What About Cargo Storage Containers?

I recently saw an image of the Rotterdam Harbour and I was astonished of the vast sight of the storage area that is over there. I found out that Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and between 1962 and 2004 it was the busiest port in the world, until it was surpassed by Shanghai. However, Rotterdam was in 2006 the world's seventh largest container port. Try to imagine what is the amount of work that is on that port, not to mention the synchronisation involved in its daily activities between various departments.

Now, basically I was shocked by the number of cargo storage containers that were in that image. I mean, I saw containers before, who did not? In reality, in movies... But put yourself in the storage site of a port like Rotterdam or Shanghai... Wow! You would probably feel so tiny and insignificant...

And I was curious to find out more about these containers, why are they so special. The first to build such cargo containers was the U.S. Department of Defense (why is not this a surprise?), which used them ever since the 1950s. Seeing that these containers can be re-usable not only for tanks or other military equipment and supplies, the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) started to issue standards based on the mentioned cargo containers dimensions between 1968 and 1970.

Afterward, the storage sites were beginning to fill up with these containers, given the fact that they got a worldwide use. Every company that wanted to ship large numbers of materials and huge objects started to purchase these containers.

By the way, a typical container is 45 ft long, 8 ft wide and 9,6 ft high. Impressive? I bet you can fill in a party over there, don't you say?

Nowadays, the cargo storage containers are the main solution for shipping raw materials all over the world, either if it is by railway, highway or ocean routes. You can move from Moscow to New York and have your stuff in two containers. And the best part is that they will arrive at their destination after you had the opportunity to make yourself familiar with the Big Apple.

Well, a different aspect about these containers is that they provide a very good storage over the time. If you have things that you do not want to sell because they mean so much to you, you can keep them in a bank, right? Go to a storage company, rent a cargo container and put your memories in it, they will be perfectly safe... As long as you pay the rent, of course!