Container Types & Shipping Equipment
Choosing the right container or equipment for your cargo: standard boxes, high cubes, reefers, flat racks, open tops, and tanks.
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Consolidating Dangerous Goods in LCL: Acceptance and Segregation for Forwarders
Putting dangerous goods into a shared LCL container makes the consolidator responsible for what ends up beside what, and for certifying the packed box. This guide covers the acceptance checks at the CFS, container-level segregation, the packing certificate and where liability lands.
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Shipping Used Machinery and Equipment Internationally: What to Prepare
Used machinery is not just cheaper cargo with the same paperwork. This guide covers the documents, import restrictions, cleaning, fluids and batteries, loading method and export checks to prepare before a second-hand machine leaves the yard.
FCA vs FOB for Containerised Cargo: Which Incoterm to Use
FOB assumes the seller puts the goods on the ship, but a container is usually handed to the carrier at a terminal long before loading. This guide explains why FCA fits containerised cargo better under Incoterms 2020 and how to choose between them.
Floor-Loaded vs Palletised Containers: Cost, Damage and Handling
Floor-loading loose cartons packs more product into a container, but it shifts cost to labour, unloading time and damage risk. This guide works through a real example, the pallet options and a checklist for choosing.
Dry Bulk Shipping Explained: Handysize, Panamax and Capesize Vessels
Dry bulk is cargo shipped loose in a ship's holds, such as grain, coal and iron ore, and chartered by the vessel or the tonne rather than booked by the container. This guide explains the ship classes, how bulk freight is priced and what paperwork to expect.
Container Freight Station (CFS) Operations for LCL Forwarders
A container freight station is where LCL freight is physically received, consolidated into a container and, at the other end, broken out again. This guide walks a forwarder through both ends of the process, the documents, the liability exposure and the failure points.
Buyer's Consolidation: Combining Several Suppliers' Cargo into One FCL
Buyer's consolidation receives goods from several suppliers at one warehouse near origin, checks them and ships them as a single container under one house bill of lading. This guide explains the process, the documents, the Incoterms implication and when separate LCL shipments are still the better choice.
Container Fumigation: Certificates, Fumigants and the Rules for Fumigated Units
Container fumigation kills pests before cargo crosses a border, but it also turns a box into a gas hazard. This guide covers the fumigants, the certificate, the IMDG Code rules for UN 3359 units and the safety steps before anyone opens the doors.
Shipping Cut-Off Times Explained: CY, SI, VGM and Customs Cut-Offs
A reference to the deadlines that decide whether cargo makes a sailing or a flight: what each cut-off is, who sets it, and which ones are fixed by law rather than by the carrier.
How a Container Terminal Works: Gate, Yard and Berth Explained for Shippers
A container terminal is three linked systems: the berth, the yard and the gate. Knowing what happens in each, and what the tracking statuses really mean, explains most port delays and most demurrage bills.
Transshipment in Container Shipping: Direct vs Transhipped Sailings
Transshipment moves your container from one ship to another at a hub port. Here is what that changes for transit time, rollover risk, cost and documents, how to spot it in a schedule, and why it never changes where your goods were made.
Container Seals Explained: ISO 17712 Classes, Bolt Seals and Seal Numbers
A container seal is a numbered, tamper-evident lock on the door, and its number is a piece of evidence that follows the box from stuffing to unloading. Here is how ISO 17712 classes work, who applies the seal and what happens when the number does not match.
US Intermodal Rail Ramps, IPI and Container Moves Explained
An import container that is bound for Chicago or Dallas often lands at a West Coast port and finishes its journey on a train. This guide explains the routing terms, who controls the rail leg, what happens at the rail ramp, and where the charges and delays come from.
Panamax, Neopanamax and ULCV Container Ship Classes Explained
Container ships are grouped by size class (feeder, Panamax, Neopanamax, ULCV), and the class decides which canals and ports a ship can use. This guide gives the TEU ranges, the canal limits and what size means for a shipper in practice.
