It's interesting that the next step down from the containers in a transportation/logistics sense is the pallet, which is still pretty far from being standardized. Right now, there are a variety of competing standards-the EUR pallet, CHEP, iGPS, GMA, etc. Europe has done fairly well in standardizing on the EUR pallet and half pallet (which you can see at Ikea in the states). The North American market usually uses 40" x 48" pallets, but quality varies widely. It's a constant thorn in the side of any business who wants to standardize and automate their material handling, because without consistent pallets, automated systems can't be reliable.
Air pallets and unit load devices for aircraft are also pretty weird; they're specific to aircraft, and to specific locations in the aircraft. I guess there the labor vs. fuel-per-weight/cube thing tradeoff is a lot different than with ships or trucks, but it's still really inconvenient (plus, "air force pallets" (463L) are super expensive, corrugated aluminum)
