The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

by Marc Levinson

What followed was an unprecedented piece of financial and legal engineering. First, to circumvent rules requiring ICC approval for a truck line to own a ship line, McLean created an entirely new company, McLean Industries, in January 1955. Although McLean Industries had publicly traded stock, it was clearly a family-controlled business; Malcom McLean was president, his brother James McLean was vice president, and his sister Clara McLean was secretary and assistant treasurer. Malcom, James, and Clara then put control of the trucking company in a trust, of which they were the beneficiaries. Malcom McLean kept $5 million of stock, but the trustees were authorized to sell the rest. As soon as the trust documents were signed, the McLeans resigned as directors of McLean Trucking, and within an hour McLean Industries took control of Pan-Atlantic.

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