LCL Co-Loading and Consolidator Relationships for Forwarders
A smaller forwarder can sell LCL and air consolidation without running its own consol by co-loading with a consolidator. This guide covers who issues which bill, how rates and cut-offs work, how to protect your customer, and what to check in the agreement.
Blank Sailings and Void Sailings Explained for Shippers
A blank sailing, also called a void sailing, is a scheduled voyage that the carrier cancels. This guide explains why carriers do it, how it differs from rolled cargo and skipped ports, and what to do when your sailing is blanked.
Tank Containers and Flexitanks: Shipping Bulk Liquids Without Drums
An ISO tank container is a reusable stainless-steel vessel in a steel frame, and a flexitank is a single-use bladder inside an ordinary dry container. This guide compares cargo limits, fill rules, risks and what to check before you book.
Container Leasing, Repositioning and Street Turns Explained
Avoiding detention on a box you already hold is one problem. The commercial supply of that box, who owns it, why one-way leasing exists, and how a street turn can skip a repositioning move, is a different one. Here is how the container-supply economics actually work.
Reefer Container PTI and Cold Chain Monitoring: What Shippers Need to Know
A Pre-Trip Inspection tells you a reefer container can hold set point before you load it, nothing more. Here is what PTI actually checks, who is supposed to pay for it, and why it is not the same thing as watching the box during the voyage.
Cross-Docking and Consolidation Hubs Explained: How Freight Moves Without Sitting Still
Cross-docking moves freight from an inbound vehicle to an outbound one with little or no storage in between. Here is how it works, where hub-and-spoke networks use it, and where it goes wrong.
Inland Container Depots and Dry Ports: How Inland Clearance Works
An inland container depot (ICD) or dry port is a container terminal away from the coast, linked to a seaport by rail or road. This guide covers how the move works, who pays for what, and where the clocks and charges catch shippers out.
Container Freight Indices Explained: SCFI, WCI, FBX and XSI
Every week a different headline says container rates rose or fell, and the numbers rarely match. This guide explains who publishes each major index, what it actually measures, and how to use one when you talk to a forwarder.
Oversize Load Permits and Pilot Cars Explained
There is no national oversize load permit in the United States. Every state sets its own dimension thresholds, its own escort requirements, and its own process, and a coast-to-coast heavy haul means a separate application to nearly every one of them. Here is how the system actually works.
LTL Freight Class and NMFC Explained
Freight class decides what an LTL shipment costs, and it is set by a private industry standard, not a government rule. Since July 2025 most commodities are classed by measured density rather than a fixed lookup, and the system is still being rewritten: a public comment period on the next round of changes closes in days.
RoRo vs Container Shipping for Vehicles and Machinery
RoRo and container shipping are priced differently, measured differently and regulated differently, and the choice is usually decided by height, weight and rating basis rather than by preference. Here are the real deck and door numbers, what the 2026 fire safety and dangerous goods rules actually changed, and the export and import compliance that catches vehicle shippers out.
Air Freight ULD Types: Which Unit Load Device Fits Your Cargo
Air cargo is built up on unit load devices before it ever reaches the aircraft. Choosing or accepting the wrong ULD type wastes chargeable space and can hold a shipment off a flight entirely.
Breakbulk and Project Cargo: When Your Freight Does Not Fit a Container
Breakbulk and project cargo cover the freight that containers were never designed for: oversized, overweight, or awkwardly shaped loads that need their own stowage plan, not a booking reference.
Shipper-Owned vs Carrier-Owned Containers (SOC vs COC)
A shipper-owned container stops the detention clock permanently. It also makes the empty your problem, which is the whole calculation.
High Cube vs Standard: When the Extra Foot Helps
The extra foot of height is nearly free at sea and occasionally impossible on the road. Whether it helps depends on your cargo height and your destination.
