Also known as an intermodal shipping container, this corrugated steel box is built to specific dimensions (typically 20 or 40 feet long) to allow freight to move between ships, trains, and trucks without unloading the cargo itself. They feature corner castings for crane lifting and twistlocks for secure stacking. Their uniform size revolutionized global logistics by eliminating piece-by-piece cargo handling.
Heard on the job
Dispatch wants us to drop the empty container at the yard and bobtail back to the terminal.
Insider tip
In yard slang, a container is often just called a can. If it is mounted on a chassis, the whole unit is sometimes loosely referred to as a trailer, though technically they are separate pieces of equipment.
Also heard as
- shipping container
- intermodal container
- ISO container
- can