Source: Notteboom, T. and J-P Rodrigue (2008) “The Future of Containerization: Perspectives form Maritime and Inland Freight Distribution”.

The Container as a Transport, Production, Distribution Unit

Within global production networks the container is concomitantly a transport, production, and distribution unit. As the container became the privileged transport unit for international transportation, many production segments have embedded the container as a production planning unit with inputs and outputs considered as containerized batches. Concomitantly, the container became a distribution unit leading to radical changes in freight distribution with a switch to time-based management strategies. The shorter the transit time (which is not necessarily proportional to distance), the lower the inventory level, which can result in significant cost reductions. The fact that the container is also its own warehousing unit has led to new distribution strategies.