Join Mike on a fascinating exploration of how a seemingly mundane object—the shipping container—has reshaped our global landscape. Inspired by the book “The Box,” Mike shares insights into the mind of Malcolm McLean, the inventor who revolutionized the way we move goods around the planet. Listen in as Mike uncovers the sweeping changes brought about by this simple yet ingenious innovation, from streamlining transport across trucks, trains, and ships to transforming labor and fostering industry collaboration. This episode is a testament to the container’s profound influence on the economy, urban development, and the very fabric of international trade.
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Get the book: The Box by Marc Levinson
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Episode transcript below:
0:00:00 – Mike Malatesta:
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Hey everybody, welcome back to this free Thinking Friday solo episode of the how to Happen podcast. I’m Mike and thank you so much for joining me again and today. Well, today, this is going to be a little bit of a weird episode, I guess. I’m hoping that it starts out a little weird but ends up being very valuable, because it’s about this thing that you probably never thought I would be talking about with you, which is the shipping container, and most of what you and I are going to talk about is from the book titled the Box, which is I’m showing you right now. The box Subtitle is how the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger.
So let’s start with what a shipping container is, and I’m sure that all of you have been stuck at a railroad crossing and watched a very long freight train go by loaded with hundreds of shipping containers, usually two to each freight car, one stacked on top of the other, or maybe still attached to a chassis with wheels, so they look like a semi-trailer on the train, which they are. Or maybe you’ve seen a giant container ship while you were on a cruise or while you were near a beach somewhere or at a port, loaded with shipping containers stacked on top of each other, like 10 high or more. They’re crazy how many they can put onto a ship, and when you see them, you wonder what’s in those things. Well, the simple answer is that everything is in those things, especially any product that came here to the US or is going there anywhere else in the world. It’s in a shipping container almost always, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, the shipping container itself is only 70 years old Not even it’s about 70 years old and it was first invented and used by a trucking company owner named Malcolm McClain. And the first ever shipment of containers left the port of Newark, new Jersey, in April of 1956 on a journey to Houston, texas. There were 58 containers aboard that day and that shipment that day, in April 1956, changed our world more than almost any other invention or innovation ever.
And I’m going to go through a couple of reasons why that’s true. Some will be obvious and others perhaps not quite as obvious. So the most obvious way, of course, was in transportation. So once goods could be placed into a shipping container that were uniformly sized I mean, they’re different in terms of length, but they’re all the same width and height generally and can be stacked on top of each other, which was huge. But they also could be easily moved from or to any transportation vehicle, so they could move from a truck to a train, for example, or a train to a ship and vice versa, and of course the capability for that grew over time. So it didn’t all happen in 1956, but it happened.
All happened shortly thereafter, and once that happened, the doors were open to a cheap and uniform global economy, and without that we wouldn’t have as cheap or as uniform of a global economy system that we do, and it was such a brilliant idea and discovery that and you know this because it has barely changed since 1956. You can buy a container from if they’re still around from 1956 and it will look pretty much like a container or built in 2023. So just think about that. It’s like perfect from the get-go kind of thing. But that was only one way that the shipping container changed things. So here are some others that may not be as obvious, right?
So the shipping container so reduced the need for warehouses on waterways, like rivers and channels and bays and that kind of thing, that were built to hold these bulky goods, like goods that you know just think, like clothes and cars and lawn mowers and you name it. They’re not exactly easy to just store somewhere, and so these warehouses had to be close to the water so that all of these bulky goods could be delivered there and then moved on to a ship from there. And so when the shipping container eliminated the need for that because it was loaded sort of right where the goods were made, for example at the factory, it opened up some of the most valuable waterfront property in cities everywhere in the world. It basically led to high-end urbanization in most cities because until the shipping container came along, all of that property was very valuable to manufacturers and to warehouses and then, when you didn’t need to be near the water anymore because you had shipping containers, that land could be redeveloped. And that’s where the high-rise condos are, and that’s where the big apartment complexes is and that’s where the fancy restaurants are, and on and on. So it dramatically changed waterfront property.
It also had a huge impact on labor, of course, because it eliminated the need for the many, many, many workers who were used to move previously uncontainerized goods from trucks, trains and ships into and out of these warehouses and then back onto trucks, trains and ships. It was a very inefficient, dangerous job, time-consuming and costly, and so shipping container got rid of all of that. The shipping container changed the railroad and trucking industries as well. So once they were told at one time they were totally separate systems they could. Now they could collaborate and work together to dramatically improve the efficiency and the cost of moving goods a long way, so using, for example, the train for the bulk of the move and then the truck for the initial leg to the train and then the final leg to from the train to to the customer.
And the last dramatic impact that I want to share with you today is on the environment. The shipping container has probably done more to reduce pollution than any other invention or system we’ve ever seen in history. I recently saw you know I must kind of take credit for how dramatic, dramatically Tesla has changed the environment or impacted the environment, which probably a lot to that, but I think on. Really, if you really average it out, I think, and you look at all the things that the shipping container has done to improve trucking efficiency, shipping efficiency and the pollution that both of those modes of transportation generate, I think it would be pretty overwhelming that the shipping container has done way more than Tesla or maybe any company has done so far. So those are five ways that the lowly, lowly shipping container, the one that annoys you as you wait for that day and train to get through the crossing has positively impacted your life and the life of almost everyone in the world.
Wow. So thank you for joining me today. I value your time and I hope you got some value from this episode. If you’d like to learn more about the shipping container and how it changed and is still changing the world, our world, pick up the book the box here it is by Mark Levinson, and you can learn more there. It is a very big book that just goes to tell you how many incredible, impactful changes the shipping container is responsible for. So thank you for joining me and until next time.
Everybody thanks for listening to the show and before you go, I just have three requests for you. One if you like what I’m doing, please consider subscribing or following the podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer. If you’re really into it, leave me a review, write something nice about me, give me five stars or whatever you feel is most appropriate. Number two I’ve got a book. It’s called Owner Shift how Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck. It’s an Amazon bestseller and I’d love for you to read it or listen to it on Audible or wherever else Barnes and Noble, amazon you can get it everywhere If you’re looking for inspiration that will help you unlock your greatness and potential. Order or download it today so that you can have your very own copy and, if you get it, please let me know what you think.
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