Quick Answer: Conterm is a long-established container company, operating since 1972, with one depot in Vaudreuil-Dorion, west of Montreal. They are legitimate, and their depot sits closer to parts of Eastern Ontario than Brantford does. Van Blanc delivers to all of Eastern Ontario and quotes the freight as its own line, so any two quotes can be read side by side.
In This Guide
Reading time: 8 minutes
What Conterm actually is
Conterm was founded in 1972 to serve international leasing companies as a full-service container repair and storage depot. That origin is worth pausing on, because it is unusual. Most container sellers begin as sellers. Conterm began as the yard that other companies’ containers were sent to for inspection and repair, which is a different kind of institutional knowledge to accumulate over five decades.
They have since expanded into domestic leasing and container sales, they run a modification division building custom steel structures, and in 2010 they launched a container events arm. Their current site lists one depot, at 1201 Montée Labossière in Vaudreuil-Dorion on the western edge of Greater Montreal, with published service areas of Greater Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and Cornwall, and sales, rentals and modifications reaching into Eastern Ontario from there. Their rental fleet covers the standard sizes.
On the question people usually arrive here asking: we found nothing suggesting anything other than a legitimate, long-running operation. A company does not run container depots for fifty-plus years without doing what it says it will do.
The repair-depot lineage is worth one more sentence, because it has a practical consequence. A yard built around inspection tends to grade conservatively, since its original customers were leasing companies who would notice immediately if a unit was called better than it was. That habit outlasts the contracts that created it. It is the same reason we grade the way we do, and it is the main thing a fifty-year-old yard and a thirty-year-old yard have in common that a three-month-old website does not.
The Vaudreuil-Dorion depot, and why it matters more than the brand
Here is the most useful thing on this page: Conterm’s depot sits in Vaudreuil-Dorion, roughly 20 kilometres from the Ontario border on Highway 40, and their published service map includes Cornwall. Our containers leave from four yards in Brantford, which sits at the opposite end of the province.
For a buyer in Cornwall, the eastern counties or Ottawa, that geography shows up in the freight line, which is why we price ours to the address and show it separately.
Why distance shows up on the invoice
Container freight in Ontario works in two modes. Short hauls, roughly under a hundred kilometres, are usually quoted as a flat local rate. Beyond that, carriers price by the kilometre, and the run is billed on the distance travelled rather than the straight-line map distance. A tilt-deck truck making a long one-way haul is a truck that is not doing anything else that day, and the quote reflects it.
This is why freight belongs on its own line of every quote. Diesel is not free.
The other half people miss: the truck has to get back. A long delivery is usually priced on the round trip even though only one leg carries your container, because nothing else is going to fill that deck on the return. Two yards quoting the same box at the same grade can land hundreds of kilometres apart in trucking, and neither of them is doing anything wrong.
None of this shows up on a product page. It shows up when the quote arrives, which is why the freight question is worth asking before you fall in love with a listing.
The depot distance test
Before comparing any two container yards, three questions settle most of it, and only one of them is about the company.
Three questions, in order
- Where does the container physically leave from? Not the head office, not the phone area code. The yard. Ask directly, because a national-sounding website can dispatch from one province over.
- Is the freight quoted separately or buried? A yard that names the delivery figure as its own line lets you compare two quotes honestly. A bundled number hides whether you are paying for steel or for kilometres.
- Can you inspect before you commit? This one is about the company, and it decides whether you see the actual box before any money moves.
Run those three on any pair of yards and the answer usually falls out without anyone needing to disparage anyone.
Eastern Ontario against that test
| Your location | To Conterm (Vaudreuil-Dorion) | To our Brantford yards | Honest read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornwall and the eastern counties | About 80 km | About 540 km | Their depot is far closer. We deliver here too, with the freight on its own line. |
| Ottawa and the Valley | About 160 km | About 550 km | Their depot is far closer, and Ottawa is not on their published service list. We deliver to Ottawa. |
| Kingston | About 250 km | About 360 km | Genuinely contested. Get both numbers. |
| Belleville | About 330 km | About 290 km | Contested, leaning ours. Get both numbers. |
| Peterborough and the Kawarthas | About 370 km | About 220 km | Usually ours on distance. |
| GTA, Golden Horseshoe, Southwestern Ontario | 450 km and up | Under 150 km | Ours, comfortably. |
Distances are approximate driving figures, rounded to the nearest ten kilometres. We serve every one of those regions and we deliver to all of them. But a table that pretended Brantford was the closer yard for an Ottawa buyer would be a table nobody should trust.
“The ones who call back two years later for the second container are the ones you told the truth to the first time.”
Paul LeBlanc, owner. Thirty years in the container industry, operating Van Blanc since 1995.
Where distance decides the quote
East of roughly Kingston, freight distance is the biggest line on the quote, so we price it to your address up front and you see it on its own line before you decide.
Anything genuinely Quebec-side is outside our map. We supply and deliver across Ontario. We do not quote work outside the province, and a company that tried to serve Montreal from Brantford would be selling you a long invoice for no reason.
