Quick Answer: Van Blanc delivers all seven container sizes to Aylmer and Elgin County from our Brantford yard, 93 km up Highway 403. Fast 1 to 3 day delivery from our 4 Brantford yards. Cash, draft cheque, or e-transfer on delivery, no upfront wires, no deposit. Family-run since 1995, 4.9 stars across 140+ Google reviews.
Part of our London and Southwestern Ontario service area. See the regional hub for the full lineup of container grades and delivery details plus nearby coverage including London, St Thomas and Delaware.
In This Guide
- Aylmer’s tobacco belt to ethanol corridor, and why containers follow that history
- What Aylmer farmers and contractors actually buy
- What size and grade fits an Aylmer working property?
- Brantford to Aylmer in 1 to 3 days, Highway 403 to 401 to 73 to 3
- The Facebook trap and why we have never asked for a deposit
- Frequently asked questions
Reading time: 9 minutes
Aylmer’s Tobacco Belt to Ethanol Corridor, and Why Containers Follow That History
Aylmer sits at the heart of the old Ontario tobacco belt, the rural area surrounding Delhi, Aylmer, and Tillsonburg that once grew 90 per cent of the tobacco produced in Canada. When Imperial Tobacco closed its Aylmer plant in July 2007 and put the last 75 employees on the street, the obituary read like the end of an era. It was not. The same farmers, the same greenhouses, the same irrigation lines, and the same secure-storage habits did not disappear with the leaf, they just changed crops.
By 2006, IGPC Ethanol Inc. was breaking ground just outside Aylmer, the largest ethanol plant in Ontario, processing 15 million bushels of local corn into 160 million litres of fuel-grade ethanol and 150,000 tonnes of distillers’ grain every year. In 2019 Motif Labs moved a cannabis-extraction operation into a 2,000-square-metre former tobacco plant in town, and in 2024 the parent company sold to Organigram, making it part of the largest cannabis operator in Canada by market share. The Belgian energy giant AlcoEnergy bought IGPC in December 2024 and rebranded it AlcoEnergy Canada. The buildings did not move. The corn fields did not move. The container demand did not move either, it just adapted.
That is the one-paragraph version of why Van Blanc has been delivering shipping containers into Aylmer and the surrounding Elgin County concessions for 30 years. The buyer is rarely a brand new operation. It is usually a third-generation farm working on its second or third crop, an industrial site that absorbed the previous occupant’s footprint, or a contractor doing the build-out for whichever business arrived next. They all need a sea can. They all want a real lead time. They all want to walk a yard before paying.
Aylmer in one paragraph for the buyer
Population 7,699 at the 2021 Census, Highway 3 spine, 20 minutes from Highway 401 via Highway 73, surrounded by Elgin County farmland and the corn-ethanol corridor that runs from the IGPC plant out through Bayham and Malahide townships. Manufacturing core: IGPC ethanol, PFI metal products, Rem-Tech Industries (a 31,700-square-foot machine shop), Motif Labs cannabis extraction, plus the Ontario Police College ten minutes south. The mix that produces our most common Aylmer orders is corn-belt agriculture on one side, light industrial and contractor businesses on the other, and a steady residential thread of homeowners replacing a rotting backyard shed with a 20-foot sea can.
That economic shape is what determines how an Aylmer container page should read. Not a generic Ontario delivery template, not a list of sizes copied from a Toronto location page, but a page that knows the corn comes off in October, the ethanol plant runs continuous, the cannabis facility needs secure storage with electrical, the contractor needs a bin on the job site Monday morning, and the farmer wants to walk the yard before he writes a cheque.
What Aylmer Farmers and Contractors Actually Buy
Two buyer characters dominate the Aylmer service area: the working farmer and the working contractor. Their containers do different jobs but they share one trait, the bin has to earn its keep on the day it lands on site. We size and grade Aylmer orders around that.
