20' High Cube Containers
20’ high cube containers are specialty containers. They are not used by shipping lines for general freight and are only available in one-trip condition. They are not as common as 20’ standards or 40’ high cubes for several reasons:
- They are not used by the shipping lines for general freight, reducing the overall demand for them.
- Because the shipping line doesn’t have any they have used, there are no used ones
- When 20’ high cubes come over from China, they generally are loaded with goods to defray the cost of transporting them to the US. They need to be emptied out. About 10% of the time, full 20’ high cubes are put on a regular 20’ chassis, or trailer that moves containers instead of a chassis for a high cube container. Regular 20’ chassis are too tall for 20’ high cube containers. When this combination of a regular 20’ chassis and 20’ high cube meet a bridge that has a 13’6” clearance, the bridge will generally not budge, but the container does. This damage done to the container is called “low-bridging”. You can see a picture of it below.
- Since about 10% of 20’ high cubes get low-bridged, many specialty carriers and shipping lines don’t like to move 20’ high cubes, making them less common. And so the cycle continues.
We can get 20’ high cubes, but they may have to come from a little further away than other containers we quote you and they will be more expensive than 20’ standards.
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