you likely know what a traditional shipping container looks like.
Right, but take a look at this one created by our next guest.
See that
that there is a stacks on
stacks on says it's collapsible shipping containers which fold accordion style.
Like you see there are the key to solving the global supply chain crisis
stacks. Un's containers shrink to 1/5 of the size of a regular container.
And joining us now is George coach, Janowski,
Ceo and Cto of stacks on and George tell us about your containers, how they work.
And how do they literally help ease supply chain issues.
Thanks for having me.
The accordion style
uh folding
is not collapsing. We're folding
and that presents all of the unique features
that the previous technology that has been attempted around the world and failed.
The other technology relied on containers being stacked
on top of each other but couldn't be
used in the normal methodology in the ports
and the terminals that needed special equipment.
So what I did is I took a look
at the fundamentals of what the shipping industry required.
And if you were to have
one or two or three containers in the old technology, you would be laying around
and we refer to them as widows and orphans.
The stacks on technology says that even if you only have two containers,
you can put two of them together and join them and ship them as one.
So we get a lot of velocity out of our
technology
and that's where we are today. We have
completed our prototyping.
We have gone out for international certification and accomplished that.
We have 38 patents
around in the United States, in the EU and in China
and we have just completed production prototyping
and tomorrow we start demonstrating it
to the industry,
one of the very, very large retailer
before we get there.
So one of the things that interested me most about this story
when I heard about that is the fact that right now,
as you probably know, shipping containers are incredibly expensive
because of the pandemic. The price of a shipping container went from something like
$5,000-17-$20,000.
So how much are these containers compared to
traditional shipping containers when it comes to cost?
They are going to cost about 1.5 times more.
But unlike a standard container, this one has a return on investment.
If you're going to be charged $10 or $20,000 to ship one empty container
from a to b.
If you could put two of them together, you've cut your repositioning costs in half,
do that six times a year and you get a return on investment
where the other product has no chance of giving you a return.
So any incremental increase in cost of steel, paint wood
will completely be returned to you in a very, very short period of time.
Now. You mentioned special equipment earlier.
Does this need any special equipment to use or what kind
or a drastic change I guess to the industry for use.
My partners and I have a little bit of gray in our beards.
So we understood that this had to be seamless with current technology.
We use the same fork trucks,
the same positioning to the operator who may be picking up 234.
It's one. So as he's grabbing that piece of equipment,
he's grabbing one container
you can stack on them. They can be stacked upon other containers that are standard.
Hence the name of the company stacks on.
So we made sure that it fit completely in today's workflow.
Now I have a little gray on my shirt.
So I'm gonna ask this next question when it comes to things that move,
usually there's a shelf life to it.
Now the accordion style. Those are moving components.
What is the shelf life to this container compared to traditional containers?
And my also question, I want to tie onto that.
When will we see these at docks and why haven't we seen these at doc's?
Well, there are three questions there. So
from a mechanical point of view,
all of the stresses and strains of movement are isolated from the structure.
So we expect to have a longer shelf life than a regular container.
But more importantly because of the modular design.
If you wreck adore,
instead of having to decide whether or not to replace the door because of cost.
You could turn around and have two men deliver a new
door and change it out and say half an hour,
completely, completely different
approach to this product.
The other thing is that we worked on design changes to go
after the top two or three failure modes of a current container.
So we tried to make it more robust and that's where a lot of our features come into.
So make it the best container ever made
and it folds. What are the biggest failures to the traditional containers?
Well, first of all, if you, if you hit it with a fork truck on the,
on the rear door and you can't close it,
you've got to replace the door and to replace the door means of settling torches,
welding and the like in our case,
our door is attached interior early and so you take
four bolts out and put on a new door.
The second one is if your fork truck hits the sill on
the bottom and bends the sill and you can't close the door.
You've got a big problem in our case, you take out one bolt,
two handles and you can replace it in the field with a new silk.
This is very interesting technology.
I would love to see you guys are in New Jersey, right?
We are headquartered in New Jersey and we can
invite you to a demonstration down in Newark Delaware
anytime after tomorrow.
But you know this,
this product isn't just good for the mechanical component tree of, of moving stuff,
but it also has a very positive environmental impact.
If you could imagine in the ports of
Los Angeles delivering the same number of containers
with half as many trucks
Or 80% of less trucks. You're talking about an incredible environmental change.
I'm thinking the same thing. Yeah,
yeah.
And then compound that going further,
if you can load the ship faster because instead
of putting five containers on one at a time,
you can put in one
and on the other end they can unload them that much faster.
So you reduce the time at birth, the time at birth is reduced.
You can go across the ocean slower, you learn less fossil fuel.
I think that this conversation is going to be one that we have
one and have in person because I'm very interesting in these containers.
I see the environmental impacts as well and I
think the design is great and it's much needed
at a time right now where all those factors play a huge role in the supply chain.
I have to let it go here George, I will see you in person.
Most likely email you as well cause I want to see the containers in real life.
That's George coach, Janowski ceo and Cto of stacks and keep me updated.
We'll talk soon. George thank you again