The Box or BBC Box (BIC code: NYKU8210506) was a single ISO intermodal container which was tracked by BBC News between September 2008 and April 2009, as part of a project to study international trade and globalisation. The Box was fitted with tracking equipment, and painted in a special one-off BBC livery. The Box was named after the book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, which covers the effects of containerisation. The project was assisted by the Container Shipping Information Service. The tracking project was launched on 8 September 2008. The BBC project tracked a standard 40 ft shipping container as it was transported by its owner, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) shipping line using intermodal freight transport with various cargoes. An on-board GPS unit tracked the Box's location, and this was used to update a map showing the current location and its previous route. If the container's GPS or communications signal was obstructed (such as having been stacked too far inside the ship's hold), the ship's own GPS location was used to manually update a map. The tracking unit suffered technical problems during December 2008. Following the end of the project in 2009, the shipping container was donated by its owner, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) to a charity to be turned into a soup kitchen.

Cargoes

The Box arrived empty, already in its BBC branding. It travelled to its first destination to take on its first cargo; a consignment of whisky from a Glasgow-based bottling plant to Shanghai, China. On arrival in Shanghai, the Box was met and reported on by British school pupils on a trip to China. Later arrived in Southampton on 22 October at around 3am, unloaded with crane L, being driven by Lee Harfield, the same driver who had loaded it when it left Southampton. GPS tracking stopped on 4 April 2009, shortly after passing Mauritius.

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