What’s the Difference Between a Conex Box vs Shipping Container
The shipping industry is built on connecting different regions from around the world, so it shouldn’t be a shock to learn that there are some regional differences when it comes to what different containers are called. We’ll look at the origin story of Conex boxes to dispel the confusion around these two terms.
Container Express to ConEx
The name of a Conex box actually comes from the name of a logistics process developed more than a half-century age. Both shipping operators and the military needed to work out a system to ship things across the country without losing items or delaying arrival times. Coordinating the movement of goods is never simple on such a large scale, but the use of standardized steel shipping containers helped tremendously.
This specific type of shipping was called Container Express, but it wasn’t long before it became Conex (also sometimes written as Connex). The dimensions for these boxes were set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and were designed for intermodal shipping (e.g., plane to train, ship to truck, etc.). As such, these boxes are sometimes called intermodal or ISO containers.
A Type of Shipping Container
Conex is technically considered a type of shipping container. So the broader term can be used to describe a box that follows ISO regulations, but Conex is certainly more descriptive if you’re aiming for clarity. Whether you’re in Massachusets, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, the most popular version of a Conex box is the 20-ft container, though they also come available in 40-ft and 10-ft as well. They’re built to be stacked one on top of the other before being sent around the globe.
The shipping industry terms may not always be familiar to everyone, but they are crucial to the supply chain. If you want to learn more about how to making everything flow just a little more like clockwork, Mobile Storage is here to help.
