Ordering
From the first phone call to a container on your ground
Six stages, one number, and nothing that happens without you hearing about it first. The stage most suppliers skip is the second one — working out which yard your unit should come out of — and it is the one that sets both your date and your cartage.
- Have ready
- Address, access, what goes inside
- You hear back
- Within one business day
- We answer
- Mon-Fri 7:30am-5pm, Sat 8am-12pm
Tell us the job rather than the product
What is going in it, the town it is going to, when you need it and what a truck meets at the gate. That is plenty to start with. Turning up not knowing whether you want a 20ft or a 40ft, or what cargo-worthy means, is completely normal — sorting that out is the part of this we are genuinely useful for, and it takes about four minutes on the phone.
We work out where your container should start from
Stock sits in yards and partner depots spread around the country, so the first question is not what it costs — it is which yard nearest you has that size in that grade standing ready. For most addresses there is something closer than people assume, and a container that starts its run nearby lands sooner and cheaper than the same container carted across the continent. You get told which yard yours would come from before you are asked to decide anything.
You get a price with the run built into it
One figure, with the grade named, the yard named and the cartage to that specific address worked out. We do not publish a delivery rate anywhere on this site, and the reason is not coyness — two addresses in one postcode can be very different jobs once you know that one takes a tilt-tray straight off a wide street and the other needs a crane to reach over a fence. An address and a photograph of the gateway beats any published table.
You look at the actual container
Ask and we will photograph the individual unit — floor, doors, seals, roof, plate — and send it through before delivery. If you are near enough to Cornubia to drive over, do that instead and open the doors yourself. On as-is stock the faults get photographed rather than avoided, because a surprise on delivery day is a problem that lands back on us anyway.
It gets settled, and the truck gets booked
Settling the container takes that specific unit out of stock and puts your name against it. Then the run is booked out of the yard we named, and you get a date and a window rather than a guess. Long-distance runs are built around when a truck is next heading that way, so the further out you are, the more the date is worth locking in early.
It turns up, and it goes where you point
The driver will ring, usually when they are on the way. Someone on site walks them to the spot, confirms which way the doors face and stays clear while it comes off. Drivers will not place a container somewhere they judge unsafe or on ground they can feel giving way, and when a driver says no it is worth listening rather than negotiating.
The long runs
What happens when it is a long way out
A container going a few hundred kilometres inland or right across the top of the country rarely travels on its own truck, because sending one out empty in one direction is how you end up with a cartage figure nobody wants to hear. It goes with other freight heading the same way, which makes the date a scheduling question rather than a willingness question.
In practice that means a wider delivery window, a warning that the wet can shut unsealed access for weeks at a time, and a real conversation about whether a hard deadline is achievable. We would far rather tell you three weeks and hit it than promise five days and spend the fortnight apologising.
Worth knowing
The four things that slow an order down
An address with no access detail
A street name tells us the distance and nothing about the job. Whether the truck can get in, turn and lay a container down is a separate question, and it is the one that decides which vehicle comes. Two photographs — one from the road looking in, one of the spot with something in frame for scale — usually settle it in a single reply.
A size picked before the job is described
People ring having already decided on a 20ft because that is the one everybody has heard of. Sometimes it is right. Often what is being stored suits a 40ft high cube, or two smaller units in two places, and the only way anybody finds that out is by starting with the contents instead of the container. Dimensions are on the sizes and dimensions page if you want to work it through first.
A grade chosen on price alone
The spread between the cheapest and the dearest grade is wider than most people expect, which makes the bottom of the range look like a bargain until the contents matter. As-is is not sold watertight and is the right buy for plenty of jobs; it is the wrong buy for anything that has to stay dry. Ten seconds on the grades page avoids a long conversation later.
A deadline that is really somebody else's deadline
The date people give us is often the date the shed comes down, the slab gets poured or the tenant moves in. Say so. Knowing what the container is waiting on lets us tell you which parts of the schedule have slack in them, and whether hiring a unit for a few weeks solves the problem better than buying one in a hurry.
Common questions
Ordering, timing and where stock comes from
Which yard will my container come out of?
Whichever one closest to your address is holding the size and grade you have asked for. That sounds obvious and it is the calculation most quotes skip. Stock is spread through yards and partner depots around the country, so a container going to a town in the north or across to the west generally starts its run somewhere in that part of the world rather than crawling out of Queensland behind a prime mover. Give us the delivery address at the start of the conversation and it is the first thing we work out.
What if the grade I want is not in the closest yard?
Then there is a genuine decision to make and you should be the one making it. The choice is normally between a unit that is not quite what you pictured but is close by, and the exact one you wanted from a lot further away, with the run and the date both moving accordingly. We put both options in front of you with the difference in timing spelled out. Neither answer is wrong; they are just different trade-offs, and which one suits depends on whether the date or the specification is the thing you cannot move.
How long does it take from the phone call to the container being there?
Around the capitals and the bigger regional centres, usually a small number of business days once the grade is settled and we know the site takes a truck. Out west, up north and anywhere the last stretch is unsealed, it depends on when a truck is next running that way. Wet season closes roads across the top and the inland for weeks at a stretch and no amount of wanting changes that. Tell us the date you actually need it and you will get a straight answer about whether it is on.
How does a remote run get put together?
Rarely as a truck sent out with one container on it, because that is nobody's idea of value. A unit heading a long way inland usually travels with other freight going the same direction, which is why the date is set by the schedule rather than by us. It also means the window is wider than a metropolitan drop, that the last leg may change trucks, and that a hard deadline needs to be flagged at the quoting stage rather than the week before.
When does money change hands?
The container is settled before it is released and put on a truck. That is the industry standard and it is what takes a specific unit out of stock and puts your name on it. It is also the reason we are so willing to photograph the individual container on request before delivery — you should be able to see the exact unit you are being asked to settle, particularly on used and as-is stock.
Can I move the delivery date once it is booked?
Usually, if the truck has not been booked yet — ring as early as you can and it is generally a non-event. Once the run is scheduled, especially a long one that has been built around other freight, changing it means waiting for the next truck heading that way rather than shuffling it a day. Concrete pours, machinery hire and site handovers all slip; tell us as soon as you know and we will work with it.
Does somebody have to be on site when it lands?
Somebody should be, even a neighbour or the site foreman with your number in their phone. The driver will put the container where they are pointed, and the person pointing needs to know which way the doors are to face, where the water runs and what is buried. If nobody can be there, peg the four corners out, mark which end the doors go, leave the gate unlocked and send a photograph of the marked spot through beforehand.
Can I order several and have them go to different addresses?
Yes, and it is common with builders and councils. Each address gets worked out on its own because each has its own run and its own access, so treat them as separate deliveries that happen to be on one order. Tell us if they need to land in a particular sequence — that is easy to arrange in advance and impossible to fix afterwards.
Get a price
Start with the address
Tell us the town and what is going in it, and the reply will name the yard, the grade and the timing. Ring 1300 467 776 or send it through — both land with a person. Every enquiry answered within one business day.
Or skip the form and ring us — 1300 467 776, Mon-Fri 7:30am-5pm, Sat 8am-12pm