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The 'Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal' (B.I.C.) was established in 1933 as 'Bureau International des Containers' by the International Chamber of Commerce (I.C.C.) in order to make business people sensitive to the development of international -and thus intermodal- transport and its practical aspects.
Since its establishment, B.I.C.' s activity dealt with all technical as well as commercial issues of intermodal transport.
Till 1939, its main transportation sectors were inland transport (rail and road).
When B.I.C. recovered its activity in 1948, it became fully intermodal and adopted its present title.
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It played a major part in the organization of maritime transportation with containers since the early 60's in the last century, mainly dealing with the following matters: technical control, strength, coding, identification and marking of containers, and more generally the facilitation of commercial exchanges.
B.I.C. thus originated as early as 1970 the marking of containers with an alphanumeric, well structured and reliable owners code, the 'BIC-CODE' system. In 1972, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted it and handed over to B.I.C. the exclusive management of the allocation of the BIC-CODES for international container transport and the updating of its official Register of owners codes.
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B.I.C. also contributed, as a well known expert, to the elaboration and updating of the main international conventions which allowed since 1970 the booming expansion of transportation by containers :
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Since the mid 80's, B.I.C. noted both in North America and in Europe the progressive development of the combined transport (rail-road then barge-road) for inland transportation. Since then, it has shifted its efforts and get involved at regional and international levels in order to contribute to its harmonised development and improve the organization of such kind of transportations.
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