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Shipping Container Dimensions
Freight quotes
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20 FT
40 FT
40 HC
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Frequently Asked Questions
Pricing and payment
How much does it cost to ship a 20ft or 40ft container?
There is no single price — an ocean container rate is built from the lane (origin port to destination port), the container type, the season, and the current market. As a rough shape of the market: a 40FT usually costs roughly 25-40% more than a 20FT on the same lane, not double, because you are paying for a slot on the ship as much as for volume. Rates also move week to week, so any number older than about two weeks is a guess. Send us the origin, the destination, the container type and your target sailing date and we will quote the actual number.
How much does a freight forwarder cost?
A forwarder makes money in one of two ways, and you should always ask which one you are getting. Either it buys carrier space and resells it to you at a marked-up all-in rate, or it charges a flat agency fee per shipment and passes the carrier's cost through at cost. Separate from that, expect line-item charges for documentation, customs entry, and any trucking at either end.
Will my quoted rate change before the cargo ships?
Ocean quotes are normally valid for a fixed window, and rates on many lanes reset at the start of each month. If your booking slips past the validity date, or the carrier applies a general rate increase or a peak-season surcharge, the number can move. Costs that depend on what actually happens — demurrage, detention, storage, customs exam fees — are never in a quote and are billed as incurred.
Do you ship parcels, boxes, or personal packages?
No. We move freight in ocean containers — full containers and consolidated container loads — not parcels or individual boxes. If you are sending a single box or a suitcase-sized shipment, a courier such as DHL, FedEx or UPS will be faster and cheaper than any container service. Container freight starts to make sense from roughly one pallet upward.
Transit time
How long does sea freight take, and how many days is my route?
Port to port, typical ranges are: China to US West Coast about 15-21 days; China to US East Coast about 28-38 days via the Panama Canal; Rotterdam to New York about 10-14 days; Turkey to US East Coast about 17-26 days. Door to door, add roughly 1-3 weeks for pickup at origin, export clearance, customs clearance at destination and inland trucking. Transit time is set by the carrier's service string rather than by distance, so two lanes of similar length can differ by two weeks depending on whether the routing is direct or transships, and a consolidated (LCL) load adds several days at each end. For your own route, send us the load port and discharge port and we will quote the actual sailing options with their transit times instead of an average.
How far in advance should I book a container?
Two to four weeks before your target sailing is comfortable on most lanes. Book earlier — six weeks or more — around known crunch periods: Chinese New Year, the Golden Week holiday, and the late-summer peak season, when space sells out and rates spike. Special equipment such as reefers, flat racks and open tops needs more lead time than standard boxes.
Why do containers get delayed, and what happens if mine is late?
The usual causes are vessel schedule slippage, a missed connection at a transshipment port, port or terminal congestion, a customs hold or exam, and weather. Ocean carriers do not guarantee arrival dates, and standard bills of lading exclude liability for delay, so a late vessel is not normally a claimable loss. What a forwarder can do is tell you early, re-plan the inland leg, and manage free time so a delay does not turn into demurrage.
Containers and loading
What is the difference between a 20FT, 40FT and 40HC container?
A 20FT gives about 33 m³ of usable space, a 40FT about 68 m³, and a 40HC (high cube) about 76 m³. The 40HC is the same footprint as a 40FT but roughly one foot taller inside, which is why it suits light, bulky cargo. Choose by whichever runs out first — volume or weight. Dense cargo like tiles, stone or liquids will hit the weight limit long before it fills a 20FT; light cargo like furniture or packaging fills a 40HC without coming near the weight limit.
How many pallets fit in a 20ft or 40ft container?
Floor-loaded, single layer: about 9-10 standard 40" x 48" US pallets in a 20FT, and about 20-21 in a 40FT or 40HC. A 40HC holds the same number on the floor as a 40FT — the extra height only helps if you can double-stack. Pinwheel loading can sometimes add a pallet or two. If your cargo is stackable, count the usable height, not just the floor, because that is where most of the wasted space is.
How much weight can a container hold?
By container rating, a 20FT takes roughly 28 tonnes of payload and a 40FT or 40HC roughly 26-27 tonnes. The real constraint is usually the road, not the box: the US federal gross vehicle weight limit on the Interstate system is 80,000 lb, which after tractor, chassis and the container's own tare typically leaves around 42,000-44,000 lb (about 19-20 tonnes) of cargo before you need an overweight permit. Plan to the road limit at the destination, not to the container's plate.
Do I need a full container, or can I ship a smaller load?
If your cargo does not fill a container you can ship LCL (less than container load), where your goods share a container with other shippers' cargo and you pay by volume. The usual break-even is somewhere around 12-15 CBM: below that LCL is normally cheaper, above it a full 20FT usually wins. LCL is slower at both ends because the container has to be consolidated and then deconsolidated, and your cargo is handled more, so it carries a higher damage risk.
Can you ship oversized or out-of-gauge cargo that will not fit in a standard container?
Cargo that exceeds the internal dimensions of a standard box — machinery, vehicles, structures, pipe — moves on a flat rack or open top container, or as breakbulk on a multipurpose vessel. It needs the exact dimensions and weight, a lifting plan, and often a route survey at the destination for the road leg. Lead times and rates are quoted case by case, not from a rate table.
