Whenever you got something to ship away or send away, what is the first thing you do? You find a nice and safe packaging, wrap it up good and then find someone to ship it away.
Today we are discussing that but on a pretty larger scale. The world revolves around commodities and them being shipped and transported to different places on earth. We used to use trucks and trains alone but as we evolved and as transportation means and routes evolved, we got to ships that are capable of transporting waste amounts of containers of goods each day, week, month or year.
Shipping containers are pretty much the best thing that happened to us when it comes to us moving commodities around. They are big, sturdy, and protective, they can stack and although they are bulky, they save a huge amount of space. If you or anyone else needs a container to send anything, and we do mean anything, across the world then there are very few places where you can get good quality containers. This website is one of the places that will allow you to buy containers, rent them or even modify them to your needs.
Without further ado, we will now tell you more about some of the key advantages of shipping containers.
1. The construction
Containers are made of sturdy material – steel and they are welded and tightened with bolts which make them perfect for transporting anything and protecting it from the weather and natural elements. This means a lot to those that have materials like grain, seeds, fertilizers and other commodities that have to remain dry and safe during transport. Container transport is perfect for this and it will be the safest way to transport whatever you need. Thanks to the size of the containers and their ability they can be used to safeguard and transport anything from the size of a seed to a full-sized car.
2. Flexible cargo holds
When talking about flexibility and cargo containers you are thinking about the flexibility in types of transport. As we already mentioned above these can be used to transport anything from seeds to machinery, tools and vehicles. There are several types of these containers which allow you able to transport sensitive loads like the ones that require a certain temperature to be maintained. This is achieved thanks to Reefer Containers which operate just like Reefer trailers for trucks. They maintain the temperature needed for that certain something inside, to reach its destination as intended. There are also containers with tanks inside and they are specifically made to transport liquids inside of the containers.
3. Ease of tracking
When it comes to transportation halfway across the globe, you do have a lot of logistics and tracking. Your commodities or goods need to be in line each mile of the way from the place of origin to the destination. Imagine sending 1000 pallets of fertilizer and having to keep track of where each of those pallets is at any given moment. Have they all been loaded at the previous drop point, has someone left one or two out, has one broken in the loading process and much, much more. With containers all you have to do is load all of your pallets into one, three or ten containers, get the number of those and simply track them instead of worrying if all your pallets are in line and OK.
4. Speed equals savings
If you are in this line of business and you transport things or sell and buy things for a living, time is of essence and time is money. If you need to wait for your order to arrive or be shipped for days, weeks or months you are losing money. Having everything packed in a container, or multiple containers, and shipped at the same time, same day and arriving at the destination on time means you can utilize more time to make more money, as well as focus on other things in your business that require your attention.
5. Durability of containers
If you buy yourself a container you get a means of transport for a longer period. It is a hefty investment but it will be worth your while and that will be good for your business because of the advantages we already wrote about. When it comes to the lifespan of containers in your ownership, depending on the usage and preservation you will get 15-25 years out of each one of them, which is not a small usage time. After it is no longer able to carry and protect goods you can sell it, scrap it, repurpose it for storage or living quarters and much more. There are multiple use cases for these and with transport containers, you only keep getting back for your investment.
6. Standardization
When you talk about shipping containers you also need to mention that these are standardized steel boxes that can ship a variety of cargo and that can be handled universally by any standardized transport across the world. From cranes that need to pick them up and load or unload to the trains, trucks, and ships that need to carry the all over the world. Standardization and ISO standards that these fall under are very important because they will mean less time wasted on loading/unloading points, ease of transport and speed of transport.
7. Containers are graded
Depending on what you do and what your transport you will use different grade containers. All of the containers are always cleaned, inspected and graded in the container yard or by a container provider/seller. If you need a container to transport food, hygiene or medicine you need a grade A container that has no smells, no scratches, no dents and damages. On the contrary, you have grad C containers that are damaged with holes in the roof or floor, dents scratches and so on, and these will be used for the transportation of scrap materials and scrap steel. This means that if you didn’t know by now, you need to familiarize yourself with what you will be transporting, and what dimensions of your transport are so you can get the specific grade type container, and the size of the container to load everything efficiently.