Maritime container transportation, also known as container transportation, is the most important mode of transportation of goods in international trade. International standard containers are 8 feet wide, 8 feet high and 20 feet, 30 feet and 40 feet long. Freight transportation in the form of railway container is one of the types of railway freight transportation. The train is container train.
In 1853, American railway enterprises began to handle container transportation, but due to the different car types used by various departments, the management was decentralized and did not develop. During the Second World War, the United States used a large number of containers for the safe, rapid and simple transportation of military materials. After the war, countries developed railway container transportation one after another.
China's railway container transportation focuses on solving the problem of railway less than carload cargo transportation, mainly using 1-ton and 5-ton general-purpose containers. With the development of railway container transportation and trailer container transportation, the organization of railway container transportation has also obtained new development. Container regular through trains, special container trains and double-layer container trains have been compiled.
Container transportation has many advantages, such as facilitating the mechanization of port operations, thus improving the loading and unloading efficiency, greatly shortening the time of ships in port, accelerating the turnover rate of ships, saving packaging costs, reducing cargo damage, facilitating the connection of different transportation lines and means of transport, and carrying out door-to-door transportation. Container transportation rose in the 1930s and developed after the war. The emergence of maritime container transportation makes container transportation flourish.