20Ft Shipping Container (One Trip)

Ask anyone to picture a shipping container and this is the one they describe, which is part of why more 20ft one-trip units move than any other size. It is built to full ISO specification and has carried cargo exactly once, so what turns up is cosmetically close to new at a price a long way below a factory-fresh box. For site storage the twenty-foot length is the practical optimum — about ten standard pallets, on one vehicle, set down without a crane.

Dimensions

• External: 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.59 m (19 ft 10 in × 8 ft 0 in × 8 ft 6 in)
• Internal: 5.84 × 2.35 × 2.39 m (19 ft 2 in × 7 ft 9 in × 7 ft 10 in)
• Door opening: 2.34 m wide × 2.28 m high (7 ft 8 in × 7 ft 6 in)
• Tare weight: 2,180 kg
• Maximum gross weight: 30 tonnes
• Floor: 28 mm marine plywood

Build and fittings

• CSC plated, so it remains usable for freight as well as static storage
• One-trip condition — a single loaded voyage before sale
• Hinged double doors at one end, two locking bars per door leaf
• Cor-Ten weathering steel construction to full ISO specification
• Two forklift pockets per side
• Factory-fitted lockbox included as standard
• Four vents to reduce condensation build-up
• 28 mm marine plywood floor on steel cross members

What one-trip grade actually means

One-trip is not the same as new, and the distinction is worth understanding before you buy. These containers are built to order at the factory, loaded with cargo for a single voyage to the United Kingdom, then sold here. The voyage is what makes them affordable: shipping an empty container costs the line money, so moving it loaded subsidises the crossing.

What that means for you is a container with original factory paint, unweathered door seals and a clean marine ply floor, carrying a handful of handling marks from being craned and stacked at two ports. You are not getting a pristine box. You are getting one that is a decade newer than the used alternatives and will outlast them by a comparable margin.

Where it fits

Construction compounds, farm and equipment storage, retail and hospitality stockholding, self-storage operators, and any conversion project that wants sound steel to start from. The 2.39 m internal height clears most stacked pallets and light plant.

Delivery, siting and cover

Delivery is free anywhere in the UK, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey included, and the listed price is the total payable — no VAT is added at checkout. At 2,180 kg a 20ft unit is normally delivered by tilt-bed, which reverses in, tilts and slides the container off; allow a firm, level approach of roughly three times the container length and about 4.5 m of overhead clearance while the bed is raised. Where the site cannot take that, HIAB or crane offload is agreed in writing before delivery. Mainland England and Wales is typically 3 to 7 working days.

As a one-trip unit it carries our 12-month warranty covering structural defects and water ingress — roof, side and end panels, underframe, door gear and floor structure. Your statutory rights are additional and separate: 14 days to change your mind under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and a 30-day right to reject the goods if they are faulty.

Door layouts and related sizes

Doors on this one are hinged doubles at a single end. Loading and unloading from both ends — or dividing the box into two lockable halves — calls for the 20ft tunnel container with double end doors. Too big for the pitch? The 10ft x 8ft one trip container is the same specification in a shorter shell. Single-voyage stock of every size is under shipping containers, and what to expect cosmetically is set out in the condition guide.