A shipping company is a company that transports goods across the country and around the world.
You know that shipping companies move the products on ships across the inland and maritime waterways. Did you know that the ships the company uses may belong to other companies?
Only about one-half of shipping companies actually own the ships they send packages and containers on.
A Little Shipping Company History
In 1730 the British shipping company, Stephenson Clarke, began moving goods across the “big pond”. For about 300 years Stephenson Clarke remained the largest shipping company in the world.
This method of transporting goods has been utilized every since. Shipping from various ports around the world is the leading method of getting a wide variety of goods to other places.
This method of transporting goods is so popular that there are more than 55,000 merchant ships on the waterways.
Modern Container Shipping
In 1955 modern container shipping began making a mark on the moving of goods. Malcolm P McLean of North Carolina had the notion that he would streamline the shipping industry.
McLean was a truck driver and used to hauling containers of goods across the country. When the containers reached ports they had to be unloaded and then reloaded onto the ships.
McLean wanted to get the container to the port and then load the container onto the ship without having to unload it. Doing this saved a lot of time, and for the last 65+ years, it has been one of the most used methods of shipping.
A maritime worker or someone that works on one of these ships can make between $45,000 and $65,000 annually.
Shipping Companies Keep a Lot of People Working
The process of shipping goods from one port to another one across the sea requires a lot of employees. That is why these companies employ about 1.5 million people.
One-third of the employees that work on the ships and vessels come from the Philippines.
The industry employs both male and female workers. 2% of the 1.5 million employees working in this industry are female.
Shipping is Economical
Shipping requires some big ships but it is actually more environmentally friendly to transport goods by ship than it is to send them by plane. It is also a lot cheaper to send items on a ship than it is to send them by plane.
On average it costs about $10 to transport a bicycle on a ship across the sea. It costs about one penny to move something the size of a can of soda. It is an economical method of moving goods that saves money for the manufacturer and that means you get to pay less for items.
The reason why you can go to the mall and buy those t-shirts for five dollars or less is because a ship can transport them from another country that sells t-shirts for very low amounts and the shop owner in the mall can then pass the savings on to their customers.
The cost of shipping products is so low that Scotland ships cod to China to be filleted. The cost of the shipping is far less than the cost of hiring Scottish filleters to cut the fish up.
Sizes of the Ships
The ships that are used to move products come in different sizes. Each ship travels about 360,000 miles each year. If you stretched those miles out that would be about three-quarters of the way to the moon and back.
A large container ship can move as many as 11,000 containers on each trip. There are larger container ships that can carry as many as 15,000 containers at one time. The colossal size ships can move as many as 20,000 containers at one time.
In 15,000 containers you could transport enough bananas to feed everyone in North America and Europe one banana each!
Some of the bigger ships can cost as much as 200 million dollars to manufacture.
Speed of Travel
On average a cargo ship can travel close to 26 miles each day. That does not seem very far since the engine of one of those ships is 1,000 times more powerful than the engine in the average passenger car is.
Did you know?
When the sailors are traveling across the oceans and seas the majority of them no means of communication with anyone that is not on the ship.
A small number of companies, about 10%, have invested in internet services that they offer freely to their crew members.
Pirates and Dangers
Shipping is not without dangers. One of the big dangers they face is the weather.
The oceans and seas can become treacherous when the weather gets bad. If the ship is in the path of a hurricane there is little the crew can do to get out of the way of the storm.
Shipping companies are notorious for being closed mouthed about their business. This is because another real danger the crews of the ships are exposed to is pirates.
The pirates are known to attack the ships, board the ships and injure crew members or steal the valuable contents the ship is transporting.
It is best for the shipping companies to keep the location of their ships and the manifest list of what the ships are carrying a secret from as many people as possible.
Shipping Companies Serve Everyone
Shipping companies do not require that your company be of a certain size, or be able to ship a certain quantity of merchandise on a regular basis. They work for small businesses and large businesses.
It is true that if you are shipping larger quantities of merchandise then the cost of shipping will be less than if you are shipping a small number of goods. Shipping companies like those containers and boxes are moving to be full and when having to place small orders on the ship the packaging becomes problematic.
Each shipping company will have their own guidelines concerning how much you can ship at once, and the cost of shipping.