Buying a shipping container
A container is a twenty-year purchase that most people make once. Here is how to make it well, including the bits that do not help us sell you the dearest unit.
Decide the grade before you decide anything else
Grade moves the price more than size does, and it is the only decision that determines whether the container does the job you bought it for.
Ask one question: if what is inside got damp, would that be a problem?
If the answer is no — steel, fencing, bins, garden gear — an as-is unit will serve and it is the cheapest steel you can buy. If the answer is yes — tools, stock, timber, furniture, documents, anything electrical — buy cargo-worthy or better and stop thinking about it.
Grades matter more than anything else in a container quote. Cargo-worthy is the grade we check wind and watertight before it leaves the depot. As-is units are cheaper again and are not sold watertight — they may carry a patched repair, a soft spot in the floor or a door seal that no longer seats, and we tell you exactly what is wrong with one rather than let you find it on delivery day. New single-trip units are sealed, unmarked and have made one loaded voyage. If the container has to keep rain off what is inside it, buy cargo-worthy or better.
Then the size, and be honest about the site
A 40ft is the cheapest floor area you can buy by a wide margin. It is also the size that most often cannot be delivered where people want it, because it needs a side loader or a crane truck rather than a tilt-tray, and because a side loader places the container off the driver's side of the trailer.
A 20ft goes almost anywhere a delivery truck can reach. A 10ft fits down the side of a house, costs more per cubic metre than either, and is sometimes the only unit that physically works.
If the site will not take what the job wants, two 20ft units side by side give you the same floor as a 40ft, arrive on a cheaper truck and can be placed independently. We will say that rather than sell you the bigger box.
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10ft
10 Foot Shipping Containers
The block is tight, the council setback is unforgiving, or you only ever need to lock up a mower, a compressor and a rack of tools.
$4,350used, from
$6,400new, from -
20ft
20 Foot Shipping Containers
You want the default answer. A tradesman's full kit and a bench, a three-bedroom house of furniture, a farm's worth of feed and fencing gear.
$2,200used, from
$3,300new, from -
40ft
40 Foot Shipping Containers
You have the room, the ground is firm and level, and the truck can get a clear straight run at the spot.
$2,600used, from
$5,500new, from
All prices are guide prices in AUD and exclude GST. They are starting figures for the grade named, they move with condition, availability and where the unit has to come from, and none of them is a quote until the cartage to your address is on it.
What we do that is worth something
- One number, answered by a person — 1300 263 976
- Every enquiry answered within one business day
- Cargo-worthy units checked wind and watertight before they leave the depot
- The delivered price includes the truck, quoted up front rather than added at invoice time
- Photos of your actual container on request, sent before delivery
Buying questions
Do I have to see it before I buy it?
No, and most people do not. What you should insist on — from us or from anybody — is photographs of the actual unit rather than a stock image. We send them on request, before delivery: the door end, the floor from inside, and a close shot of any repair.
What is included in the price you quote?
The container in the grade named, and the cartage to your address. That is the whole figure. There is no separate freight invoice arriving afterwards, and if something about the site changes the vehicle we will tell you before the truck is booked rather than after it has been.
How do I pay, and when?
We invoice you and the container is released for delivery when the invoice is settled. For businesses with an account, normal terms apply. There is nothing unusual about it and we will not ask for a deposit to hold a quote.
What if the container turns up and it is not what I expected?
Ring us the same day. If a unit does not match the grade or the photographs it was sold on, that is our problem to fix and we would far rather hear about it immediately than read about it in a review six weeks later.
Get a delivered price
Name the grade and the address and you get one number. Every enquiry answered within one business day.
Or skip the form — 1300 263 976