The Aylmer farmer’s sea can
Most farmers in Elgin County still call them sea cans, the term has been the rural Canadian standard since the eighties when the first wave of decommissioned ocean containers showed up at farm auctions. The Aylmer farmer’s sea can is usually a Wind & Water Tight 40-foot, parked on a gravel pad at the back of the lot, holding the season’s grain-handling spares, the spray equipment that lives there from October to April, the irrigation manifolds, and the tooling for whatever the farm has converted to since the tobacco kilns came down. A working farm that runs through three or four cropping cycles will get 25 to 30 years out of one of these containers, longer if it stays painted.
The 20-foot version is the second most common Aylmer farm order. It fits down a narrow concession road, slides off the tilt-deck onto the yard pad without needing extra clearance, and holds enough that two of them placed end-to-end give the operator the same usable square footage as a 40 with the option to relocate one without the other. Cargo Worthy is the dominant grade for Aylmer farm orders, the surface wear and the occasional dent are not a concern when the bin is going to live behind a corn crib. For farmers wondering what other shapes a 20-foot can take across an operation, how a 20ft sea can typically gets used across Canadian projects walks through grain-handling, workshop, ethanol-corridor staging, and contractor-jobsite configurations that show up regularly on Aylmer-area orders.
Christian LeBlanc, second-generation operator: “Aylmer farms are some of our easiest deliveries. The driveways are wide, the pads are usually already there from the last bin, and the operator knows exactly what grade he wants because his neighbour has the same one. We do a lot of repeat orders out of Elgin County, the farm calls back twelve years later and says they need a second one for the field office.”
The Aylmer contractor’s c-can
Contractor crews working in and around Aylmer use a different word for it, the c-can, shorthand they picked up on Hamilton and Toronto sites and brought home. The c-can is the rolling steel office that gets dropped on Monday and pulled on Friday, the secure tool storage that holds twenty thousand dollars of trades equipment overnight, the materials cage that keeps copper and rebar from walking off the site between trades. Aylmer’s industrial expansion, the IGPC plant retrofits, the cannabis facility build-outs, the new metal-fab warehouses on the business park edge, runs on c-can-dependent crews.
The 20-foot Cargo Worthy is the contractor’s default. CSC-plated, lockbox-ready, structurally sound enough to take a forklift hit at the corner without complaining. We deliver new (one-trip) units when the contractor is doing a higher-end residential build-out and wants the bin to be photogenic for the client walk-through, but most jobsite work runs on used inventory at the Cargo Worthy grade and saves the customer a thousand dollars per box.
The Aylmer residential buyer
The third use case is steady but quieter, the homeowner who is replacing a wood shed that has rotted into the lawn and decided a 20-foot steel container will outlast everything else on the property. Most of these orders are New (one-trip) for cosmetic reasons or Wind & Water Tight for budget reasons, painted to match the house, parked on a gravel base at the back of the lot.
What size and grade fits an Aylmer working property?
Aylmer placements range from a tight in-town residential driveway to a 60-acre tobacco-belt working farm with multiple service entrances. For buyers weighing 20-foot versus 40-foot versus 45-foot against an unfamiliar placement, our breakdown of standard sea can sizes walks through the 8ft mini, 20ft, 40ft, 45ft, and High Cube dimensions side by side with the clearance and approach requirements that matter on a concession-road farm versus an Aylmer residential lane.
Aylmer delivery is the same inventory we keep at our Brantford yard. Nothing is “Aylmer-only” or marked up for distance. Pricing is by size and grade, the delivery fee reflects the 93-kilometre haul, and you see both line items separately on the quote.
