Buyers Guide

Buying a shipping container is one of the cheapest ways in Australia to add secure, weatherproof, relocatable space to a property — and one of the easiest purchases to get wrong. Size, grade, site access, ground conditions, council rules and the delivery truck all interact, and a mistake in any one of them can leave you with a 2.4 tonne steel box sitting where you did not want it. This guide covers what we at Shipping Solutions PTY have learned delivering new and used containers, cabins, reefers and modified units across NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, NT and the ACT, so you can order with confidence the first time.

Choosing the Right Container Size

Sizes are still quoted in feet, but the dimensions that matter on site are metric. Standard containers are 2.44m wide and 2.59m tall externally; a high cube adds roughly 0.3m, taking external height to about 2.90m. Internal dimensions run around 100mm narrower and lower than external, so plan around internal space if you are storing pallets, racking or a vehicle.

A practical rule: if you are within about 80 per cent of filling a size on day one, go up a size. The gap in price is far smaller than the cost of a second delivery later, and a high cube is usually a modest premium for a noticeable gain in usable volume.

Container Grades Explained

Grading is where most of the price variation lives, and where the Australian market has its own vocabulary. Four grades cover almost everything sold here.

New / One-Trip. Built overseas, loaded once with cargo for the voyage to Australia, then sold. Cosmetically near-perfect, factory paint, clean floors, tight door seals, and typically only a year or two old. Choose it for anything customer-facing, anything you will modify heavily, and anything you want to keep for a decade or more. It costs the most, but starts its Australian life with essentially all of its service life ahead of it.

Cargo Worthy (CW). A used container that has been inspected and certified as structurally sound and fit to carry cargo internationally. A CW unit carries a valid CSC plate (the Convention for Safe Containers safety approval plate), which is what allows it to be shipped rather than only stored. Expect surface rust, patched paint and dents that do not compromise the structure. Doors must open, close and seal properly. This is the value sweet spot for most buyers who want a genuinely sound box without paying one-trip money.

Wind & Water Tight (WWT). Retired from international shipping but still dry inside. It keeps rain and weather out and suits static storage on your property. Expect more visible rust, larger dents, repaired panels and a floor that shows its age, and do not assume it is still shippable. Cheaper than CW — for a storage shed at the back of a paddock, exactly the right trade-off.

As-Is. Sold in its current condition with no guarantee of being watertight. Expect the possibility of holes, badly damaged panels, doors that do not seal, or floor damage. As-Is units are bought for a specific reason: cheap non-critical storage, a donor unit for modification, or a project where the buyer intends to cut it up anyway. Never buy As-Is sight unseen if the contents must stay dry.

Site Preparation and Access

Prepare the site before the truck is booked, not on the day. A 20ft container weighs roughly 2.2 to 2.4 tonnes empty and a 40ft closer to 3.8 to 4 tonnes, so the ground has to carry real load.

The ideal surface is firm, free-draining and level. Compacted gravel, concrete or hardstand is best; soft soil, sand, freshly filled ground and lawn after rain are the usual culprits behind bogged trucks and doors that will not close. Level matters more than people expect — a container that sits twisted will bind its doors, because the door frame relies on the box staying square.

Most buyers set the container on footings: concrete pads, besser blocks or hardwood bearers under the four corner castings, with intermediate supports for a 40ft. This lifts the steel off wet ground, slows corrosion of the underside and lets you shim to level. Keep the pad slightly proud of the surrounding ground so water runs away rather than pooling under it.

For access, plan on roughly 20 metres of straight, clear approach for a tilt-tray delivering a 20ft, and considerably more for a 40ft — the truck has to reverse in, tilt the tray and slide the container off along the ground line. Check the full path: gate widths, overhanging limbs, low eaves, powerlines above the drop zone, soft verges, tight corners, retaining walls, septic tanks and irrigation lines under the driveway. Overhead powerlines are the single most common reason a delivery is aborted on arrival, because a tilting tray needs vertical clearance well above the container’s own height.

Delivery: What Actually Happens

Delivery is a flat $350 to any address in Australia, GST inclusive, and takes 7 to 10 days from order confirmation. The fee and the lead time are the same in every state and territory, metropolitan or regional — there is no distance calculation and no rural, remote or fuel surcharge.