Can you ship cars, personal effects, or hazardous goods?
Cars and personal effects both move in containers routinely, but each has its own paperwork: a vehicle export from the US needs the title filed with CBP ahead of departure, and household goods need a detailed valued inventory for customs. Hazardous cargo needs an IMO/IMDG classification, a dangerous goods declaration, correct packing and labelling, and a carrier that accepts that class on that lane — it cannot be booked as ordinary freight.
Documents and customs
What documents do I need to ship a container internationally?
The core set is the commercial invoice, the packing list, and the bill of lading. Depending on the lane and the commodity you may also need a certificate of origin (required to claim preferential duty rates under a trade agreement), an export licence, a fumigation or phytosanitary certificate for wood packaging and agricultural goods, and an insurance certificate. Getting the invoice and packing list right matters most — customs values and classifies your goods from those two documents, and errors there are the usual cause of clearance delays.
What is a bill of lading, and when do I get mine?
The bill of lading is three things at once: the carrier's receipt for your cargo, the contract of carriage, and — for an original B/L — a document of title, meaning whoever holds it controls the cargo. It is issued after the vessel departs, once the shipping instructions are confirmed. Cargo will not be released at the destination without either the surrendered original B/L, a telex release (the originals surrendered at origin so no paper has to travel), or a sea waybill, which is not a title document and needs no surrender. Ask which type you are getting before the vessel sails, because it determines who can collect the goods.
Who pays the customs duty and import taxes?
The importer of record pays — in the US that is normally the buyer, and the liability sits with them, not with the forwarder or the carrier. Which side of the transaction absorbs the cost is set by the Incoterm you agreed with your supplier: under FOB or CIF the buyer pays duty; under DDP the seller does. Duty is calculated from the customs value and the HS classification of the goods, and it is charged on top of the freight, not included in it. Always confirm the Incoterm in writing before the cargo moves — most disputes over surprise charges trace back to this one point.
What is an HS code and do I need one?
The HS (Harmonized System) code is the international classification number for your product. It determines the duty rate, whether any trade remedy or additional tariff applies, and which agency permits you might need. You need one for every product on the shipment, and the importer is legally responsible for the classification being correct — not the supplier and not the forwarder, even if one of them supplied the number. If a classification is wrong you can owe back duty and penalties years later, so it is worth getting a binding ruling from customs on anything ambiguous or high-volume.
Do I need a customs broker, or do you clear customs for me?
US customs entries are normally filed by a licensed customs broker. A freight forwarder and a customs broker are different licences and different jobs: the forwarder arranges the transport, the broker files the entry with CBP and is the one legally authorised to do so on your behalf. Many forwarders hold both, or work with a nominated broker.
Do I need a customs bond and an ISF filing to import into the US?
For ocean imports into the US, yes to both on commercial shipments. The Importer Security Filing (ISF, or "10+2") must reach CBP no later than 24 hours before the cargo is loaded onto the vessel, and a late, inaccurate or missing filing can draw liquidated damages of $5,000 per violation. A customs bond is required for formal entry, which commercial shipments over $2,500 in value generally need; you can buy a single-entry bond per shipment or a continuous bond covering a year, and the continuous bond is usually cheaper from about four shipments a year upward.
Insurance and risk
Is my cargo insured, and do I need cargo insurance?
Carrier liability is not insurance, and the gap is much larger than most first-time shippers expect. Under the US Carriage of Goods by Sea Act the ocean carrier's liability is capped at $500 per package unless you declared a higher value on the bill of lading — so a container of goods worth $60,000 can be worth $500 in a claim. Separate all-risk marine cargo insurance covers the actual value of the goods and is normally priced as a small percentage of the insured value. It also protects you against general average, described in the next answer.
What happens if my cargo is damaged or lost?
Note any visible damage on the delivery receipt at the moment you take delivery — an unnoted receipt makes a claim very hard to win — photograph everything before unpacking, and file the claim in writing within the time limit on the bill of lading, which is often short. Two things catch uninsured shippers out. First, the $500-per-package COGSA cap above. Second, general average: if the vessel suffers a casualty such as a fire or grounding, maritime law makes every cargo owner on board contribute proportionally to the salvage costs regardless of fault, and your container will be held until you post security — insured shippers get that guarantee from their underwriter, uninsured ones pay cash.
Fees and tracking
What are demurrage and detention, and who pays them?
Both are late fees on the container, and the difference is location. Demurrage accrues when your full container sits inside the terminal past its free time; detention accrues when you have taken the container out of the terminal and have not returned the empty in time. Free time is set by the carrier's tariff, not by regulation — typically around 3-7 days for US imports, and it usually starts the first business day after the vessel discharges. The importer pays, they compound daily per container, and the way to avoid them is to have customs clearance filed and the truck booked before the vessel arrives, not after.
How do I track my container?
Every container has a unique number in the format of four letters and seven digits, printed on the doors and shown on your bill of lading. You can enter that number, or the B/L number, on the carrier's own tracking page to see vessel position, discharge and gate-out events. Containers do not carry GPS as standard, so tracking reflects scanned milestones — loaded, departed, transshipped, discharged, gated out — rather than live position.
Still have questions?
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