A history of the box that shaped the world and made transportation what it is today – meet the shipping container Shipping containers have been with us and around us for more than 50 years and have made an enormous Important on our society, whether we are aware of It or not. Transportation has made a huge step forward since the birth of the shipping container and so has storage In general. As much as we are accustomed to shipping containers being here, they have only been with us since the 1950’s when pioneering entrepreneur Malcolm McLean first Invented the shipping container. McLean Is known as the ‘father of Containerization’ and his Invention Is what has made the container what It Is today. Prior to Malcolm’s Invention goods and cargo was transported by only wooden crates. This quite clearly Is much weaker than a metal shipping container and It was much more difficult to transport goods beforehand. This was actually one of McLean’s main motives for creating the shipping container – to Improve the quality and strength of cargo transportation and It has definitely worked.