10ft Shipping Containers
Side access is pinched, the setback leaves nothing to manoeuvre in, or all that is needed is a lockable spot for the mower, an air compressor and a wall of hand tools.
Hire
Container hire
Hire is the right call when the need has an end to it. A build that finishes, a season that turns, a shed that eventually goes up. You pay by the week, we cart it in, and when you are done we come and take it away again.
- Rates
- Weekly, ex GST, easing with the term
- Minimum
- A month as a rule
- Grade
- Cargo-worthy or better, no exceptions
- Ending it
- Give notice and we book the collection
Every enquiry answered within one business day.You hear back from a person, not an autoresponder. Enquiries that land on a weekend are answered the next business day.
The test
Can you put a month on the end of it?
That is nearly the whole decision. If you can name roughly when the container stops being needed — the practical completion date, the end of harvest, the week the fitout finishes — hire is almost certainly the cheaper and simpler answer, and you never have to think about what happens to the box afterwards. If the honest answer is that you have no idea and it might be forever, you are describing a purchase with extra steps.
Cost is the other half of it. A weekly rate looks small next to the price of a container, and for a job measured in months it genuinely is. Stretch the same rate across a couple of years and the total quietly passes what the unit would have cost outright, except that at the end of it you hand it back. That is not automatically a bad deal — no capital tied up, nothing to resell, one clean line in the books — but it should be a decision rather than something that creeps up on you. The breakdown of what a container really costs lays both columns out.
Who hires
Where hire plainly earns its keep
- Builders and civil crews. Tools, materials and the good gear locked up on site for the length of the job, then gone with the temporary fence.
- Harvest, shutdowns and events. Weeks rather than years, at a cost you can put on a job sheet before the season starts.
- Retail and warehouse peaks. Stock that has to live somewhere from October to January and nowhere after that.
- Repair and insurance work. A house being put back together needs everything out of it and still on the block, where the owner can reach it.
- Moves that went sideways. A settlement that landed early, a lease that ended badly, a rental gap of six weeks. Somewhere lockable, now.
- Finding out what size you need. Hiring a 20ft for two months is a far cheaper way to learn you wanted a 40ft than buying the 20ft was.
Where hire stock comes from
Hire works differently to a sale on one point that matters: the container has to come back. A unit sent a very long way has to make the return trip too, so hire availability is not spread quite as evenly as sale stock is. Some remote addresses are genuinely better served by buying a cargo-worthy unit and moving it on at the end of the job. Give us the town when you first ring and we will tell you which way it falls rather than quoting you a hire that makes no sense.
Weekly hire
10ft, 20ft and 40ft on a weekly rate, in AUD ex GST. Longer terms come down. Cartage in and collection out are quoted with the unit, for your address, so you get the whole cost of the arrangement in one figure.
Get a hire figureNothing goes out on hire that has not been inspectedCargo-worthy or better, checked wind and watertight, lock box fitted.
The unit
What actually turns up
A hire container is a working box rather than a showroom one, so expect honest marks — faded livery, scuffs, patches of surface rust where the paint has given up. What it will not have is a floor that gives underfoot, doors that need a bar to shut or a roof that lets weather through. Every unit is inspected wind and watertight before release and comes with a lock box welded over the padlock area.
If you want to see the exact container before it is loaded, say so. Where it is standing at Cornubia you are welcome to come and look at it on a weekday; where it is standing further afield we photograph that individual unit on request, before delivery, and send it through.
The arrangement
Booking, running and ending a hire
Booking it
Size, grade, roughly how long, and the address. We check what is standing at the closest yard, work out the cartage for that address and give you the weekly rate and the freight together. Nothing is committed until you say so.
The delivery
Same job as any other container drop — the site has to take a truck, and the same access questions apply. Send photographs of the entry with the enquiry and we will sort the right truck out before it is booked rather than on the day.
While it is on hire
Invoiced on the agreed cycle. If the job runs long, ring and extend it — that is a two-minute phone call, not a new agreement. If the job finishes early, the same call gets the collection moving sooner.
Off-hire
Tell us the date, empty it, sweep it out and leave it where a truck can reach it. Hire runs to collection rather than to the day you stopped using it, so the notice you give is the money you save. Fair wear is expected; modifications you did not mention are the only thing that turns collection into a conversation.
Sizes
What you can put on hire
20ft Shipping Containers
There is about seven metres of straight, reasonably level ground for it to sit on, and you would rather not discover in half a year that the bigger box was the answer.
40ft Shipping Containers
You have the space, the approach is genuinely open, and the aim is the largest amount of storage per dollar spent that anybody sells.
Questions
About hiring a container
What does it cost to hire a container by the week?
It is a weekly rate that follows the size and the grade, a 10ft sits under a 20ft and a 40ft above it, and the weekly figure eases as the term gets longer. Cartage in and collection out are quoted separately with the unit because they follow the address rather than the calendar. Tell us the term and the town together and you will get the whole cost of the arrangement instead of the headline part of it.
How short can a hire be?
A month is the usual floor. Below that the trucking at both ends dominates the arithmetic so completely that the weekly rate stops being the number that matters, and you are better off ringing and describing the job so we can tell you whether it is worth doing at all. Where a short term genuinely makes sense we will do it, we would just rather say so honestly than take the booking and let you work it out later.
At what point should I stop hiring and buy?
Once a standard unit has sat on hire for a couple of years, what has been paid out is generally past what buying the same box would have cost, and at the end of it you own nothing. There are good reasons to keep hiring anyway — no capital tied up, no responsibility for the thing at the end, and a clean line in the accounts — but the arithmetic should be a choice rather than an accident. Ring and we will do the sums with you.
What condition does a hire unit turn up in?
Cargo-worthy or better, inspected wind and watertight before it is released, with a lock box on the doors. As-is units are not hired out at all. An as-is container carries no watertight claim, and putting somebody's stock inside one for six months would be setting the arrangement up to end badly. If you want eyes on the specific unit before it is loaded, ask and we will photograph it on request, before delivery.
Can I cut a window or weld something onto a hire container?
Not without agreeing it first. Shelving, racking and fixings that come out cleanly are usually fine and nobody minds. Cutting steel, welding on brackets or painting it is a different conversation, because the unit has to go back into the fleet afterwards. Raise it before the grinder comes out and it is generally workable; raise it at collection and it becomes an invoice.
How do I end a hire?
Ring or email and tell us the date. Hire runs until the container is actually collected rather than until the day you finish emptying it, so notice is the thing that saves you money — give us as much as you can and we will book the truck into a run going that way. Have it empty, swept and accessible when the driver arrives, because a collection that cannot be completed still costs a truck.
Can hire turn into a purchase later?
Often, and it is much easier to arrange at the start than eighteen months in. Where it stacks up we can structure the deal so what you have already paid counts toward buying that unit, which suits jobs where nobody honestly knows the end date. It depends on the individual container and the term, so ask about it when you first ring rather than assuming it later.
Who looks after a container while it is on hire to me?
It sits on your site under your control, so it is worth checking that your policy covers a hired container and what is inside it — plenty of business policies do, plenty of household ones do not. Tell us straight away if it is damaged or broken into rather than at collection. Fair wear is expected and priced in; a hole in the side is not fair wear.
Get a price
Get a hire figure
Give us the size, roughly how long you need it and the town it is going to. You will get the weekly rate and the cartage together. 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