Segregation and Stowage of Dangerous Goods at Sea
Two containers that are each perfectly safe can be a serious hazard side by side. Segregation is why a dangerous goods booking takes longer and costs more.
Container Damage, Detention and Per Diem: Who Pays
The container is not yours. You are borrowing it, and the charges for holding it or returning it damaged are separate from the freight you agreed.
Reefer, Flat Rack, Open Top and Tank: Special Equipment
Special equipment is scarcer, dearer and slower to position than a standard box. Here is what each type is actually for and when a standard container will do.
Container Weight Limits, Payload and VGM
A container can legally hold far more than a truck can legally carry it. Loading to the plate figure is how shipments become undeliverable by road.
How to Read a Container Number and CSC Plate
The eleven characters on the side of a container are a checkable code, not a serial number. Here is how to verify one yourself and what the safety plate on the door means.
Cargo Securing Inside the Container: The Step Most Shippers Skip
Packing a container is not stacking boxes: weight distribution, void filling and lashing decide whether cargo arrives intact or becomes a claim.
Transloading and Deconsolidation: What Happens to Your Cargo at the Port
Moving cargo from ocean containers into domestic trailers can cut inland cost sharply, or add a handling step you did not need.
Truck and Trailer Types: Dimensions, Pallet Counts and Weight Limits
European and North American trailer types side by side: internal dimensions, how many pallets fit, and the weight limit that binds first.
Air Cargo ULD Types and Dimensions: A Shipper's Reference
The container and pallet types used in aircraft holds, what fits each aircraft, and why your pallet height decides your air freight cost.
Project Cargo and Out-of-Gauge Shipping: What Changes
When cargo stops fitting a container, everything changes: equipment, pricing, route surveys, lifting plans and lead times.
Container Types and Dimensions: The Numbers That Decide Your Booking
Internal dimensions, nominal versus usable volume, and the payload limit that is almost never the container's own limit.
Container Tracking Explained: What the Box Number Can and Cannot Tell You
How container numbers are structured, what the check digit is for, why one container can hold several shipments, and where the real status lives.
Containers & Equipment FAQ
What are the standard shipping container sizes?
The two standards are 20ft and 40ft. A 20ft container holds roughly 33 cubic metres and a 40ft around 67, with the 40ft high cube offering about 76. Payload is typically around 28 tonnes for a 20ft and 26 tonnes for a 40ft, though limits vary by carrier and by road weight rules at each end.
Should I use a 40ft or a 40ft high cube?
Use a high cube unless there is a height constraint, since it offers about 13 percent more volume for little or no extra cost on most lanes and is the default 40ft equipment on many routes. The constraint is inland rather than at sea: road height limits, low bridges, and older warehouse docks can make a high cube undeliverable even where it ships without issue.
What container do I need for oversized cargo?
Use an open top if the cargo is too tall to load through the doors but stays within the container profile, and a flat rack if it exceeds the width or height envelope. Anything protruding beyond the container envelope is rated out of gauge, which means paying for the vessel slots the overhang blocks as well as the cargo itself.
Why can't I load a container to its maximum payload?
Because road weight limits usually bite before the container's rated payload does. The legal limit for the loaded truck combination at either end is frequently lower than the container's maximum, so the practical payload is set by the strictest road regulation on the route. Always plan against the actual tare weight stencilled on the door rather than a generic figure.
What is the difference between CY and CFS?
The container yard is where containers are stacked awaiting loading, collection, or return; the container freight station is where LCL cargo is consolidated into containers and stripped out again. A CY-to-CY booking means you deliver and collect full containers yourself, while CFS handling applies when your cargo shares a container with other shippers.
What is a tare weight and why does it matter?
Tare weight is the weight of the empty container, stencilled on its door. It matters because it is added to your cargo weight to produce the gross weight used for the mandatory VGM declaration and for road weight compliance. Reefers and tanks have a much higher tare than dry boxes, which meaningfully reduces the payload available.