Procuring Industrial Equipment and Supplies

Should You Purchase or Hire a Shipping Container?

If you need a shipping container, you have two main choices. You can buy or hire the container. Trying to decide which route to take? Then, you may want to consider the following questions.

How Many Times Are You Going to Use the Shipping Container?

As you try to decide between purchasing or hiring a shipping container, first think about how often you're going to use the shipping container. If you're going to use it multiple times, you should probably buy it.

On the other hand, if you're just going to use it once, you may want to hire one. To give you an example, imagine that you want a shipping container so that you can load up the contents of your home or office. Then, you want to put the shipping container on a truck and travel to your new home or office, and once that process is over, you no longer need the container. In situations like this, you are often better off hiring the container.

How Convenient Is It to Return the Shipping Container?

That said, if you're hiring a shipping container, you also need to think about how easy it is to return the shipping container. To continue with the above example, imagine that the shipping container company only has a branch in your town of origin. It does not have a location in the area where you are moving.

As a result, to get the shipping container back to the hire company, you have to jump through a lot of logistical hoops. In this case, you may want to just buy the shipping container. If you don't need it, you can try to sell it. Lots of people are willing to buy used shipping containers.

Do You Want to Modify the Shipping Container?

Do you want to cut windows in the shipping container so that you can use it as a guest cottage? Do you want to put in insulation, paint the container or make other changes? If you need to make any modifications, you should buy the shipping container. Most hire companies ban you from making modifications.

What Works Best With Your Budget?

Finally, if you're on the fence for any of these elements, you should look at the numbers. In some cases, it may be cheaper to buy and then resell the shipping container, but in other situations, you may save money by going with a shipping container hire.


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