The most powerful evidence against the international standards came from the marketplace. Despite the U.S. government’s pressure on carriers to use “standard” sizes, nonstandard containers continued to dominate. Sea-Land’s 35-foot containers and Matson’s 24-footers, all a nonstandard 8 feet 6 inches high, accounted for two-thirds of all containers owned by U.S. ship lines in 1965.
Standards from practice
