How did a metal box first secured to a converted tanker in April 1956 cut ocean freight loading costs by more than 90 per cent?

The idea was simple enough that dockworkers laughed at it: put the cargo in a standard steel box and never unpack it until it arrived. What Malcom McLean stacked onto the Ideal X that April morning would gut the world's ports within two decades.

By How It Works · Sep 10, 2026