At Home in a Shipping Container

An American named Malcom McLean invented a better box and changed the world. He designed the shipping containers that today carry most of the world's goods. Standardized containers can go on ships, trains or trucks and are easy to load and unload.

Malcom McLean was a truck driver who built a big trucking company. Then he bought a steamship company which he later renamed Sea-Land. He launched his idea in nineteen fifty-six using an old tanker.

With Pablo Nava and two others, Brian McCarthy established PFNC Global Communities to build the container homes. PFNC stands for the Spanish words "Por Fin Nuestra Casa" -- "Finally, a Home of Our Own." The company now operates in the American state of New Mexico but will move to Juarez soon.

The sample home is twelve meters long and about two and a half meters in width and height. The kitchen has a stove to cook meals and a refrigerator to keep foods cold. Children and adults have separate sleeping areas.

The company hopes manufacturers in Ciudad Juarez will buy the homes for workers and their families. PFNC wants to keep the price below ten thousand dollars.

And that’s the VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT, written by Jerilyn Watson.