BBC Box

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Route; 1: Port of Southampton→ 2:Greenock→ 3:Southampton→ 4:Port of Singapore→ 5:Port of Shanghai→ 6:Port of Los Angeles→ 7:Port of New Jersey→ 8:Santos, Brazil→ 9:Hong Kong→ 10:Port of Yokohama→ 11:Laem Chabang, Thailand→ 12:Southampton
Ports; Destination. Transhipment

The Box or BBC Box (BIC code: NYKU8210506) is a single ISO intermodal container that started to be tracked by BBC News in September 2008. The intention was to track the container for a period of one year, in a project to study international trade and globalisation. The Box was fitted with tracking equipment and painted in a special one-off livery.

Overview

The tracking project was launched on 8 September 2008. The project tracked a standard 40-foot-long (12 m) shipping container as it was transported by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) shipping line using intermodal freight transport with various cargoes. An on-board GPS unit tracked the Box's location and this was used to update a map showing the current location and previous route. If the container's GPS or communications signal was obstructed (such as having been stacked too far inside the ship's hold), the ship's own GPS location was being used to manually update a map. The tracking unit suffered technical problems during December 2008.

The Box was painted in a special BBC paint scheme and was named after the book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, which covers the effects of containerisation. The project is being assisted by the Container Shipping Information Service.

Cargoes

The box in London

The box started off empty, travelling to its first destination under the BBC branding. The first cargo was a consignment of whisky from a Glasgow-based bottling plant to Shanghai, China. On arrival in Shanghai, the Box was met and reported on by British school pupils on a trip to China.

(empty)

from Southampton Maritime, England to a "dry port" at Coatbridge, Scotland (by rail, behind Freightliner 66594 NYK Spirit of Kyoto)

to Paisley, Scotland (by road)

Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky

from Paisley via Greenock, Scotland (by road)

via Port of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Port of Southampton (on board Vega Stockholm)

via Suez Canal and Gulf of Aden; reloaded at Port of Singapore, to Port of Shanghai, China (on board Copenhagen Express)

Tape measures/cosmetics/gardening products for Big Lots

from Port of Shanghai via Japan and Pacific Ocean to Port of Los Angeles, United States (on board NYK Starlight);

via New Jersey (by rail)

to Pennsylvania (by road)

ink/spearmint flavouring/additives/polyester fibre

from New York, (on board Iwato, IMO9106807, formerly Eagle I)

to Santos, Brazil (by sea)

Monosodium glutamate and auto parts

from Santos via Cape of Good Hope and Singapore (on board Aquitania, IMO9178288, Callsign A8HJ6)

reloaded at Port of Hong Kong to Port of Yokohama, Japan (on board NYK Clara, IMO9355408, Callsign 9VFW9)

Various (consolidated cargo)

from Yokohama 15 August 2009 (on board Ratana Thida 230, IMO9117129, Callsign HSAG2)

to Laem Chabang, Thailand (expected: 23 August 2009)

Tinned Catfood 

25 September 2009 Lat Krabang, Bangkok, Thailand, Due to arrive Southampton, United Kingdom 21 October 2009

Later arrived in Southampton on 22 October at around 3am, unloaded with crane L, being driven by Lee Harfield, the same driver that had loaded it when it left Southampton.

GPS tracking stopped on 2009-04-04, shortly after passing Mauritius.

Related projects

A 2007 book, Around the World in 40 Feet; Two Hundred Days in the Life of a 40FT NYK Shipping Container, written by Richard Cook and Marcus Oleniuk, detailed the journey of another NYK container.

External links

• BBC News home page for The Box project
• Live updating map of the Box's position
• Image of The Box
• NYK Line tracking (copy and paste  NYKU8210506 )