Then there is timing. A box needed next week has to be standing in a row somewhere today, and we tell you on the first call whether ours is; delivery to Ottawa, Kingston and the eastern counties runs 1 to 3 days.
Where a Brantford yard still earns the trip
Freight is one line on the quote. The box itself is the rest of it.
If the specific unit matters, because the box is going somewhere visible, being converted, or bought on a grade judgement, then walking the row is worth more than the freight difference. That is the whole reason our buyers drive in. Two Cargo Worthy containers can be honestly graded and still be different boxes, and no distance calculation resolves that for you.
The other case is modification. We build the fit-out at our own yard before the truck loads, which means you can watch it happen and adjust a window position while changes are still cheap. Anyone ordering a working setup built to a trade’s needs is buying the build as much as the steel.
There is also the question of who answers when something goes sideways. A container that arrives with a door that will not seat properly is a problem you want to raise with the yard that graded it, and the shorter the distance between you and that yard, the simpler the fix. That is not a knock on anyone. It is just easier to fix a Brantford box from Brantford.
And for most of the province, we are simply the closer yard. Ontario is a wide place, and Brantford sits near the population centre of it. A buyer in Guelph or Woodstock weighing a Vaudreuil-Dorion depot against ours is running the same arithmetic in the opposite direction, and for them it points to Brantford.
What both yards are actually competing against
Neither of us loses much business to the other. Conterm sells into Quebec and, through Cornwall, into Eastern Ontario; we sell across Ontario from the centre and west. The overlap is a band through the middle, and inside that band both of us lose the same sales to the same thing.
The listing economy takes them. A plausible advertisement, a price that undercuts every real yard, an e-transfer, and then nothing. Any established depot with a repair history and a physical address is a safer transaction than that, whether the yard is in Vaudreuil-Dorion or Brantford.
The tell is nearly always the same, and it has not changed in years: a number well under what any yard with real overhead can offer, paired with a reason you cannot come and look. Storage-lot access rules, a unit still in transit, a seller conveniently out of town. Both of us lose those buyers to the same story, and both of us hear about it afterwards. If you want the full pattern written out, we keep a running account of how these sales actually fall apart.
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Family-run in Brantford since 1995 · 200+ containers in stock · 4.9★ across 140+ Google reviews · every box graded by a person, walk it before it lands.
Sold outright. Delivered in 1 to 3 days.
Van Blanc sells new and used shipping containers outright from our 4 Brantford yards, with delivery in 1 to 3 days and payment on delivery. We do not rent, lease or offer rent-to-own. Request a sale quote or call the yard at 519-754-6844.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Conterm a legitimate container company?
Yes, on all available evidence. Conterm has operated since 1972, originally as a container repair and storage depot for international leasing companies. Their current site lists one depot, at 1201 Montée Labossière in Vaudreuil-Dorion, plus sales, rentals, a modification division and an events arm. Nothing about the operation resembles the pattern of a fraudulent seller.
Does Conterm serve Eastern Ontario?
Partly. Their published service areas are Greater Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and Cornwall, and their Vaudreuil-Dorion depot sits about 20 kilometres from the Ontario border, close to Cornwall and the eastern counties. Ottawa is not on the published list, so ask whether they quote it. Van Blanc also delivers to all of Eastern Ontario from Brantford, with the freight quoted to your address as its own line.
How much does container delivery distance affect the price?
Considerably on a long haul. Short local runs are usually quoted as a flat rate, while anything beyond roughly a hundred kilometres is priced per kilometre and billed on the distance the truck actually travels. Two identical containers from yards at different distances will not land at the same total.
Should I always buy from the closest container yard?
Not necessarily. Freight is one line; the box is the rest. If the box is going somewhere visible, being converted, or chosen on a grade judgement, seeing the actual unit is usually worth more than the freight saving. Even for plain storage in a back lot, a unit you can walk, pick by number and pay for on delivery takes the guesswork out.
Does Van Blanc deliver to Ottawa and Eastern Ontario?
Yes, we deliver across the whole province from our four Brantford yards, Eastern Ontario included. Delivery to Ottawa, Kingston and the eastern counties typically runs 1 to 3 days, with the freight quoted to your address as its own line.
Sources
- Conterm. Corporate profile and depot locations. conterm.ca
- Institute of International Container Lessors. Container inspection and repair criteria. iicl.org
- Better Business Bureau. Scam Alert: In the market for a shipping container? bbb.org
- International Maritime Organization. (1972, amended). International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC). imo.org
Reach Van Blanc in Brantford
Four yards in Brantford, all of them ours, all of them worked since 1995. We deliver to Eastern Ontario from here, with the freight on its own line and payment on delivery.
Van Blanc Ent. Inc., 90 Morton Ave E Unit 1B, Brantford, ON N3R 7J7, 519-754-6844
If you are weighing two quotes from two yards, call and read us the other one. We will tell you what is actually different between them.