In the 19th century, the United States and the United Kingdom first used containers to transport goods on rail transport. Such as: wood
In the early 20th century, trade between some capitalist countries in Europe developed rapidly, and freight traffic increased rapidly, especially in rail transport. In order to meet the needs, an international organization for container transportation was established in Paris, France in 1931 to study and develop container specifications and standards.
Between 193 and 939, due to the rapid development of road transport, the status of railway transport was relatively reduced. Accordingly, there was fierce competition between the two modes of transport, so that they could not cooperate with each other when transporting containers by rail and road. Therefore, the transportation development of containers is greatly limited.
In the 1950s, the American railroad, which was hit by the rapid development of road transport, adopted a hatchback transport that would be loaded on a flat-panel semi-trailer carrying a container to realize door-to-door transportation. This is the beginning of the transportation of road and rail containers, so the container's superiority has been fully utilized and it has developed rapidly.
In April 1956, the United States' Pan Atlantic Shipping Company refitted a tanker for the first time and loaded containers on the deck for maritime transport. After three months of trial operation, the ship's economic benefits were very significant.