Historically, for the freight forwarding business, the introduction of containers as a transportation means is a sort of a milestone. The member companies of the European logistics network use containers for their freight forwarding services to various destinations in Europe on a daily basis.
The beginning of the use of containers for freight forwarding
The first use of containers began in the mining regions of England in the second half of the 18th century. They were made of wood and were transported with wagons and then on carts pulled by horses. After that, the containers were transferred to barges to be transported by water. Later containers started being used in other countries and on the other continents too. The metal containers started being used in the 19th century, and in the 20th century they became highly popular when combining rail and road transport.
The advantages of using containers
- Containers have a standard size, which makes them very easy to load and unload on different transport vehicles, which saves a lot of time for such operations.
- Containers lower the need of manual labor. Cranes are used to load and unload them. Cranes are an essential part of all modern ports.
- The cargo is protected from different weather conditions.
- The containers provide protection to the cargo and goods from damage and theft.
The fast development of containerization
The advantages provided by the use of containers have led to the quick rise in the popularity of the use of containers for freight forwarding. By the end of the 20th century, container based forwarding services had reached 90% of all freight forwarding services.
Intermodal freight forwarding is inconceivable without containers
Intermodal transport accounts for a large share of all freight forwarding services globally as well as in Europe. The intermodal forwarding solutions are an essential part of the freight forwarding services provided by freight forwarders Europe.
Intermodal forwarding consists of a combination of various types of transport, for example road and water, in order to achieve optimal routes and faster deliveries of the cargo and goods in the cases when there are limitations due to weather or other unfavorable conditions. This is why the containers used by the freight forwarders are all made of special durable steel. They can be loaded, unloaded and forwarded by trucks, trains and container carriers without the need to be opened.
Tracking the containers
With the Europe-wide groupage transport service container tracking is easy, because they are all numbered, and all member companies of the European logistics association use modern computer systems which allow for real-time tracking and sending information to the customers regarding the status of the containers and the cargo at any given time.
Containerization in the 21st century
As we already mentioned before, 90% of the world freight forwarding services are provided with the use of containers. Thanks to the container forwarding services, the European logistics companies can offer cheap freight forwarding services to all its customers in the different European countries.
Containerization affects the choice of manufacturers
The advantages as well as the availability of cheaper and more efficient freight forwarding services attract the attention of manufacturers of all industrial sectors. This has led to the rapid increase of the overall volume of container based freight forwarding services for commercial reasons, and also to a growing interest in container-based solutions for forwarding.
The containerization affects the transport industry
Due to the huge volume of container freight forwarding services being provided, the vehicle producers now make standard sized and shaped trucks which can fit the standard sized containers.