Most Australian deliveries are by tilt-tray. The truck reverses into position, hydraulically tilts the tray, and the container slides off onto the ground as the truck eases forward. Placement is straight and controlled — but the truck needs room behind it, and the container ends up broadly where the truck could reverse to.

Where access is constrained or the container must be lifted over a fence or placed precisely on prepared footings, a crane or side-loader is the answer. A side-loader carries its own lifting gear and can place a container beside the truck, which is invaluable in tight yards. It costs more than a tilt-tray, so tell us up front if you suspect you need one.

The driver’s job is to deliver and unload the container safely. Drivers do not prepare your site, lay footings, move fences or trim trees, and are not obliged to drive across ground they judge unsafe. Their assessment on the day is final.

Someone authorised to make decisions should be on site to confirm placement and orientation — which end the doors face is easy to get wrong and expensive to change afterwards. Keep children, pets and vehicles clear of the drop zone, and have the access path unobstructed before the truck arrives.

Council Approval and Regulations

Requirements vary considerably between states, and between councils within the same state. Nothing here is a substitute for a phone call to your local council, and we strongly recommend making that call before you order.

As a general pattern, temporary storage on a residential block, kept behind the building line and removed within a defined period, is often treated as exempt or minor development. A container fixed in place permanently, connected to services, used as a habitable room, office, granny flat or shop, placed in a heritage or bushfire-prone area, or visible from the street, is far more likely to need a development application or complying development certificate. Rural and industrial zonings are usually more permissive than residential.

In northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia, cyclone regions bring additional obligations. A container in a designated cyclone region may need engineered tie-down — cyclone rated anchors, ground screws or footings designed to resist uplift and sliding — and that engineering is typically part of any approval. Do not assume the container’s own weight is sufficient restraint; it is not, in a region C or D wind zone.

Body corporate rules, easements and covenants on new estates can also restrict placement even where council has no objection. Confirm locally, in writing where you can.

Modifications Worth Considering

Containers take modification well, and a few well-chosen changes transform how usable one is. Personnel doors give everyday access without swinging the full cargo doors. Roller doors suit high-traffic and trade use. Windows with security bars or shutters bring in light and are essential for any office or cabin conversion.

Ventilation is the modification most people skip and most regret. Australian temperature swings drive condensation on the inside of the steel roof, which drips onto whatever is below. Passive vents, whirlybirds or a full insulated lining substantially reduce it. Insulation — spray foam, or a battened and lined cavity — is worth it for anything you will spend time inside, and pairs naturally with a high cube so the lining does not cost you headroom.

Beyond that, shelving and racking make the volume usable rather than just occupied; LED lighting and a 240V fit-out turn a store into a workspace; and a lock box — a welded steel shroud over the padlock — is the cheapest meaningful security upgrade available, because it denies bolt cutters access to the shackle. Reefers, container cabins and offices, and portable buildings are available where a modified standard box is not the right starting point.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Ordering before checking access — measure the gate, the driveway width, the turning circle and the overhead clearance first.
• Forgetting overhead powerlines above the drop zone, which stop a tilt-tray delivery outright.
• Placing the container on soft or sloping ground without footings, then finding the doors bind because the box has twisted.
• Buying the smallest size that fits today’s contents, and paying for a second delivery within the year.
• Assuming Wind & Water Tight means shipping certified — only Cargo Worthy and New/One-Trip units carry a valid CSC plate.
• Buying As-Is sight unseen when the contents need to stay dry.
• Skipping ventilation and then blaming the container for condensation damage to stored goods.
• Getting the door orientation wrong on delivery day because nobody with authority was on site.
• Assuming no council approval is needed for a permanent or habitable installation.
• Ignoring cyclone tie-down requirements in northern QLD, NT and WA.
• Leaving no clearance around the container for door swing, drainage, and future maintenance or repainting.

If you are weighing up a size, a grade, or whether your driveway will take a tilt-tray, talk to us before you order rather than after. Our team quotes new and used containers, cabins and offices, reefers, modified units and portable buildings across Australia, with prices in AUD including GST and delivery a flat $350 to any address in Australia. Call 1300 000 000 or email sales@shippingsolutionspty.com, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM AEST, and we will help you land the right container in the right spot the first time.