Malcom McLean

Malcom Purcell McLean
McLean at railing, Port Newark, 1957
Born	Malcolm Purcell McLean November 14, 1913 Maxton, North Carolina
Died	May 25, 2001(2001-05-25) (aged 87)
Known for	Pioneer of containerization

Malcom Purcell McLean (born Malcolm Purcell McLean, November 14, 1913 – May 25, 2001) was an American businessman. He was a transport entrepreneur who developed the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and international trade in the second half of the twentieth century. Containerization led to a significant reduction in the cost of freight transportation by eliminating the need for repeated handling of individual pieces of cargo, and also improved reliability, reduced cargo theft, and cut inventory costs by shortening transit time.

McLean was born in Maxton, North Carolina in 1913.

In 1935, when he finished high school at Winston-Salem, his family didn't have enough money to send him to college. But there was enough for Malcolm to buy a used truck.

In this year McLean, his sister, Clara McLean, and his brother, Jim McLean, founded McLean Trucking Co. Based out of Red Springs, North Carolina, McLean Trucking started out hauling empty tobacco barrels – with Malcom as one of the drivers.

The idea of transporting trucks on ships was put into practice before World War II. In 1926 regular connection of the luxury passenger train from London to Paris, Golden Arrow/Fleche d'Or, by Southern Railway and French Northern Railway began. For transport of passengers' baggage four containers were used. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on flat cars in the UK and “CIWL Pullman Golden Arrow Fourgon of CIWL” in France.

In the early 1950s McLean decided to attempt use of the containers commercially. By 1952, he was developing plans to carry his company's trucks on ships along the U.S. Atlantic coast, from North Carolina to New York. It soon became apparent that "trailerships", as they were called, would be inefficient because of the large waste in potential cargo space on board the vessel, known as broken stowage. The original concept was modified into loading just the containers, not the chassis, onto the ships, hence the designation containership or "box" ship. At the time, U.S. regulations would not allow a trucking company to own a ship line.