Join us in celebrating the fiftieth birthday of one of the most important developments in the global transport industry - the humble container.

When American truck driver Malcolm McLean watched individual sacks of cotton being loaded from ship to truck by hand, he had the idea of putting goods into a big metal box at the beginning of their journey. He bought an old tanker and had it converted to carry pre-loaded steel containers and started up the Sea-Land Services shipping company. Little could he have imagined that his idea would eventually carry 95% of the world's general cargo, reducing freight costs to a fraction of their previous level. It's said that it costs less to move a container from Japan to Southampton than from Southampton to Glasgow!