What would happen if wooden shipping crates disappeared from just a few of the major industries that depended on them—construction, furniture, fuel and of course shipping?
Houses wouldn’t be built, fine furniture wouldn’t be made, we'd face fuel shortages and goods would not make it to their destination in one piece. Are we talking a pandemonium? The end of the world as we know it? You bet we are!
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Like the construction and furniture industries, the shipping industry has always relied heavily on wooden crates to help deliver goods from country to country and coast to coast. In fact, the use of international wooden containers in the shipping industry dates all the way back to the 10th-18th century Europe. During this time, wood became the chief material in constructing buckets, barrels, boxes, buildings, machines, mills, furniture, carts, ships, and even shoes.
While the fascination with wooden containers began with crafting fine wooden shipping crates, the shipping industry selected wood as its number one shipping material due to the material’s remarkable strength, thickness, safety, stability, and durability. Simply put, international wooden shipping crates are tough, so they can weather the storm.
Centuries ago, shipping conditions were extreme, yet wooden containers survived. Intense heat and humidity, severe wind and cold, and heavy snow and ice came with the territory back then and wood shipping crates still survived.
Wooden shipping crates also withstood the harsh and salty weather conditions common to overseas transport and they resisted rainy conditions and the dramatic climate changes that came with shipping between countries and even many domestic regions. Wooden shipping crates held up to crowding and stacking, which was also common with overseas shipping.
Wood made it easier to confront these challenges, in part, because of the diversity in which it could be constructed. Valley Box's Wood Box Styles downloads illustrate just a few of the construction style options and why wooden containers continue to make shipping easier today.
While today's shipping industry is a heck of a lot more advanced than it was centuries ago, the wooden shipping crate is still one of the world’s most popular (and vital) shipping solutions. With so much dependency on these wooden wonders, if they disappeared, yes, the world would certainly suffer!
