| Refrigerated containers are like ordinary portable | | | | container. |
| storage containers in the way that they transport | | | | Refrigeration remains one of the most successful |
| goods across long distances. The difference is that a | | | | means of keeping goods under cold temperatures, and |
| refrigerated container, or reefer, has refrigeration | | | | refrigerated containers let transporters do just that. |
| equipment installed inside of it. This enables the | | | | These units are portable storage containers with the |
| regulation of low temperatures inside the container, and | | | | difference of having a small refrigeration unit on one |
| therefore allows the container to store temperature | | | | side of the container. The refrigeration units may be |
| sensitive cargo. | | | | ran by their own generators, which provide the power |
| The challenge of moving perishable cargo such as | | | | that they need to keep a constant temperature. They |
| food has often been limited by how long travel takes | | | | can also be made to function using external power, |
| and how long the cargo can be preserved. While there | | | | and thus saving costs by making them lighter, albeit |
| are methods to help extend the life of items like food, | | | | more reliant on power from the carrying vehicles such |
| such as adding salts on it to help keep it fresh, | | | | as ships or trucks. |
| methods like that will not work for all goods. Some | | | | Developments towards the technology of refrigerated |
| other cargo can only exist under very specific | | | | containers include the use of refrigeration units that can |
| conditions. The transport of frozen goods, of | | | | deal with containers as large as 20 or even 40 feet in |
| temperature-sensitive chemicals, is impossible without | | | | length, while 8.5 feet in height and 8 feet in width. |
| constant temperatures that cannot be achieved | | | | These larger containers will be able to transport a |
| merely by transporting it with ice in an insulated | | | | greater load of goods to where they are needed. |