Quick Answer: Yes, ATS Containers is a legitimate company. Family-owned since 1992, Montreal headquarters, a real yard in Caledon, Ontario and depots across Canada, ATS is an established supplier, not a scam. This assessment comes from Van Blanc, a competing Brantford dealer, along with a checklist for verifying any container seller.
An honest note before anything else: Van Blanc competes with ATS Containers. We are a family container yard in Brantford; they are a family-owned national supplier headquartered in Montreal with their Ontario yard in Caledon. You should know that bias exists before you read a competitor answering this question. You should also know why we answer it anyway. When CBC News investigated Canada’s shipping container scam wave, the reporter called Paul LeBlanc, our owner, because scammers had stolen photos of our yard to run fake ads. We have spent years telling buyers which sellers are real, including the ones we compete against. ATS is one of the real ones. The same note opens our Ironclad Containers review, the Bradford yard on the Highway 400 corridor.
How to verify any container dealer, including us
The question behind “is this company legit” is really “will I lose my deposit.” Container fraud in Canada works one way: a seller with no yard takes payment up front for steel that does not exist. Every legitimate dealer, ATS included, passes the same three checks. A real, walkable address where you can see containers. A business name that matches the name on the payment. No pressure to pay in full before you have seen the unit or, at minimum, verified the yard exists.
Run those three checks on any seller and the scam risk collapses, whether you end up buying from ATS, from us, or from someone else entirely. The full playbook on container fraud goes deeper, including what to do if you have already sent money. The rest of the legitimacy series applies the same checks to every major supplier buyers ask us about.
What ATS Containers actually is
ATS Containers is a container sales, rental, and modification company founded in 1992, which makes their thirty-years-plus experience claim accurate. The founder, Tony, started the business around upcycling ocean containers into ground-level storage. The company is family-owned and headquartered at 5007 Rue Irwin in Montreal. Their Ontario operation ran out of Mississauga for years before relocating to a larger yard at 43 Perdue Court in Caledon, minutes from the CN intermodal corridor, and their site lists contact pages for Toronto, Ottawa, Québec City, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Moncton and Halifax. Their Google reviews sit around 4.8 stars across more than 150 reviewers, with buyers repeatedly praising responsive staff and clean delivery experiences.
ATS describes itself as the largest container provider in Canada. We have no way to audit anyone’s sales figures from the outside, and neither does any buyer, so our advice is the same for every superlative in this industry including ours: weigh the yard, the reviews, and the quote in front of you.
Paul LeBlanc, owner: “The question I want buyers asking is not whether ATS or Van Blanc is the real thing. We both are. Ask it about the ad with no address, the seller who needs a deposit today, the price a thousand dollars under every real yard in the province. That listing is where your money disappears.”
| ATS Containers | Van Blanc | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1992 | 1995 |
| Home yard | Caledon, ON (43 Perdue Court); HQ Montreal, QC (5007 Rue Irwin) | Brantford, ON (90 Morton Ave E) |
| Reach | National: contact points from Halifax and Moncton through Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton | Ontario only, delivered from Brantford |
| Model | Family-owned national supplier, online product catalogue | Single family yard, owner picks up the phone |
| Google rating | Roughly 4.8 stars, 150+ reviews | 4.9 stars, 140+ reviews |
| Modifications | Yes, commercial and storage mods | Yes, finished at the Brantford yard before delivery |
| Payment style | Standard supplier terms, online checkout available | You see the bin, then you pay: draft cheque, cash, wire, or card form |
ATS Containers Coverage and Ordering Style
The public facts on how ATS sells. Their Ontario yard is in Caledon, near Bolton and northern Peel. They sell from an online catalogue with photographed inventory. They list contact points in Quebec, Alberta and other provinces; Van Blanc is Ontario-only and does not deliver outside the province, and pretending otherwise would make us exactly the kind of seller this article warns about. Inside Ontario, a Caledon or Peel address is a routine run for our trucks, quoted to the postal code with the lead time in writing, and the box you pick on our rows is the one that arrives.
Where Van Blanc fits better
Buyers choose our Brantford yards over larger suppliers for a consistent handful of reasons. They want to walk the rows and put a hand on the exact box before money moves. They want the owner or his son on the phone, because Paul LeBlanc has 19 years in containers and 40 in Asian trade, and Christian grew up in the yard, and a sizing question gets answered in one call by the person who graded the box. They want modifications, lockboxes, vents, man doors, roll-up doors, finished at our yard so the box arrives done. And they want the payment rule we have run since 1995: the bin lands on your property, then you pay. The full walk-through of that model lives on our sea can buying page, grades and all.
Southwestern Ontario geography also matters. From Brantford, our trucks run Hamilton, Norfolk, Waterloo Region, London, and Niagara as short hauls with 1-3 day delivery, the same lead time we quote across Ontario. Caledon sits on the opposite side of the GTA. Neither of those facts is a criticism of the other yard; steel is heavy and trucking distance is real money in this trade.
