BBC Box

The Box or BBC Box (BIC code: NYKU8210506) is a single ISO intermodal container that started to be tracked by BBC News in September 2008. The intention was to track the container for a period of one year, in a project to study international trade and globalisation. The Box was fitted with tracking equipment and painted in a special one-off livery.

The tracking project was launched on 8 September 2008. The project tracked a standard 40-foot-long (12 m) shipping container as it was transported by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) shipping line using intermodal freight transport with various cargoes. An on-board GPS unit tracked the Box's location and this was used to update a map showing the current location and previous route. If the container's GPS or communications signal was obstructed (such as having been stacked too far inside the ship's hold), the ship's own GPS location was being used to manually update a map. The tracking unit suffered technical problems during December 2008.

The Box was painted in a special BBC paint scheme and was named after the book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, which covers the effects of containerisation. The project is being assisted by the Container Shipping Information Service.

The box started off empty, travelling to its first destination under the BBC branding. The first cargo was a consignment of whisky from a Glasgow-based bottling plant to Shanghai, China. On arrival in Shanghai, the Box was met and reported on by British school pupils on a trip to China.

Later arrived in Southampton on 22 October at around 3am, unloaded with crane L, being driven by Lee Harfield, the same driver who had loaded it when it left Southampton.

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