What is Shipping Container

Posted by Ella J. Wetherby on November 8th, 2022

What is a Shipping Container?

Shipping Containers are also known as conex boxes, and are the cargo containers that allow goods to be stored for transport in trucks, trains and boats, making intermodal transport possible.  They are typically used to transport heavy materials or palletized goods.

Shipping containers are also referred to as, ISO container, conex box, railroad container, intermodal container and certain truck trailers. This industry term refers to the International Standards Organization (ISO), the largest developer of international standards and the organization that developed the standard dimension specifications for steel shipping containers used worldwide.

 The design of the ISO standard containers allows for intermodal shipping, which is the movement of containers from one mode of transport to another, like ship, rail, or truck, without the need of having to load and unload, and reload its contents.

Shipping Containers are used to protect transported cargo from shock and bad weather conditions, as well as keep storage products intact. They were first used in the 1950s and were initially developed for the purpose of commercial shipping container transport.

Depending on the type of product that is going to be sent, the Shipping Container can vary in dimension, structure, material, etc. Characteristics of these shipping containers were later standardized, something that expedited transport without the need to load and unload the merchandise along the way.

There are different types of Shipping Containers for different types of transportation:

Common Types of Shipping Containers

Shipping Containers are another name for the conex boxes most used on the market.  Shipping Containers are typically suitable for any type of dry cargo: pallets, boxes, bags, machines, furniture, etc.

Common types include:

- Dry Storage Container

- Refrigerated Container

- Open top container

- Flat rack container

- Open Side Container

- Tanks Container

- Ventilated containers

- Dry Storage Shipping Container

Dry Storage Shipping Containers are your typical standard shipping containers.  Basic construction is made of steel, and hermetically sealed, without cooling or ventilation.  Sizes typically come in 20 ‘, 40’ or 40 ‘High Cube.  The High Cube category facilitates an increase of 13% of the internal cubic capacity and can handle the heaviest loads (coal, tobacco, etc.)