Quick Answer: Northern Container Sales is a real Ontario company, employee-owned, with a Toronto depot and live pricing published on its website. Nothing we found suggests otherwise. The question worth asking is not whether they are legitimate but whether buying a container you have not walked suits your particular purchase.
In This Guide
- What Northern Container Sales actually is
- The online-purchase model, and what it genuinely does well
- Four checks for buying a container you cannot walk
- Northern Container Sales against those four checks
- The sight-unseen gap, and the buyers it does not suit
- Where a Brantford yard fits differently
- What both models get right
- FAQs
Reading time: 8 minutes
What Northern Container Sales actually is
Northern Container Sales is an Ontario-based container dealer, employee-owned, operating from a Toronto depot and selling into markets across the country including Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Their model is unusual in this trade and worth describing accurately: they buy directly from intermodal companies, apply a stated wholesale mark-up, and publish live pricing on their own website rather than quoting privately.
Delivery runs on roll-off trailers that set the container on the ground without a crane or forklift, in a window they describe as roughly four to seven business days depending on location and availability.
We searched for the things that reveal a problem company: Better Business Bureau complaint patterns, third-party review histories, reports of deposits taken on containers that never arrived. We found none. On the evidence available, this is a functioning business doing what it says it does.
Why a competitor is writing this at all
Because the honest answer helps the buyer more than a vague one does. If someone lands here hoping to read that a rival is a fraud, they will be disappointed. The useful question is which buying model fits the job, and that is a question we can answer from thirty years of watching both work and fail.
The online-purchase model, and what it genuinely does well
Published pricing is a real virtue and it deserves saying plainly. Most of this industry, ourselves included, quotes per order, and buyers reasonably find that frustrating when all they want is a rough sense of the number before they pick up the phone. A dealer who posts figures publicly removes that friction entirely.
The national footprint solves a genuine problem too. A buyer in Alberta or British Columbia is outside our service area entirely, and a dealer selling into those markets is doing work we cannot do. There is no Ontario yard, ours included, that serves a customer in Vancouver.
The roll-off delivery method is also worth understanding, because it is not the same as the tilt-deck we run, and almost nobody explains the difference before the truck arrives.
A roll-off winches the container off a tilting frame on rollers, which means the truck needs a straight run and reasonably firm ground, and the container tends to travel a short distance backwards as it lands. A tilt-deck raises the whole bed and slides the box off, which gives slightly more control over the final resting position but asks for a similar approach. Neither is better in the abstract. What matters is that the method matches your site, and the only way to know that is to describe the ground, the approach and the overhead clearance to whoever is dispatching the truck. A dealer who does not ask about your site before scheduling is the actual warning sign, regardless of which trailer they run.
Four checks for buying a container you cannot walk
Whenever the container arrives before you have seen it, four things carry the entire weight of the transaction. This applies to any online dealer, and it applies to us on the occasions we ship somewhere the buyer cannot reach.
The four checks
- Photographs of the actual unit, not a representative one. The single most common gap between expectation and delivery is a stock photo standing in for a specific box. Ask for images of the container you are buying, including the interior with the doors closed.
- A grade named precisely, and defined. “Used” is not a grade. One-Trip, Cargo Worthy, Wind and Watertight and As-Is mean specific things, and a dealer should tell you which one and what it guarantees.
- A verifiable physical address. Not a phone number and a web form. A depot you could drive to if you chose to, whether or not you ever will.
- Payment terms that do not require full money up front. The scam pattern documented by consumer-protection bodies runs on advance deposits. Any structure that keeps money attached to delivery closes that gap.
These are not tests designed to trip anyone up. They are the questions a careful buyer asks, and any solid dealer answers them without hesitation.
Northern Container Sales against those four checks
| Check | What we could verify |
|---|---|
| Actual-unit photographs | Not something a website can demonstrate publicly. Ask directly before ordering, as you should of any online dealer. |
| Grade named and defined | Yes. They sell 20ft, 40ft and 40ft high cube in stated conditions. |
| Verifiable physical presence | Yes. A Toronto depot and an identifiable company, not an anonymous listing. |
| Payment structure | Standard online commerce. Confirm the terms directly, as with any advance purchase. |
Two of the four are visible from outside the business; two of them depend on the conversation you have before ordering. That is true of every online dealer in this trade, and it is the honest limit of what any third party can tell you.
