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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Shipping documents should not be attached to the physical container for transit, they risk getting damaged or lost.
A lot of documentation is done electronically these days and it may be that there is no need to send physical paperwork with your shipping container. you freight forwarder or shipping agent shoudl be able to help with advice here specific to your shipment.
However, established processes in this industry will often remain in place for a long whilst until he whole world can move onto new electronic systems, for that reason the paperwork process is still largely in place if needed. The paperwork process for shipping documents that need to go with an export shipping container is as follows.
- Once loaded, you sing any relevant part so the paperwork (as may the driver in some cases) and you hand this paperwork to the truck driver.
- At the port, the driver will hand this paperwork to the shipping line, they typically have a pigeon hole or similar at the port for each shipping line or booking agent
- The port collects this paperwork and make sure it travels with the ship.
- At arrival the containers are offloaded from the ship, and any paperwork for cargo arriving at that port is handed to the port
- The Port of arrival then will pass this onto the customs agents or relevant people at destination.
Hermetically sealed shipping containers are often requested, but for most customers (most budgets) it is not possible to provide a hermetically sealed shipping container
Firstly all shipping containers will have a small number of cargo vents to allow for air flow as the container moved from warm to cooler climates, and to let the containers breathe as the air inside containers expands and contracts with these temperature changes.
However even if we weld these up it is near impossible for us to guarantee a truly airtight seal on the rest of the shipping container. the door seals on standard shipping containers are not hermetic seals, and it woudl be very hard to guarantee a small air gap anywhere else on a shipping container especially if its used.
Refrigerated shipping containers may offer the best chance of a true airtight seal, these units come with a thicker metal floor, no vents and a thicker door with better seals. Whilst we will say don’t’ stay inside with the door closed as you will likely suffocate, we are unlikely able to offer a cast iron guarantee of a perfect hermetic seal on the shipping container doors.
We are aware that customers projects and requirements are often unique so if you have a specific project or ‘challenge’ at hand why not contact us as a brief chat about your ideas can often help us make suggestions and recommendations.
All standard shipping containers come with small circa 1 inch square vents on the top rails. This doesn’t allow for significant air flow but it does mean they are not airtight
You may also find on a used shipping container that the doors seals may not be in perfect condition, and also minor damage or war tot he floor over time may mean that there is capacity for a tiny bit of air flow through the floor (although this is unlikely). Door seals are only designed to prevent water from waves penetrating past the doors and damaging any cargo inside, they are not designed to be be airtight.
Refrigerated shipping containers however do not have the same vents, they come with metal floors and if the seals are fully intact they should be considered airtight for health and safety purposes (for example limiting time spent inside a closed space or monitoring systems to check on anyone working withing such an environment).
Wear and damage to any of the heat exchangers in the refrigerated container engine, mounting problems or other engine bay damage can mean that the refrigerated containers may not be perfectly airtight. Similar to above the door seals are not specifically designed to be perfectly airtight and on a used refrigerated shipping container some wear and partial damage to the seal may be evident.
Of course every shipping container we sell as standard is offers with our wind & watertight guarantee. This does not guarantee thew unit is airtight, not does it guarantee its watertight to the extremes of dropping the whole container into the sea and expecting it to float – we are simply guaranteeing that the container we offer for sale is good to keep your goods dry and out of the weather whilst used in a static, on site storage basis.
Shipping Containers can be used as an acoustic barrier and offer excellent sound protection. You will want to ensure that the area you a want to shield from any noise has its line of site to any potential noise source entirely blocked by any shipping container wall you wanted to install.
Please feel free to check out our news article where we supplied 33x 40ft shipping containers to Tottenham Hotspur as part of their ongoing stadium redevelopment. The shipping containers were used to protect local residents from the dust and noise coming from site.
The corrugated sides help deflect noise away, and the price of shipping containers make this a very effective and attractive option versus other means.
We have also supplied shipping containers in the past to help farmers protect local residents from noise and dust coming from grain silos. There are a lot of potential applications for this sort of use.