Since its beginnings in 1848, APL has been a leader and an innovator. Its original predecessor, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, started the first steamship service between the U.S. and Asia, opening the prospect of Transpacific trade and passenger service. From 1920 to 1922, Pacific Mail operated an around-the-world service, which was re-established in 1924 by the Dollar Steamship Company (Dollar acquired Pacific Mail the following year). APL's global reach today extends to 25,000 locations on six continents, and APL continues its role as a dominant player in the Transpacific.
In recent years, APL has become known for its many innovations in information technology, including the ocean-shipping industry's first Web site (1995) and encrypted bills of lading that can be printed by third parties such as a bank or freight forwarder (2001). But it is in containerization and intermodalism that APL has perhaps made its greatest contributions to the transportation industry. With the 50th anniversary of containerized shipping drawing near, it's a fitting time to review these milestones.
Following are the principal innovations that underscore APL's impact on the 50-year-old container shipping industry
APL: A Tradition of Innovation
1979 First dedicated express container train service across U.S.
1982 First 45-foot container
1984 Pioneered double-stack container service
1986 First 48-foot container
1988 First post-Panamax containerships
1988 First 53-foot container
1989 Developed semi-automatic inter-box connector
1995 First ocean-carrier Web site
2001 First remote electronic bill of lading
2005 First use of RFID for wheeled container operation
1979: APL LinerTrain. The winter of 1977-78 was particularly harsh, with blizzards that shut down large segments of the U.S. road and rail transportation system. APL's ultimate response was to increase its ranks of railroad operations people and introduce the LinerTrain, which involved time-chartering trains from the railroads in order to control the rail portion of the intermodal container move. The LinerTrain, the first dedicated train service operated by an ocean-shipping company, integrated ocean and land container moves, with one carrier � APL � now directing both parts of the transport. Consequently, container transportation became more reliable, predictable and convenient than it had been previously. Train and vessel schedules were coordinated, resulting in dramatic reductions in transit times for international shipments. Today LinerTrain is an APL trademark symbolizing the company's intermodal leadership throughout the age of containerization
1984: APL Stacktrain. With the introduction of APL's double-stack rail cars in 1984, the LinerTrain evolved into the APL Stacktrain. Other versions of double-stack cars had been tried, but had not been widely used. Railroads were generally unenthusiastic, frequently citing height limitations along their routes. APL's rail operations people, however, were intrigued by the cost advantages that double-stack cars could offer � at first estimated and later validated at around 25% less than the piggyback Trailer On Flat Car (TOFC) equipment then in use.
The cost advantage came largely from nearly doubling the carrying capacity of a train by stacking containers two-high. Stack cars also weighed half as much per container as TOFC cars (40,000 pounds for every two containers vs. the same weight to carry just one.) APL worked with the Thrall Car Company of Chicago to modify an existing car used for wheeled trailers. APL and Thrall re-engineered the car to carry 10 40-foot containers, stacked two-high in depressed "wells" that brought the boxes closer to the tracks. APL and Thrall also removed the two bulkheads at either end of the wells that were used to hold trailers in place. The bulkheads weren't needed because the containers could be secured with the same "inter-box connectors" used on vessels; taking off the bulkheads also allowed containers to be loaded and unloaded more efficiently. The 251 stack cars initially delivered to APL are still running.
As important as the engineering was the need to convince the railroads that the stacktrain could work. APL executives showed railroad officials that by paying careful attention to 8.5- and 9-foot container heights, they could create the necessary clearance for tunnels and bridges. Ultimately, the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads agreed to carry the stacktrain.
