Not so long ago, the activity that consumed most time at commercial ports was that of loading and unloading goods to be transported by ship. Back then, ports were populated by stevedores and robust men carrying heavy sacks or crates on their backs that were then loaded onto ships. 

Businessmen had to pay not only the cost of the workers’ wages but the cost of having a ship moored at port during days while the goods were being loaded on board.  

This scenario radically changed in the 1950s with the arrival of what is known as “containerization”, which refers to the practice of transporting goods in containers of uniform shape and size.

Professor Rama Gopal, from the Bhopal Management Institute of India, explains that “before containerization, cargo had to be loaded into the truck and driven to the port, and later the goods had to be unloaded at the port and reloaded into the ship. This was a cumbersome process, and in consequence, consumed a lot of time. For completing the exercise, ships were detained at port during approximately ten days throughout the entire process of loading and unloading.” 

However, with the arrival of containerization “exporters started placing their goods directly into the containers at their own plant. They were then brought to a container yard to be later sent to port. This process has greatly facilitated reducing time and now ships are able to leave the port in a day or two, after unloading the containers and loading them again onto the ship. The containerization process has decongested the formerly crowded ports.”

According to Gopal, the containerization process has three phases. First, “containers must be loaded at the place of production rather than at the quayside.” Producers must hire a container service and prepare the space at their plant so they can load the goods themselves as they wish them to reach the point of destination. Therefore, businessmen do not have to hire third parties to do this job but rather have their own employees at the plant carry out these tasks.

The containerization process has decongested previously crowded ports  

Second, containers are transported from the plant to the port or to the container yard in a truck (or by train). Producers no longer need to supervise the cargo in the truck or train since these are not handled by any worker outside the organization at any instance of the journey.

Finally, port cranes are used to lift the containers and load them onto the ships. This way, explains Gopal, “the traditional teams of stevedores and porters have become redundant, and large quantities of goods can be shifted far more quickly than before. This is why containerization means huge savings for the shipping firms. To make containerization pay, new ships are designed and built to carry the maximum possible number of containers. Additionally, their internal layout has allowed easy removal of containers by crane at the port.” 

Yehuda Hayut, professor at Haifa University, Israel, explains that “containerization was introduced in maritime trade mainly to improve completion times of ships at port and to reduce the growing costs of loading and unloading cargo. Containerization implies a new system of multi-modal transport.”  

What is a multi-modal transport system? Well, before merchandise had to be loaded and unloaded when it passed from one transportation system to another. With containerization, all goods are loaded onto the same container that travels around the world as if it were one single piece. Therefore, the exporter can hire a series of interconnected services (truck, ship, train); all prepared to load and unload the container and easily transport it from one place to another. In other words, a multi-modal service is engaged, where the container passes through several means of transportation.  

Kenneth Weiss – international trade expert- explains that for example, “a container can be transported from the factory to the port on a truck, which is then lifted onto a vessel and taken to the destination port, and finally trucked to the consignee. Some shipments add rail to this scenario so that your cargo might travel on three different kinds of transportation under one bill of lading.”