Malcolm McLean: Inventor of the Shipping Container
This past week many Americans panicked at the thought of the dockworkers strike (once again toilet paper was flying off the shelves!!) Fortunately, the economy may have ducked a bullet with the temporary return of 47,000 dockworkers to jobs at ports across the US. Contract negotiations will resume in 90 days and while significant pay increases have already been granted, the really big issue remains unresolved: the introduction of more automated cargo handling equipment and related job security issues. The US significantly lags China and European Countries in port automation so our country’s ability to compete is at stake as well.
Today’s conflict over automation at our ports is by no means the first. We are all familiar with the giant ships from which container units are picked up with a crane and deftly deposited on to a waiting tractor trailer. But it was not always so.
In the 1950s, trucking company owner Malcolm McClean was frustrated by how long it took to unload ships of cargo crate by crate, box by box, and bale by bale. It could take weeks to unload a cargo ship. McLean saw that containerization could radically improve productivity at the port if the goods were containerized and simply lifted “in bulk” off the waiting ships.
McLean overcame many obstacles to realize his vision: unions, government regulations, a lack of ships designed for containers and cranes able unload the new containers. His persistence paid off. “Based on numerous sources, it looks like containerization, once widely accepted, reduced shipping and loading costs by at least 80%, and perhaps 90%. In the old days, freighters spent up to 2/3 of their time in ports, loading and unloading. Port turnaround times, which were as high as 3 weeks, dropped to 24 hours.”
A man who began life running a gas station used incredibly simple technology to vastly improve the cost of shipping. One can only wonder what international trade would be like today without him. I hope you’ll take a few minutes for an executive summary of a great entrepreneur: “ Malcolm McLean: Unsung Innovator Who Changed the World.”
