{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Curiosity Chronicle","title":"The Containerization of the World","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":310,"description":"The story of the week in the business world is the blockage of the Suez Canal by a massive container ship. Weighing 200,000 metric tons, dislodging the ship is no easy problem to solve.\nBut while it happened in 2021, the roots of this problem date back to 1937, when a truck driver from North Carolina had a simple idea that would completely change the world.\nMalcolm Purcell McLean was born in 1913 in Maxton, North Carolina.\nThe son of a farmer, McLean learned the value of hard work from a young age.\nUnable to afford college, he went to work at a gas station. By age 21, he had saved enough money to buy a used truck.\nIt was from these humble beginnings that Malcolm McLean founded McLean Trucking Co. in 1934.\nThe business focused on transporting empty tobacco barrels, livestock feed, and produce. Originally confined to the Mid-Atlantic, McLean Trucking quickly expanded its reach.\nIn 1937, after completing a haul from Fayetteville to Hoboken, McLean was forced to wait for hours in his hot truck while the stevedores worked their way to his load.\nHe realized there had to be a more efficient way to do all of this.\nThe current method - with individual crates unloaded by stevedores, placed into a sling, and lifted into the ship's hold - was time consuming, expensive, and inefficient.\nAs he continued to build a trucking empire over the next decade, the idea constantly gnawed at him.\nBy 1955, Malcolm McLean had built McLean Trucking Co. into one of the largest trucking operations in the country, with >1,700 trucks and locations.\nBut the future he envisioned went well beyond trucking, so he set out to build a new reality.\nMcLean dreamed up a standardized truck trailer that could be easily loaded and stacked onto ships or trains.\nIn his mind, \"containerized cargo\" was to be the future of shipping and logistics.\nEfficient logistics would mean improved commerce and a thriving economy.\nIn 1955, to expand his reach, he sought to acquire Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company - a cargo...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/4nO1oo__jWE5MpZsRfwEO_6q4py16kwv8WwJybce4FA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzMxOTcwLzE2NzEx/MzU5MDctYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}