
The Shipping Container Is a Blessing to All Humanity - azizsaya
https://fee.org/articles/the-shipping-container-is-a-blessing-to-all-humanity/
======
gumby
When you think of a shipping container, think: API.

A shipping container is simply 8 knuckles (vertices) at a known distance,
rigidly connected, with total weight within certain constraints. There are a
number of objects that meet this standard; not just closed boxes with big
doors at one end, but open frames, trays with big end pieces, tanks in
rectangular frames...the possibilities are enormous. And they interconnect
with a bunch of other devices (truck beds, railcars and each other on ships
are just the most common.

Of course like many a standardized API there are several variants to choose
from (more than just BSD vs SysV or emacs vs vi): the standard 40' length can
be 20, or 53, and there are high top ones larger than usual. But actually not
that many degrees of freedom.

~~~
kbenson
I wonder if this will extend to space industry. I could totally see a large
lattice of shipping container knuckles and shafts being created for structural
integrity, shipping container sized modules taking over for a spot as they get
delivered. Just disconnect the knuckles for a single container worth's
lattice, slide out the sized bit of lattice, slide in a shipping container and
connect.

~~~
CJefferson
Space already has similar standards, like the cubesat. The cubesat is actually
based on beanie baby display cases :)

~~~
notananthem
THAT is a great "today I learned." Citation also below parent comment

~~~
schoen
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat#History)

[https://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1403/08cubesats/](https://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1403/08cubesats/)

[https://nnsa.energy.gov/blog/nnsa-lab-wins-doe-
achievement-a...](https://nnsa.energy.gov/blog/nnsa-lab-wins-doe-achievement-
award-beanie-baby-box-inspired-cubesats-0)

I didn't know this before either!

Apparently the Beanie Baby box was the inspiration for the form factor and
maybe used for prototyping, but the final standard isn't exactly identical to
it.

------
joecool1029
Link to source paper to save everyone else the pain: [https://sci-
hub.hk/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.09...](https://sci-
hub.hk/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.09.001)

Despite the fact that this OP's article is thin on content, fee.org is a
cancerous website. Upon clicking the article the site demands notification
permission, then loads a shitload of sidebar junk. To avoid this I attempt to
use Firefox reader mode, but that just loads a different article about
automation (but with the shipping container headline).

EDIT: The paper is a solid read.

~~~
flyingfences
I'll never understand how people live without ad blockers.

~~~
joecool1029
I do have ublock origin installed. It was all their on-site elements screwing
shit up.

------
forapurpose
It wasn't a blessing to longshoremen (manual labor at ports) worldwide. That
doesn't mean we should remain stuck in the past, driving horse-drawn carriages
so the buggy whip makers can stay in business, but let's not gloss over the
very serious downside to millions of people, their families and communities.
Two thoughts:

1\. I always try to remember: Capital can move and technology can change far
faster than people can. The factory can move to another country far faster
than its 10,000 employees can move to a new job, possibly in a new city.
Shipping containers can be implemented far faster than millions (or more?) of
longshoremen worldwide can learn new trades, find jobs, and return to their
former incomes. I support innovation, but we should take care of the people
who can't possibly keep up and who have little power over their fate.

2\. If technology comes along that disrupts the careers of the politically
weak, such as longshoremen, people say that it's just the nature of the game;
that's innovation and they should take care of themselves. We just focus on
the overall economic gains and are excited. But if new tech disrupts the
politically strong, such as the music and film industries, then the technology
is outlawed and law enforcement protects their privilege. Ironically, it's the
weak who need that protection far more than the strong.

I used to think that we all should sacrifice for overall economic efficiency;
that it's the rules of the game we all playI find it harder and harder to
justify sacrificing the welfare of human beings for more cash, and of course I
realized the 'rules' were made by a specific group of people to serve
themselves.

~~~
lsb
As detailed in The Box, the unions in NYC back in the day were strong enough
that they managed to negotiate for no jobs lost when containerization came
steamrolling through. Lots of people for decades were paid to not work, and
hiring freezes and attrition naturally declined the workforce from its highs
of the 1960s and 1970s (containerization meant that roughly 100x tons of
freight could be moved per person)

------
Animats
It's basically an anti-protectionism web site. The book, "The Box" covers this
subject very well.

Two things made international trade really work - containers and faxes. Faxes
made it possible to do business efficiently across language boundaries.
Invoices and purchase order forms make it across language barriers with some
struggling on both sides, and if there's a problem, there's reasonably quick
feedback. Trying to do that by phone or telegram or paper mail is much
tougher. At last, the paperwork got there before the cargo did, which made
shipping work far batter.

------
WheelsAtLarge
Standards are a great blessing for humanity. We don't pay much attention to
standards but without them, society would be more difficult. Shipping
containers are just another sample of their benefits. One that many of us will
remember is the standardization of power cords for Cellphones. There was a
time all phones had their power connectors which made it impossible to share
power chargers. Now we take it for granted that we can grab one from a friend
or go to the store and buy one without much trouble. A small step but one of
many that make a large difference for society.

