Buying a Shipping Container - What You Should Know

Buying a new or used shipping container is a pretty straight forward process.  The important think to know is that when it comes to containers, there aren’t a lot of options available with the containers, and only a few important things that you should keep ahead of to reduce the chance of any delays or extra costs.

The Process of Buying a Shipping Container on ContainerAuction.com – in a nutshell:

1. Select a container, or submit a request through the site.
2. Ask any questions and plan the delivery. 
3. Transfer the payment. 
4. Receive the release code.  
5. The container is delivered.  "Cash on Delivery" isn’t possible as the trucking companies that we use are third party organizations and with very few exceptions aren’t approved to receive payments on our behalf.

Delivery and Logistics:  Shipping container deliveries go smoothly a majority of the time and that can be credited to advance planning.  Be sure and tell the sales representative the following:

Do you have a forklift on site, or will you need the container set on the ground with a tilt bed, or roll off truck? Does the container need to be set on a very specific area?  If you need the container set on specific  footers the driver needs to know this in advance, and be confident that he has enough space to navigate and pull out from under the container. Do you live on a narrow, winding road?  If you want a 40’ container and live back a canyon road, the truck may not be able to make it around blind corners without considerable risks. Door Opening Direction:  If you need the doors facing a specific direction it’s important to tell the driver prior to having the container loaded on the truck.  As the truck pulls out from underneath of the container, the doors will either be in the front or rear of the container, and on a tilt bed truck or in a confined area it’s not easy to change the door direction.

In terms of size, buying a shipping container is a large transaction; but it doesn’t have to be a difficult transaction.  As we’ve emphasized many times in this blog, planning and preparation is very important to having a shipping container delivery, buying the container is the easy part.  Once you understand the process, how the delivery works, and some of the more subtle nuances of delivery work, the process is smooth and could even be enjoyable.