Collapsible crate of 2000 kilos
Not devised by heavily subsidised scientists, but simply by a Rotterdam businessman who until recently had nothing to do with ports. Rene Giesbers (46) calls shipping containers 'steel boxes containing nothing more than an expensive wooden floor, to which no radical changes have been made in over 50 years.’ ‘But it has to be possible to do things better and more sustainably,’ says the commercial director of the Rotterdam installation firm Giesbers & Van der Graaf.

One night he got up and sketched a new, collapsible, shipping container. His wife reacted with scepticism: 'You at it again?’ But when he talked to people about it, they said 'Amazing that it doesn’t already exist'.

With the help of ten others he came up with a design. The most striking feature of course is that the container is collapsible. It has to be simple and quick and be done by one person. The only thing needed is a crane or forklift truck. Giesbers demonstrates how it works with a short film – it takes less than 30 seconds. You fold it up with a hook in the roof on one side and you unfold it with a second hook on the other side.

When folded, the Cargoshell is just a quarter of its full size. This means that instead of one container you can transport four Cargoshells on the truck or the ship. So you can start counting the profit, because around 20 billion dollars are spent every year on moving empty containers, in other words transporting air.

‘Good news for the environment,’ enthuses port economist Bart Kuiper. ‘Shifting all those empty containers around the world consumes a lot of energy.’ But it remains to be seen whether this will represent a commercial breakthrough. But as Kuipers says, ‘The Cargoshell can obviate lots of transport movements.’

Source: AD