An intermodal container, often called a shipping container or a freight container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport - from ship to rail to truck - without unloading and reloading their cargo. First invented in the early 20th century, modern 40-foot intermodal containers proliferated during the 1960s and 1970s under the containerization innovations of the American shipping company SeaLand.
