The transportation of commodities was revolutionized with the advent of shipping containers in the 1960s. These steel or aluminium containers with standardized sizes ranging from 10 feet in size to as huge as 50 feet per container. These containers provided safe and easy transport of bulk material across many modes of transportation – specially land and water. The use of containers helped in reduction of labour in handling cargo, thereby saving resources. The use of containers for transportation of goods opened up avenues for spread of business and trade opportunities across distances which earlier had seemed unfathomable.As this domain of transportation changed from purely commercial to personal purposes with rise in globe trotters, the transportation industry requirement for these containers increased and many marketplaces started offering shipping containers for sale melbourne, for personal or commercial use. The inherently reusable status of these containers makes it possible to put up used shipping containers for sale. These containers can be purchased from dedicated or exclusive markets or from websites dealing with shipping container sales. These measures have made procurement of these containers easy , and after use disposal can be done by re-selling them at an attractive price.The use of containers was not restricted to transportation for long. The creative urge led people to find application of these containers in radical manners in daily lives.Some of the areas where shipping containers have been extensively used are:
- Construction of residential building
- Extensions, expansion or renovation of home
- Making a garage, swimming pool or indoor kitchen
- Construction of commercial buildings like restaurants, malls, offices, etc.
- As movable toilets
- For fire safety training
The use of these pre fabricated containers comes with the advantage of time and resource saving but there are certain drawback associated with the materials and designing. Research has introduced variations in conventional materials and newer options to get over those shortcomings. For example , conventional steel posed the biggest problem with rusting. With the advent of Corten steel ot rust resistant coatings, this problem has been overcome to some extent. Other materials such as aluminium and reinforced polymers have failed to take over steel shipping containers completely but are trying to make a niche for themselves. The advancements in shipping containers also include cushioned containers, extra spacious containers, refrigerated containers, to name a few modifications in the traditional corrugated containers. These are designed especially for long distance transport of specific items in cargo that need special care.Thus, shipping containers have come a long way in history from being home to cargo to housing people.