This United States Army manual, Army Techniques Publication ATP 4-12 Army Container Operations February 2021, is the Army's doctrine for container management during operations. ATP 4-12 describes the techniques for conducting container management. Container management supports operations and ensures that unit equipment and supplies are delivered in a timely and secure manner to the intended destination. Proper container management improves commanders' responsiveness, simplicity, economy, and continuity. ATP 4-12 describes the Army's techniques for managing shipping containers. The principal audience for ATP 4-12 are all Army Soldiers and Civilians. Commanders and staffs of Army headquarters serving as joint task force or multinational headquarters should also refer to applicable joint or multinational doctrine concerning the range of military operations and joint or multinational forces. Trainers and educators throughout the Army will also use this manual.
Containers are crucial to the success of operations. Containers provide a secure means of transporting cargo, facilitate increased responsiveness to changes across a battlefield, simplify the rapid movement of materiel across an operational area, and provide protection to materiel from the weather. In a theater, containers will be used from the port to as far forward as possible and must be managed while used in theater.
Container management must be planned, synchronized and executed within operations at each level of command. Commanders at each level are responsible for managing containers within their possession or operational area. Commanders who successfully manage containers in their operational area will enable forward support, increase the effective carrying capacity of their units, and improve both in-transit visibility and interoperability. Commanders are required to know the difference between managing government-owned and commercially-leased containers. This is due to potential detention and demurrage charges that can be accrued on leased containers and may decrease fluid and flexible movement.
ATP 4-12 contains significant revisions since the last publication. Changes include the addition of comprehensive container management roles from the strategic to the tactical level, categorizing container management as inter-theater and intra-theater, and updates to automated information systems.