Day: May 18, 2022

According to the most recent study, the company which is the world’s largest shipping and storage company, proudly boasted about profits worth 45 billion dollars. These figures are enough to compete with the tech giant apple. Reading this you might be wondering how is it possible that a company that deals in something as mundane as shipping containers. If you are someone who does not know how the shipping business work and are planning to start one, only after being attracted to the insane profits, then there’s a very good chance that you would be in for a surprise.

Shipping companies need to have boatloads of cash and even more financial reserves to invest in shipping containers and vehicles like boats, trucks etc. More than that they also need to have an emergency reserve to be used to pay out insurances,  since in the case of a damaged good, mostly the shipping company is only held at fault and needs to pay. The place is also a huge factor. Owning a storage container in Miami would be much more cheaper that owning one in a place with extreme temperatures like the tundra.

The insides of the shipping industry that no one talks about

Shipping industry is a dark and unpredictable place. The top tier officials and owners take home tons and tons of profits, whereas the poor working class who actually run the day to day operations suffer and take the toll of damages. As mentioned above, in case of any damage to a product being shipped, the company is held liable and is supposed to pay. Most of the times, the damage is done because of inevitable factors like bad weather, traffic in the route etc. However, company owners and managerial officials do not care about these factors and make the driver or the handler of these containers pay out of their own pockets. The amounts to be paid are so high that it becomes literally impossible for these people who make cents above the minimum wage. Sometimes they even end up losing their job.

The storage and shipping industry overall is a dark place. It is one where workers usually avoid getting a job in, because they know that the pay is not good, the conditions are terrible and the owners do not provide their workers with health and insurance benefits. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at a single storage container in Miami or an entire storage and shipping business in India, the plight of workers is all the same.