Abstract:
Malcolm McLean of Robeson County founded the McLean Trucking Company. In 1956, he created containerized shipping, an approach that revolutionized the world of shipping. His idea was to build a tractor-trailer truck in which the trailer part could be lifted onto a ship or onto railroad cars, without anyone touching the contents, and transported to a particular destination, where it was loaded back onto a truck and delivered to the customers. In 1969, the company, Sea-Land Service, Inc., merged with another North Carolina company, RJ Reynolds.