A metal box of standard size, used for the transport of cargo by road, rail, or water. Containers may be moved easily and quickly from one mode of transport to another—the whole container may be attached to a lorry or train, or swung onto a ship—and they are packed by the dispatcher so that a minimum of handling is required. Containerization took off in the mid-1960s, and has revolutionized transport systems in the developed world: loading and unloading is faster, so that the circulation time of the capital held in the ship is shortened, and losses through theft fall, as do costs. The impact on dock labour has been dramatic; 1950s New York had 50 000 registered dockers, while by the 1980s the total was 2000. Felixstowe, Suffolk, is a successful UK example of a specialized container port.
