What are standards good for?

Turns out, standards are absolutely useful in making innovation happen. Go figure.

A little history tour: Malcolm McLean started out as a truck driver, buying one used truck and starting a trucking company. In time, he had a vision of revolutionizing freight transportation. His vision became the ubiquitous shipping containers and all the infrastructure tied to them.

Along the way, he had help from industry icons like Roy Fruehauf and his company, and industry standards organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). If you are not familiar with the story, it’s worth the time to web-surf as it is a great example of a fledgling disruptive technology moving the bar on freight industry status quo.

McLean started in the early 1950s purchasing and reconfiguring old World War II tankers to become the pilot container ships. McLean and Fruehauf developed the initial pool of 58 containers, which were the first to be loaded on the converted tankers and put into service in 1956. Patents were obtained for the many aspects of the container and chassis system.

The market started seeing potential in handling more freight in less time and at less cost. In 1965, ISO began work recommending the McLean-Fruehauf container as a global standard.

The current standard for ocean going containers includes 20 foot and 40 foot per ISO 668:2020. The U.S. and Canadian intermodal industry introduced and standardized on 45, 48 and 53 foot containers specifically for North American road and rail movement comparable to trailer sizes used with tractor-trailers.Rick MihelicThe pace of technology diffusion, or market penetration, is based on the market embracing change for all its benefits and a willingness to work through the challenges of creating new infrastructure and operating practices. The freight industry has a history of seeing and acting on new potential.

According to Fruehauf's website, in 2006 – the 50th anniversary of the McLean-Fruehauf container – container ships carried some 60% of all ocean-going freight. The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), states that between 2015 and 2020, the top 25 U.S. container ports handled a total of 39.8 million TEUs. A TEU is a 20-foot equivalent unit — the measurement metric for ocean-going containers. The Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) estimates there are some 600 million shipping containers in use worldwide.