shippers esti- gantry cranes from a containership at mate that by 1970 half their cargoes rates as high as 20 to 30 containers per will be containerized. hour with fewer men than previously Possibilities in this cargo revolution read like science fiction. Future con- tainerships may travel at speeds of 30 WILLIAM c. GROW is Director of the Transporta- knots or more or about 35 miles per tion and Facilities Research Division, Agricultural hour in your family car. Hydrofoil Research Service. 240 handled only 10 tons an hour. A vessel Meat moved from Texas to Ham- may need to spend only a day in port burg ; poultry from Iowa and Virginia instead of 5 to 7. to Germany, Italy, and Greece; Some vessels carry floating con- peaches from South Carolina to Lon- tainers—or lighters—which can be don ; and mixed vegetables from Belle loaded and discharged directly into Glade, Fla., to West Berlin. Refriger- the water. ated cargoes and canned goods are Since containers are sealed by the moving from the west coast to Europe. shipper after loading, pilferage and Most food moved between the main- damage are virtually eliminated. Cor- land United States and Hawaii and rect temperature in the container can Puerto Rico goes by containership. be maintained throughout the journey This method is also used for transpor- by plugging the equipment into an tation between the west coast and electric current. And because packages Alaska and for intercoastal movement. are not handled individually, they can The military uses refrigerated con- be made of less expensive materials. tainerized service to Okinawa. A fully loaded container was sent In April 1966, the Military Traffic from Illinois to France in less than 10 Management and Terminal Service days. The same shipment by conven- shipped a wide range of products out tional equipment takes weeks or some- of the New York area in 283 con- times months. tainers. By December, the figure was Until 1965, only two steamship lines up to 1,070. It is estimated that 50 could claim they were handling and percent of the freight MTMTS con- transporting major volumes of con- trols could move in this way. By tainerized cargo. In 2 years since then, November 1966, four emergency hos- 70 full or partial containerships were in pitals had been shipped in containers service under the U.S. flag, and orders from Ottawa, Canada, to Saigon. for more such vessels were piling up. More than 50 railroads in the United Upon this development rests the States ofí"er container service. Forty hope of moving more products from firms—mostly steamship lines—off'er U.S. farms and factories to world such service to and from 150 ports of markets and of rejuvenating the U.S. the world. Some 35 airlines haul con- merchant marine. tainers. From the United States con- At the beginning of this revolution, tainers go to Europe, Latin America, U.S. Department of Agriculture trans- Africa, Oceania, the Near East and port researchers began to put con- the Far East. tainers to use in opening up foreign In June 1965, more than 20,000 markets for farm and food products. containers were in marine service. In In 1965 these men in cooperation with less than a year and a half the number shippers, a railroad, and a steamship doubled, and it is expected to reach line made a containerized shipment of half a million by 1975. U.S. railroads grapefruit from Florida to a whole- use 32,000 flat cars in piggyback- saler in Basel, Switzerland. The fruit container service. arrived in less time, in better condi- Containerships need special port tion, and at lower cost than by con- facilities. They operate best from ventional methods. The reaction of berths with wide aprons that provide the Swiss buyer was "How can I get easy access to the ship's side. For each regular delivery of this quality ship's berth at least 10 to 12 acres of product?" land is required for assembling con- Many other containerized shipments tainers to be shipped and space for have been made since to test equip- those being unloaded. The most ad- ment, costs, and service. Fresh orange vanced terminals are equipped with juice moved to Germany in bottles shore-based cranes for loading and with hardly a broken bit of glass. Reg- unloading containers, but many con- ular commercial movements followed. tainerships have their own cranes so 241 they can operate in ports without pioneers have extended their service to shore-based cranes. Europe and the Far East, and the idea The port of New York has taken the has excited the imagination of the lead in getting ready to meet the shipping world. requirements of this transportation Billions of dollars are being invested revolution and is already recognized in containers, containerships, and port as the "Container Capital of the facilities. Yet many problems must be World." The Port of New York Au- solved before the full potential of this thority, a corporate body established development can be achieved. And by compact between the States of New these solutions must come fast to avoid York and New Jersey, has embarked costly mistakes. on a construction program which will Benefits of containerization flow produce 37 containership berths on a largely from having an integrated 900-acre site. Twelve of these are transportation system. The containers already in operation. The city of New must be handled by rail, truck, ship, York has announced plans for similar and air; by many companies; through undertakings. many countries; and they must trans- While New York is conceded the port a wide range of commodities. No. 1 position for North Atlantic Getting agreement and coordinated container shipping, the race is on action from all the firms and organiza- between Baltimore and the Norfolk tions that comprise the system is a area for the No. 2 spot. Other Atlantic herculean task. coast facilities for handling container- First, agreement on the sizes of con- ships are in operation or soon will be tainers is imperative. These boxes must at Wilmington and Morehead City, have universal interchange. They must N.C.; Savannah, Ga. ; Charleston, stack, fasten together, fit onto trucks S.C; and Jacksonville and Miami, and railcars, go through tunnels, meet Fla. On the west coast they are op- highway requirements, fit into planes, erating at the California ports of San be lifted on and off ships by the same Francisco, Oakland, Stockton, and cranes, and hold quantities economical Long Beach and also at Portland and to transport. They must maintain the Seattle. The gulf coast ports of Mobile, correct temperatures and humidity to Ala., New Orleans, La., and Houston prevent spoilage of the contents, be and Galveston, Tex., are expected to secure against water damage, and meet construct such terminals. a host of other requirements. Finding Other countries also are moving the facts on each of these aspects is a rapidly into this new form of trans- big job. Reaching a consensus seems portation. The ports of England, Ger- almost impossible. many, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, For maximum use shippers must be Belgium, and France are preparing able to get containers when they need for container shipping. them. This requires a large supply and Japan has announced a $400 million competent management or containers program for 34 containerships and will be in the wrong place at the wrong terminal facilities and a program to time.