An unexpected benefit was a sharp decrease in cargo damage. The decline stemmed from stability created by the stackcars' lower center of gravity and the smaller number of rail-car couplers used on the stacktrain compared with the number needed for conventional trains. Couplers have a natural "slack action" that allows cars to jerk forward or backward as the train speeds up or slows down. With conventional TOFC cars, the length between couplers was around 45 feet � one on either end of the car. The stackcar's five sets of wells, however, were connected by pins, with the couplers between the cars appearing only around every 250 feet. The smaller number of couplers greatly reduced the slack action, and thus the amount of jostling to the cargo. The smoother ride made train transportation comparable to truck transit from the standpoint of cargo safety, opening lower-cost railroad transportation to sensitive goods. APL created a famous marketing video called, "Smooth Move," in which a dinner table set with china and stemware was transported in a container on the stacktrain across the continental US. When the train arrived at the East Coast, only one piece of silverware had slipped off the table.
As the stacktrain's influence increased in the U.S., APL expanded service into Mexico in 1988 and worked with Mexican officials in the 1990s to modify Mexico's rail system to accommodate more widespread double-stack shipments. Stacktrain transportation now exists throughout North America and also in India.
1982, 1986 and 1988: 45-, 48- and 53-foot containers. With their 50-foot wells, stackcars offered economies of scale from longer containers. APL introduced 45-foot and 48-foot containers in 1982 and 1986, respectively. Both were used on ocean and land. APL introduced 53-footers (for land transport only) in 1988. The longer containers allowed customers to lower their unit costs of shipping goods.
1988: Post-Panamax containerships. The reliability and transit times provided by the stacktrain led APL to develop the first-ever containerships too wide for the Panama Canal. Delivered between April and September 1988, the five 4300-TEU, C10-class vessels measured just under 903 feet in length and more than 129 feet across. The decision committed APL to intermodal container transportation in the Transpacific and started another chapter in the history of containerization. APL followed the C10s with six 4832-TEU, C11-class vessels delivered between September 1995 and early January 1996.
1989: Semi-Automatic Inter-Box Connectors. When containers were introduced, longshore workers had to "go aloft" on top of each successive layer of boxes to attach the cone-shaped inter-box connectors that held containers to one another for the ocean voyage. The job was slow and risky. To lock the connectors, a longshore worker had to walk between the container rows on the vessel and set them with a long pole. The top layers couldn't be reached from the deck, and a worker had to lock the connectors while standing on top of each stack of boxes.
In the late 1980s, working with a manufacturer of marine lashings, APL and a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ( ILWU) developed a semi-automatic twist lock that eliminated the need for workers to go aloft. Instead of being attached to containers on the ship, the semi-automatic devices are set into the apertures on the bottom corners of each container as the box is lifted off the pier. The crane operator holds the box a few feet off the ground while longshore workers attach and cock the locks. When the container is set down on the vessel, the locks snap into position and connect the container to the box below. The introduction of semi-automatic inter-box connectors had the twin effects of increasing both productivity and safety on the waterfront.
2005: Real-Time Locating System for containers. In a container yard, the three most dreaded words in the language may be, "unable to locate." That means a container is lost somewhere among thousands of other boxes. It also usually means a frustrated trucker trying to find the container for a delivery, or an anxious marine superintendent who needs to stow it onto a vessel or a train.
In the summer of 2005, APL's Global Gateway South terminal at the Port of Los Angeles became the first to use a Real Time Locating System (RTLS) to find and track containers in a "wheeled" container yard � that is, a yard where loaded containers are stored on chassis awaiting pick-up by truckers. The system works with electronic tags attached to APL's Southern California chassis fleet. When a truck carrying a container on an APL chassis enters the terminal, the computerized terminal management system associates the container number with the tag, which transmits radio signals to the system. (Temporary tags are attached to non-APL chassis.) Antennas on each of the facility's 85 light poles pick up transmissions from the tag; when the container is set down in a parking space (and the transmissions come from the same location for several minutes), the terminal management system establishes that spot as the container's location.
The new system, which is accurate to within one parking space, has greatly reduced the time truckers spend searching for containers. It's probably no coincidence that Global Gateway South was recently voted the best ocean terminal in the LA-Long Beach harbor by the California Trucking Association.
