They began by offering to ship cargo in containers on a door to door basis from the Eastern States to ports in Western Australia using three ton Seatainers. (Taming the Australian Stevedoring Industry: who really runs the show?) In 1969 two more container ships were added to their fleet. This move of using containers to move cargo on ships and on a door to door basis threw open the flood gates to increase the through put of ports and was very soon embraced by almost all other shippers in the movement of cargo around the world. This increased movement of goods by sea and in containers saw a sea of change in the way goods were handled at the ports by the use of bigger and better cranes and efforts at increasing their efficiency still go on. The introduction of container vessels meant improvement in the productivity of stevedores. (Taming the Australian Stevedoring Industry: who really runs the show?)

References

De, Prabir; Park,...

"An Alternative Approach to Efficiency Measurement of Seaports" Maritime Economics & Logistics, 2004, 6, (53-69). Retrieved at http://www.palgrave-journals.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/mel/journal/v6/n1/full/9100094a.html&filetype=pdf. Accessed on 19 January 2005
Fletcher, Tony. "Taming the Australian Stevedoring Industry: who really runs the show?" Retrieved at http://mh2001.murdoch.edu.au/links/submissions/fletcher.html. Accessed on 19 January 2005

Leschine, T. M; Dowd, T.J. "Container terminal productivity: A perspective"

Retrieved at http://texas-sea-grant.tamu.edu/pubs/Ports/Washington/ContainerTerminalProduct.pdf. Accessed on 19 January 2005

The European Shippers' Council Response on the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council" Retrieved at http://www.europeanshippers.com/public/statements/Archives/ESCResponesQSSeaPorts.htm. Accessed on 19 January 2005