Containerisation
Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"
Meaning
Containerisation means packing cargo into steel boxes of standard size, 20 or 40 feet long. Each box moves straight from ship to train to truck without being opened or repacked. This makes loading and unloading at ports faster and cheaper, and it cuts theft. It began in the USA in 1956 and is now the normal way to carry manufactured goods across the world.
Example
A container of garments packed at a factory in Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu) can go by truck or train to a port, then by ship to Europe. Nobody touches the goods inside until the container reaches the buyer.
Don't confuse with
- Twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU): TEU is only the unit used to count container capacity. Containerisation is the whole system of moving cargo in standard boxes.
Related concepts
- Water transport
- Twenty-foot equivalent unit
- Hub-and-spoke model
- Transshipment hub
- Northern Atlantic sea route
- Mediterranean-Indian Ocean sea route
- Cape of Good Hope sea route
- Southern Atlantic sea route
- North Pacific sea route
- Honolulu