What both yards get right
Credit where it belongs, because the point of this article is honesty, not points-scoring. ATS runs real inventory you can verify, real delivery trucks, and a review culture that would collapse in a week if they were mistreating buyers; nobody holds a 4.8 average across 150+ reviews by accident. They grade containers using the same industry ladder we do, new one-trip through used, and their modification work serves the same commercial market ours does. Buyers reading this should also notice what the overlap means: two established family-owned suppliers with Ontario yards, thirty-plus years each, arriving at similar service models independently. Real yards, published addresses, phone numbers that get answered.
Ontario is better off with several honest container yards in it. Every legitimate supplier that stays visible makes the fake-listing economy a little smaller, because the buyer who calls a real yard first learns what real terms sound like before the too-good ad finds them.
The scam wave both companies compete against
The real enemy of every legitimate dealer is not another legitimate dealer. It is the fake-listing economy running on Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, and disposable websites. CBC News documented buyers losing thousands to sellers who never had containers at all, and our yard has lived inside that story: a visitor photographed our inventory, and two days later our own boxes and trucks were in fraudulent ads across Ontario, priced a thousand dollars under our quotes.
Whichever real dealer you choose, the wire-transfer-to-a-stranger route is the one that ends with the CBC reporter asking how much you lost. One Toronto buyer in that coverage was out 34,000 US dollars. Verification costs a phone call and a drive.
For a dealer working the online-sales model instead of a yard visit, see our read on Northern Container Sales.
Compare Us Like a Skeptic
Get a quote from ATS. Get one from us. Same size, same grade, delivery to the same postal code, and weigh the numbers with the yard visit included. That comparison is one we win often enough to invite it.
How to compare the two quotes honestly
Container quotes only compare cleanly when four variables match. Same size, because a 20ft and a 40ft are different markets. Same grade, because a new one-trip against a wind-and-watertight is not a price difference, it is a product difference; the grade ladder is laid out plainly in our used-container inspection guide. Same delivery address, because the truck kilometres are a real line item from either yard. And the same week, because container pricing tracks steel, the dollar, and seasonal demand closely enough that a March quote and a June quote are different animals.
Ask both companies what is included: delivery, blocking under the corners, the exact unit versus a same-grade substitute, and the lead time in writing. A real supplier answers all four without flinching. That last sentence is the entire legitimacy test in miniature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ATS Containers a real company?
Yes. ATS Containers has been family-owned since 1992, is headquartered in Montreal, runs its Ontario yard at 43 Perdue Court in Caledon, lists depots from Halifax to Edmonton, and carries roughly 4.8 stars across 150+ Google reviews. It is an established supplier, not a scam operation.
Is ATS Containers the same company as Van Blanc?
No. We are competitors. ATS is a Montreal-headquartered national supplier with its Ontario yard in Caledon; Van Blanc is a single family-run yard in Brantford operating since 1995. This article is a competitor’s honest assessment, and we flagged that bias in the first paragraph.
Where does ATS Containers deliver compared with Van Blanc?
ATS runs its Ontario yard in Caledon and lists depots from Halifax to Edmonton, Quebec and Alberta included, with an online catalogue for ordering. Van Blanc delivers inside Ontario only, from Brantford, in 1 to 3 days to most of the province, Caledon and northern Peel included, and you can walk the rows and pick the exact unit first.
Who should buy from Van Blanc instead of ATS?
Buyers who want to walk the exact unit before paying, get the owner on the phone, have modifications finished at the yard before delivery, and keep the see-it-first payment model. Southwestern Ontario addresses are also short hauls from Brantford, with 1-3 day delivery.
How do I verify any container seller is legitimate?
Three checks: a real yard address you can visit, a business name that matches the payment name, and no deposit-first pressure before you can see steel. Real dealers pass all three easily. Fake listings fail at least one, usually the first.
Sources
- ATS Containers. (2026). Our Company. atscontainers.com. atscontainers.com
- CBC News. (2021). More companies, consumers caught in shipping container scam. CBC News. cbc.ca
- Caledon Chamber of Commerce. (2026). Member directory: ATS Containers. caledonchamberofcommerce.ca. caledonchamberofcommerce.ca
- International Maritime Organization. (1972, amended). International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC). IMO. imo.org
Reach Van Blanc in Brantford
Thirty years of Ontario container supply sit behind the rows at 90 Morton Avenue East in Brantford. Walk the rows, compare the grades, and get a straight answer either way.
Van Blanc Ent. Inc., 90 Morton Ave E Unit 1B, Brantford, ON N3R 7J7, +1 888-509-6658
Comparing suppliers is exactly what we would do in your position. Bring us the other quote and we will tell you honestly how ours stacks up.