~~~
paulryanrogers
Interesting that Apple is exempt

~~~
gumby
They aren't: they ship an adaptor in the box in jurisdictions subject to this
law.

~~~
kalleboo
What jurisdictions are those? I was thinking maybe China but it doesn't look
like it from apple.com/cn. In the EU there was just a "memorandum of
understanding" between manufacturers (under threat of legislation if they
didn't sort things out themselves) and Apple feel they fulfill it since their
charging cable has USB-A at one end.

------
epmatsw
If anyone is interested, The Box is a book that covers this topic in a lot
more depth. It’s truly excellent

~~~
rurounijones
Andi f anyone can find it the documentary "The box that changed Britain"
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00scpzn](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00scpzn)
is really good, especially on the social aspects (e.g. dock workers and
indistrial heartland collapse).

EDIT found a version online:
[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5f7n8v](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5f7n8v)

------
ris
If only they weren't so damn _heavy_. A significant proportion of the mass
being shipped is often the container itself. There are efforts to make an
equally strong and almost-as-cheap container out of composites, but
unfortunately nothing has caught on yet.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Maybe the most important improvement modern society could achieve - make the
dang box lighter. Might accomplish more than all the social policy changes

------
thedogeye
Flexport is doing a boat cruise in the port of Oakland in May featuring talks
about the history and future of trade. if you're into shipping containers
email me, Ryan@flexport.com and I'll get you an invite for the cruisee!

------
notananthem
Discovered a litany of amazing startups within the shipping container itself,
all sorts of bags, bins, basically things to compartmentalized the space
within a shipping container for a variety of things being transported. Huge
food grade bags that can transport bulk wine, for example, rigged up safely
inside a container.

------
jihadjihad
Neat article, love learning about things like this. For those who want more,
check out the Containers podcast [1]. Not usually a big podcast fan but I
enjoyed this one a lot.

[https://soundcloud.com/containersfmg](https://soundcloud.com/containersfmg)

------
squarefoot
Shipping containers can also be turned into cheap houses when they're
decommissioned. A search for "container home" brings a lot of results, some of
them truly amazing though definitely less cheap.

~~~
lsc
For background, I don't have serious experience with this. I've worked with
businesses that moved containers, I've talked about getting containers for my
own stuff, and priced things out from that angle, and found the whole thing
too expensive, even if you have places to put the containers where people
won't complain.

I do, however, think container aesthetics are pleasing and find the idea of a
container house (or modular workshops) to be pretty cool.

Container houses generally require effort that make them less cheap than
things built specifically to be housing, unless you can somehow dodge zoning
because you are in a 'container house'

If you've ever spent any time in a container during the day, you know that
being in an un-insulated steel can when said can is in the sun is not a
generally pleasant experience.

Building a small structure to reasonable durability standards is actually
pretty cheap; I bet you could do a wooden shed of the interior size of a cargo
container for less than the market value of said container, most places in the
world, assuming the zoning restrictions weren't different for the container
vs. the shed.

If you need your house to move and you are willing to accept the space
limitations, it might make sense to build in a cargo container... but if you
are willing to give up the mobility, you can usually get a better or cheaper
living structure.

Even then, I'd question it. I mean, unquestionably, it would be damn cool, but
by the time you made it livable, I don't know if it wouldn't be cheaper to
just buy a used camper trailer.

My experience trying to get cargo containers moved is that most of the
services for doing so are not designed for not-very-often one-off moves; I
think getting someone to move your fifth wheel trailer would probably be
cheaper than getting a cargo container of similar size moved, assuming you are
on the same continent.

The exception, of course, is if you live in a place where cargo containers
have a very low market value, and where the cargo containers are where they
need to be (or the equipment required to move them is cheap)

Another issue I ran into when exploring this is that... well, you really want
to clean these things out. A cheap, used cargo container needs some serious
work just to get the ickies cleared out.

