Shipping Container Delivery Truck Types

When it comes time for the delivery of your shipping container it’s important you understand the options available to you because using the correct equipment can save you time and money.

Conex Depot use a variety of third party trucking partners to deliver empty shipping containers. As we offer a ground delivery option as our standard delivery the bulk of trucks we use are tilt beds, landolls and roll back trucks.

Tilt bed trucks are the most common type of truck we use for the delivery of 20ft shipping containers. These are a short bed truck with the tilt bed mounted to the chassis. These vehicles can only one trip shipping container carry an empty shipping container which weighs approximately 5,000 lbs. The container is loaded at the depot using a container handler, then when the truck arrives on site the driver raises up the hydraulic truck bed until the rear corners of the container are touching the ground. The driver then drives forward carefully sliding the container off onto the ground.

For ground delivery of 40ft shipping containers we use landoll and tilt bed trailers. These trailers can be towed by either a hot shot light duty truck, or a heavy duty tractor. The tractor trailer variety is capable of carrying both empty and loaded shipping containers, but the hot shot can carry only lighter empty containers. The advantage of a hot shot delivery is that the trucks are four wheel drive and have a short wheel base, so they can access more difficult delivery sites.

For bulk purchases of shipping containers, or in instances where the delivery site is a long distance from our depot we can offer lower delivery rates using flatbed trucks or chassis type trailers. In this case the customer needs to have equipment on site to unload the containers. 20ft containers have forklift pockets in the bottom of the container, so a standard 3 tonne forklift can be used to unload them. Most 40ft containers however are made without forklift pockets, so a crane is needed to unload them.

The final option is live loading on a chassis. This option is for customers who are exporting a shipping container from a port. We can have your empty container delivered to you site on a chassis type trailer. The driver will stay on site for live loading, but you will be billed by the hour. You will need a ramp or a loading dock to access the container since it will be four or five feet off the ground. If you need a longer time to load your container the trailer can be left on site and the tractor will come back to pick up the loaded shipping container on another day. In this case you will be billed a daily rental fee on the chassis, which is typically around $40.