Can It "Fit Into a Container"? 3 PRO TIPs to Make Sure It Does
Can it fit into a container? We get asked this question all the time, not just by shippers but by freight forwarders and NVOCC’s as well.
What’s so hard about figuring out container size? Well, there are quite a few variables to consider. Did you know, for example, that the inside height of a container isn’t the same as the door height? Or that the maximum payload of a container may be above the legal limit for trucking in your state? Did you know that overseas markets may not have the same loading dock dimensions as those in your country? Suddenly, your 40’ high cube container went halfway across the world, only to be impossible to unload.CoLoadX Pro Tip: Don’t mix your measurements! If the exterior height of a container is 8’6” but the interior height is 7’8” and the corresponding widths are 8’0” and 7’9”, choose the two lowest dimensions. The same goes for the length – a 40’ container only has 39’6” of interior space, not 40’.
Then there’s the matter of your cargo itself. How many skids can fit into a container? Can they be double stacked, thereby effectively doubling the amount of material you can load? What if you ship liquids like beer or cake bases? How does that affect the amount of material you can load and the type of truck needed to haul such cargo?
CoLoadX Pro Tip: Cake bases are incredibly dense and usually require a tri-axle truck. It may not affect the container rate, but you’ll pay extra for the special truck.
In the last few decades, we’ve seen it all! Forwarders who sold their customer a great 40’ container rate for a container boom, only to realize you can’t load booms through the front door. We’ve seen shippers who knew all the dimensions of their skids but failed to realize they can’t be loaded side by side, thus reducing the number of skids that could fit into the container. And, of course, there’s always the shipper who recommends double stacking without consideration for putting heavy freight on the bottom and lighter freight on top. The photographs of crushed cargo that come back from the destination are always good for a few laughs at the office!
CoLoadX Pro Tip (courtesy of crane parts shipping ninja Keith Forrest): “Crane booms are built to lift tremendous weight, but they are ultimately sensitive pieces of equipment. It may be 40’ long but you can’t just ram it through the front door. It’s a piece of equipment that’s best suited to a 40’ Open Top Container.”
Some of this is experience talking, but other times it’s simple math. Single or multiple pieces of cargo that add up to 241 inches in length can’t fit in a 20’ container, no matter how hard you try!
The problem we come across is that shippers may not know this information, so they turn to their freight forwarders. After all, it’s logical to think that the folks who ship containers would also know how to load them.
However, we find that a lot of freight forwarders don’t truly know the dimensions and restrictions on container sizes and types.
That’s why we’re giving you this free Container Sizes Chart. Customers look to you for your knowledge and there’s no faster way to lose their trust than by not having the basic knowledge of your trade.
So go ahead, save it to your desktop, print out copies and post them around the office. Just make sure that you’re ready when your customer asks “what sized container do I need?”. -- Click here to download the container size chart.
By: CoLoadX on Feb. 17, 2017, 10:03 a.m.