The container types explained — which shape solves which problem

General purpose — the default, and usually right

A plain steel box with a pair of doors on one end. Corrugated walls, marine plywood floor over steel cross members, passive vents in the upper side panels, eight corner castings. Somewhere around nine in ten containers sold in Australia are this, and for good reason: it is the cheapest per cubic metre, the easiest to find in any grade, the simplest to deliver and by a wide margin the easiest to sell on.

Its one design limitation is that all access is through one end. Anything at the back of the box needs everything in front of it moved first. On a 10ft that is trivial. On a 20ft it is manageable with a bit of thought about what goes in last. On a 40ft it becomes the defining feature of your daily life with the thing, and it is the single most common regret we hear about long units.

If your loading is occasional, or your stored gear is stable — records, furniture, seasonal stock, fencing materials — a general purpose unit is the answer and you can stop reading. If you are in and out of it every day pulling different things, keep going.

High cube — 300 mm that changes the room

Same footprint, same width, same doors, 300 mm more height inside and at the door opening. It is the cheapest useful upgrade in the catalogue and the one people most often wish they had taken.

Where it earns its keep:

• Anything tall. Machinery, vehicles on stands, racking, palletised stock double-stacked, a boat on a trailer. The door opening rather than the ceiling is usually the constraint, and a high cube lifts both.
• Anything you will line or fit out. Insulation and lining eat 50 to 100 mm off the ceiling. Start standard and a tall adult is stooping; start high cube and the finished room is comfortable.
• Anywhere you are stacking to the roof. The extra height is a full extra layer of cartons in many cases.

The costs are real but small: slightly more to buy, slightly more to heat and cool if you are conditioning it, and one genuine catch — at 2.89 m it is taller on the truck, so every wire, branch, awning and carport beam on the route has to clear a load that is higher again during placement. Mention the high cube when you describe the access, not after the truck is booked.

Side opening — the one that fixes access

Doors along one full side, sometimes as well as the end doors. External dimensions are unchanged, so it takes the same footprint and travels on the same trucks, but the way you use it is completely different.

With the side open you can see everything at once, reach anything without shifting what is in front of it, and load with a forklift across the whole length rather than through a 2.34 m gap at one end. For a business running stock out of a container daily, or a trade storing long items that have to come out sideways, that is not a convenience — it is the difference between a workable store and a Tetris puzzle.

What you pay for it: a real premium over a plain box, because a side opening unit carries several times the door hardware and a lot more framing. Slightly less internal height and capacity, lost to that framing. More gaskets and locking bars to maintain, and more of them to secure. And it needs clear space along the whole side to open, which is a siting decision you have to make before delivery rather than after.

Double door, or tunnel

Doors at both ends. Drive-through access, load from either side of a yard, and a genuine solution for long items that will not turn once they are inside. Popular for pipe, timber, roof sheets and anything you would rather push straight through than reverse out of.

The trade-offs are worth understanding. You lose the solid end wall, which is the wall people usually rack against or fix shelving to. You double the number of door seals, which doubles the maintenance and the number of places weather can get in as gaskets age. And you double the securing job — two ends to lock, two lock boxes to fit.

Open top

Standard walls and floor, no fixed steel roof. In its place a removable tarpaulin over a set of bows, and a top-end door header that swings out so tall loads can be lifted straight in from above.

This exists for one reason: things that will not go through a door. Machinery lifted in by crane, bulk material tipped in, plant with a tall mast, anything loaded from overhead. In storage use it is niche, and outside its niche it is a poor choice — a tarpaulin is not a roof, it degrades in Australian sun, and it will not keep weather out the way steel does. If you need to load from above once and then store for years, the honest answer is usually to load through the doors and buy a plain box.

Flat rack and platform

A floor with the corner posts and end frames but no side walls or roof; on some versions the ends fold flat. These are freight equipment for oversized cargo — transformers, boats, machinery, structural steel — and they get used on the land as work platforms, bases and skids.

They are not storage. There is nothing to lock and nothing to keep weather off. Worth knowing they exist so you recognise one on a yard and do not spend time on it.

Refrigerated units

An insulated box with a refrigeration machine built into one end. Full-height insulated panels, an aluminium T-bar floor that lets air circulate under the load, and a machine that will hold a set temperature well below freezing if it is asked to.

Two things people underestimate. The first is power: a running reefer needs three-phase power, and the connection is a real piece of electrical work rather than an extension lead. The second is maintenance — the machine is a serious piece of equipment with a service life, a gas charge and a repair bill to match.

Which is why the common use for a retired one is not refrigeration at all. Turn the machine off and you have the best-insulated shipping container made: quiet, thermally stable, and a very good starting point for anything that has to stay cool or dry in an Australian summer. If a refrigerated or insulated unit is what your job needs, ring and describe the job — availability varies by depot and it is worth checking before you plan around one.

Dangerous goods containers

Built to a different standard again, and not something to improvise. A dangerous goods container has a bunded floor to contain a spill, forced ventilation, appropriate shelving, compliant electrical fittings and the placarding the relevant class requires.

If you are storing chemicals, fuels, oxidisers, pesticides or anything else with a dangerous goods class attached, the container is part of a compliance obligation rather than a convenience. Storing those goods in an ordinary box may satisfy nobody — not your insurer, not the regulator, not the person who has to open the doors on a hot afternoon. Tell us the class and the quantity and we will tell you what the unit needs to be.

Choosing between them

The problem	The shape that solves it
General storage, occasional access	General purpose
Tall gear, racking, any fit-out	High cube
In and out daily, forklift loading	Side opening
Long items, drive-through yard	Double door
Loading by crane from above	Open top
Temperature-sensitive stock	Refrigerated or insulated
Classified chemicals or fuels	Dangerous goods

Two rules of thumb after a lot of these conversations. First, spend on height before you spend on length — the extra 300 mm gets used every day and costs comparatively little. Second, spend on access if and only if you will use the container more than about weekly; below that frequency a plain box and a bit of planning is the better buy, and it will be far easier to move on when you are finished with it.

The whole range with current stock sits on the container range page. If you cannot see a shape that fits the problem, describe the problem instead of the container — ring 1300 467 776 and there is usually a configuration that solves it.