The sight-unseen gap, and the buyers it does not suit
Here is the part of this trade that does not appear in any listing. Containers of the same stated grade vary. Two Cargo Worthy units, both honestly graded, can differ in the amount of surface rust, the state of the door gaskets, how cleanly the locking bars throw, and whether the floor has taken a chemical spill in a previous life. None of that makes either unit mis-sold. It is simply the reality of used steel that has crossed oceans.
For a container going to the back of a farm to hold implements, that variance does not matter and the online model is the faster route. For a container that will sit at a storefront, become an office, get converted, or be photographed by anyone, the variance is the whole decision, and a photograph of a representative unit cannot settle it.
“There is nothing wrong with buying a bin off a website. I would do it myself for a back-lot unit where all I need is walls and a lock. What I would not do is buy the box that becomes somebody’s office off a photograph, because the thing that decides that purchase is the stuff a photo cannot show you: how the doors sound, whether the seals are supple, what the floor smells like.”
Paul LeBlanc, owner. Nineteen years in the container industry, forty in Asian trade, operating Van Blanc since 1995.
Where a Brantford yard fits differently
Our model is the opposite trade-off, and it costs us the buyers who want a number in ten seconds. We keep 200-plus containers on the ground at 90 Morton Avenue East, we quote per order because the grade spread is real, and we expect buyers who care about the specific box to come and walk the row and pick theirs. Payment happens on delivery rather than in advance.
That model is worse than an online dealer’s for a buyer in Saskatchewan, and worse for a buyer who genuinely does not care which unit arrives. It is better when the box matters, when the grade question is live, and when the buyer wants to see the difference between grades with their own eyes rather than read about it.
We deliver across Ontario in 1 to 3 days from four Brantford yards. Outside Ontario we are not the answer, and we will say so on the phone.
What both models get right
Both of us are competing against the same thing, and it is not each other. The real adversary in this trade is the listing economy: professional-looking ads, plausible prices, a responsive seller, an e-transfer request, and then silence. The Better Business Bureau has issued specific alerts about exactly this pattern.
An established dealer with a depot, a company history, and a name attached to the transaction is on the right side of that line whether the depot is in Toronto or Brantford. If reading this page results in someone buying from Northern Container Sales instead of a Facebook listing, that is a good outcome and we will take it.
Want to see the box before you buy it?
Tell us the size, the grade you think you need, and your postal code. We will give you one honest all-in number, and you are welcome to walk the row in Brantford and pick the exact unit first.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Northern Container Sales a legitimate company?
On the evidence available, yes. It is an employee-owned Ontario container dealer with a Toronto depot, an identifiable corporate presence, and published pricing. We found no Better Business Bureau complaint pattern, no third-party scam reports, and none of the signals that mark a fraudulent listing operation.
What is the risk of buying a shipping container online?
The main risk is variance rather than fraud when you are dealing with an established company. Containers of the same grade differ in rust, seals, door action and floor condition. The mitigation is straightforward: ask for photographs of the specific unit rather than a representative one, and confirm the grade is named and defined.
Should I buy a container without seeing it first?
It depends entirely on the job. For hidden storage where the container only needs to be sound and lockable, buying unseen is efficient and sensible. For anything visible, anything being converted, or anything where cosmetic condition forms part of the value, see it first or expect to accept whatever arrives.
Does Van Blanc deliver outside Ontario?
No. We supply and deliver across Ontario from our four Brantford yards, and we say so plainly rather than taking an order we cannot serve well. Buyers outside the province are better served by a dealer operating in their own region.
How can I verify any container dealer before paying?
Four things settle it: photographs of the actual unit with the doors closed from inside, a grade that is named and defined rather than just called “used”, a physical address you could drive to, and payment terms that keep your money attached to delivery rather than sitting with a stranger in advance.
Sources
- Northern Container Sales. Company information and shipping container sales. northerncontainersales.ca
- Better Business Bureau. Scam Alert: In the market for a shipping container? Watch out for this con. bbb.org
- Institute of International Container Lessors. Container inspection criteria and grading. iicl.org
- International Maritime Organization. (1972, amended). International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC). imo.org
Reach Van Blanc in Brantford
Telling a buyer when another yard suits their job better is a habit we have kept since 1995. Our yard is at 90 Morton Avenue East in Brantford, and the containers are on the ground where you can walk them.
Van Blanc Ent. Inc., 90 Morton Ave E Unit 1B, Brantford, ON N3R 7J7, 519-754-6844
If you are comparing quotes between yards, bring the other one with you. We will tell you honestly how the two compare on grade and on what is included.