Standardization of Container Sizes Writing Assignment

Standardization of Container Sizes
Student`s Name
Institutional Affiliation
The desire to grow economies have left countries expanding their trade partners all over the world. Therefore, the overseas transport system requires containers to ensure the safe packaging of the trade items. The containers are available for hire or sale, and therefore, this becomes the decision of a country to decide on the most convenient way of acquiring the containers. The containers come in different sizes and have played a substantial role in facilitating intermodal transport between multiple countries.
The use of containers began many centuries ago, but its development was best improved after the second world war. During this period, Europe was going through a process of industrial revolution and, therefore, it was necessary to have a developed transport system in order to facilitate the transport of goods. As well, the containers helped in the reduction of transport costs and the facilitation of globalization because companies could transport and sell their goods overseas. They could also get raw materials that they could not transport in the absence of the containers. The use of containers replaced the need for warehouses and the manual sorting in shipments. As a result, this helped in the reduction of congestion in the ports because most of the workers who did manual sorting were replaced with cranes for lifting the containers. It reduced the shipping time and theft-related losses.
Also, there are five common standardized lengths:
* 20 ft (6.10 m)
* 40 ft (12.19 m)
* 45 ft (13.72 m)
* 48 ft (14.63 m)
* 53 ft (16.15 m)
Most of the US domestic standard containers are the 53 ft and the 48ft both suitable for rail and truck transportation. The capacity of the containers is expressed in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). One unit is a measure of the containerized cargo which is equal to a 20ft(length) by 8ft(width)container (Chilcote, 2017). This is considered to be a standard measure, and the height of the container is not considered. Over the last decade, the 48' containers have been replaced by the 58' containers to facilitate the space per container. Also, the gross mass for a 40ft container approximately 30480kg while that of a 20ft container is approximately 24000kg. To accommodate the tare mass of the container, the maximum cargo mass is 27000kg for the 40ft and 20000kg for the 20ft containers. The standard height for the modern containers if eight feet, six inches. The height used to be 8feet, but some changes were made to suit the height of most railway tunnels. As well, further improvement in the rail tunnels will be necessary to accommodate the current modifications in containers which are nine feet tall and the double stacking rail cars. Regarding air freight containers, the IATA standardized the containers to 11.52 m3 (407 cu ft) in volume (Radfar, Taherkhani & Panahi, 2017). Most of the airlines still have the containers custom made to fit their crafts and the ground handling equipment.
The containers facilitate intermodal transportation by reducing freight handling costs. Cranes move the containers, and therefore, the company will not have to employ people that will unpack and pack the contents being transported. Among the handling costs that might be incurred is the employment of more workers to handle the cargo as compared to the number of workers employees to operate the cranes. Many workers in an organization mean that the cost of paying their salaries will have to be increased. This could end up reducing the overall profitability of the organization, hence making the use of containers an expensive mode of transportation between multiple countries. In most cases, the cargo has o pass several countries before it could reach its destination. Therefore, if the containers have to be unpacked in each country, there is the risk of damaging some of the fragile goods. Such damage could accumulate compensation costs which will, in turn, reduce the profitability of the parties involved. Also, there is also a possibility of delays in the ports, but with the use of cranes, the containers are transported from the ships to the mainland within a short period (Coşar & Demir, 2018). It is due to this reason that the companies opt to purchase or hire containers that are made to transport the goods directly from the origin to the destination. That way, they will not have to incur an extra cost of repackaging their goods in other containers. In the case whereby the containers have to be emptied at the ports, then it becomes costly to arrange for other containers that should probably transport the goods to another destination. Therefore, using one container greatly reduces the handling costs that would have been incurred if the company had to change containers or use other means to facilitate the transport.
As well, the containers facilitate intermodal transport by reducing the amount of time spent on the goods to reach their destination. Given the cu...