[USMA:36195] RE: Australia; shipping containers

[Carleton MacDonald]

The reason they are those sizes is that a US company (SeaLand) was the first to really start using them (in the 1950’s) – and the concept also was born in the US, in the 1930’s.  Of course the US developers of containers would design them in wombat.  Once they came into wide use the whole infrastructure of handling them had been set in stone – ships, trucks, rail cars, cranes – and then the size was locked in.    Same reason we fly at feet altitudes and not meters – the US helped redesign the European airway system after World War II and of course used its particular measurements.   cm   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Han Maenen Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 16:54 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:36194] Australia; shipping containers   And even though we have gone metric here in Oz we still stay 20', 40', 48' and 53' for shipping container lengths....   These shipping container sizes are an international standard. ISO worked on an metric standard for transport systems, but I have not heard about this for some years.