Which container size is cheapest per cubic metre

The arithmetic, all four sizes

Internal volume divided by the published from-price. Both columns are ex GST, ex depot, and they are the figures set on 03/08/2026 — the same numbers on the prices page, because there is only one place on this site where a price lives.

Used figures are cargo-worthy grade, which is checked wind and watertight before it leaves the depot. As-is units are cheaper again and are not sold watertight, and they are priced per unit rather than off a list, so they cannot honestly go in a table like this one.

The 10ft is the dearest steel in the country

Seven times the cost per cubic metre of a used 40ft. That is not a typo and it is not a margin decision, it is what the thing costs us.

A 10ft is not a shipping size. Nothing is manufactured at that length for the container trade, so a 10ft is a longer unit cut down and the cut end rebuilt — new end frame, new door frame, welded, sealed and painted. You are buying a fabricator's hours, and fabricator's hours do not get cheaper because the box got shorter.

Which makes the rule simple: buy a 10ft for access, never for price. If the block will take a 20ft, the 20ft gives you more than twice the space for about half the money. The only good reasons to take the small one are a driveway that will not turn a 20ft, a strata bay with a painted line around it, or ground where the footprint itself costs rent.

The 40ft is the value buy, and the reason is unglamorous

$2,600 used against $2,200 for a 20ft, for double the volume. It looks like a pricing error and it is not. Used 40fts come off the ships in volume and the retail market for them is thinner than for 20fts, because most buyers cannot fit one. Thin demand against steady supply is what sets that price.

The premium has not disappeared, it has moved onto the truck. A 40ft needs a much longer straight run to be placed, a bigger vehicle, and sometimes a different vehicle type entirely. That cost is real, it lands on the delivery rather than the container, and it is quoted against your actual address — which is why we quote the two numbers together before anything is booked rather than publishing a delivery figure that would be wrong for most addresses.

The high cube is the one genuine anomaly

Look at the new column again. A new 40ft and a new 40ft high cube both start at $5,500, and the high cube holds nine cubic metres more.

If you are buying new at 40ft length, there is no arithmetic in which the standard height wins. Same money, same footprint, same truck, 300mm more headroom inside — 2.70m against 2.39m. The only thing to check is the door, which is 2.58m high on a high cube against 2.28m on a standard, and whether the extra overall height clears whatever the truck has to drive under to reach the spot.

In used grade the sums are different — a used high cube carries about an $800 premium and works out around $45 a cubic metre against $39 for the standard. Worth it if you are lining or insulating the inside, because you give 50 to 75mm of that headroom straight back to the lining. Not worth it if you are stacking pallets two high and stopping there.

Two 20fts against one 40ft

This comes up whenever access is marginal, and the numbers are unkind to it. Two used 20fts is 66 cubic metres for $4,400 — $67 a cubic metre, exactly the 20ft rate, because you have simply bought two 20fts. One used 40ft is 67 cubic metres for $2,600.

Near enough the same space for $1,800 less, and that is before the second delivery. Two containers is two truck movements, not one.

Splitting into two 20fts is still the right answer sometimes — when the run-in genuinely will not take a 40ft, when the two lots of gear want to live in different parts of the property, or when you want to sell one on later. Just go in knowing it is a decision that costs money, rather than assuming it is the cheaper option because each box is cheaper.

Where cost per cubic metre stops being useful

Empty space is not value. A 40ft you fill a third of is $2,600 for 22 usable cubic metres, which is worse than a 20ft you fill properly. Cost per cubic metre only means anything for volume you will actually use, and most people overestimate what they will grow into.

Access outranks the whole table. The best value per cubic metre in the range is worth precisely nothing if the truck cannot place it. A standard tilt-tray needs roughly twenty metres of straight run to slide a unit off, and a 40ft needs meaningfully more room than a 20ft to line up. Measure the gate width, pace out the straight run at the spot, look up for wires and branches, and think about whether the ground carries a loaded truck after rain. Then pick the size.

There is also the ground itself. A 40ft is around 3,800 kg empty against 2,200 kg for a 20ft, sitting on four corner castings that need to be level and firm. On soft or reactive ground that is a real difference, not a footnote.

The short version

• Buying used and the access takes it: the 40ft, at about $39 a cubic metre. Nothing else is close.
• Buying used and the access is normal suburban: the 20ft, at about $67. It is the size every depot holds in volume and the size everyone quotes, which makes it the easiest to compare.
• Buying new at 40ft length: take the high cube. Same starting price, nine more cubic metres.
• Buying a 10ft: only because nothing longer will fit. It is the dearest space on the site by a distance.

Full dimensions for every size are on the dimensions page, and the whole range sits on the range page. If you would rather just describe the block and the gear, ring 1300 639 282 and we will tell you which size the job actually needs — including when that is the smaller, cheaper one.