Imagine how much simpler life would be for people in the industry if there
was a single system of measurement. Look at the clutter in the container
specs on this site:
http://www.freightraders.co.nz/containerspecs.html
They even have to include conversion tables just overcome the ambivalence of
it all.
Phil Hall
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carleton MacDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 10:42 PM
Subject: [USMA:36195] RE: Australia; shipping containers
The reason they are those sizes is that a US company (SeaLand) was the
first
to really start using them (in the 1950's) - and the concept also was born
in the US, in the 1930's. Of course the US developers of containers would
design them in wombat. Once they came into wide use the whole
infrastructure of handling them had been set in stone - ships, trucks,
rail
cars, cranes - and then the size was locked in.
Same reason we fly at feet altitudes and not meters - the US helped
redesign
the European airway system after World War II and of course used its
particular measurements.
cm
_____
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Han Maenen
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 16:54
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:36194] Australia; shipping containers
And even though we have gone metric here in Oz we still stay 20', 40', 48'
and 53' for shipping container lengths....
These shipping container sizes are an international standard. ISO worked
on
an metric standard for transport systems, but I have not heard about this
for some years.