| Size | External (m) | Internal volume | Best fit for Aylmer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20ft Standard | 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.59 | 33.2 m³ | Residential, hobby farm, contractor jobsite, narrow-concession farm yard |
| 40ft Standard | 12.19 × 2.44 × 2.59 | 67.7 m³ | Working farm, ethanol-plant retrofit storage, cannabis production buffer |
| 40ft High Cube | 12.19 × 2.44 × 2.90 | 76.3 m³ | Pallet-stacked inventory, tall equipment, conversion-to-office candidate |
| 45ft High Cube | 13.71 × 2.44 × 2.90 | 86.0 m³ | Larger industrial yards, max single-unit volume on the property |
| 53ft High Cube | 16.15 × 2.59 × 2.90 | ~107 m³ | North American intermodal length for industrial buyers needing one large unit |
| 20ft Reefer | 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.59 | ~28 m³ | On-farm cold storage, cannabis flower buffer, food-business climate control |
| 40ft HC Reefer | 12.19 × 2.44 × 2.90 | ~67 m³ | Larger food-processing or pharmaceutical climate-controlled inventory |
Reefer demand in the Aylmer corridor splits across cannabis flower-buffer placements, ethanol-plant climate-controlled inventory, and on-farm cold storage for the produce operations that have replaced tobacco on many fields. Our refrigerated shipping container guide for Canadian buyers walks through temperature-range tiers, three-phase power requirements, and the Carrier-versus-Thermo King unit differences that shape whether a 20-foot reefer at the farmstead or a 40HC at the processing line is the better fit for an Aylmer-area operation.
Most Canadian buyers call them sea cans or shipping containers. The industry shorthand is c-can, the supply-chain procurement systems log them as intermodal containers, and military-trade buyers still call them conex boxes. They are all the same eight-foot-wide steel box that ocean ships move around the world. We deliver every size and every grade from our 4 Brantford yards.
The three grades, what each one is and what it costs
- New (One-Trip). The container made one journey from the manufacturer in Asia carrying paying cargo, then sold here. Cosmetically near-new with original factory paint, minor handling marks, full CSC certification. Right grade for an office conversion, a residential placement that needs to look new for the next decade, or any cannabis or pharma facility that wants pristine inventory. Price range depending on size and current market.
- Cargo Worthy (CW). CSC-plated, structurally sound, certified for international shipping. Surface wear consistent with prior commercial use, the steel is not pristine but it is rated. Right grade for industrial yard storage, jobsite security, and farm equipment shelter where the bin is a working asset rather than a feature. Price range.
- Wind & Water Tight (WWT). No longer rated for ocean shipping but remains weather-sealed and structurally sound for stationary storage. Doors close, no light leaks, no rust holes. Right grade for the budget-conscious farmer or homeowner who needs a box that keeps weather out. Price range.
These are honest 2026 ranges for the Aylmer market, including delivery. Anyone telling you a sea can on Facebook less is showing you the trap, not the discount. We will get to that in a moment.
Brantford to Aylmer in 1 to 3 Days, Highway 403 to 401 to 73 to 3
The Aylmer delivery is one of our most-run southwestern Ontario routes. The numbers are simple: 93 kilometres from our Brantford yard at 90 Morton Avenue East, about an hour and twenty minutes for a tilt-deck flatbed running at the legal limit. The route is Highway 403 east to Highway 401, west on the 401 to Highway 73 at the Putnam exit, south on Highway 73 into Aylmer, then Highway 3 if your delivery address is east or west of town. Most of our drivers have run this route dozens of times. They know which Aylmer driveways take the long bin and which need the 20.
Lead time, what 1 to 3 days actually means
From the moment you confirm the order, expect the container to arrive in 1 to 3 days from our 4 Brantford yards. We do not run “5 to 10 day windows” any more, that was the old policy and it is dead. The Aylmer corridor is in our standard southwestern Ontario delivery zone, alongside London, Ingersoll, Woodstock, and Tillsonburg. If you need same-week delivery, tell us at quote time and we will tell you honestly whether we can hit it. Every quote comes with a real lead time, not a hopeful one.
Tilt-deck placement on Aylmer farms and yards
Our trucks are tilt-deck flatbeds, meaning the deck lifts hydraulically and the container slides off onto your prepared site under controlled gravity. We place the container exactly where you point. We do not require a forklift, we do not require a crane, we do not require a poured concrete pad. A level gravel base is ideal, a level patch of compacted dirt works, and an existing concrete slab is fine. Our drivers will refuse to place a bin in a way that risks damaging your driveway or the container itself, that is the whole point of using a tilt-deck.
What you need on site for an Aylmer delivery
- A level placement spot, gravel, compacted dirt, or concrete pad. The bin should sit flat or it will twist over time.
- About 60 feet of clear approach for a 20-footer, 80 to 100 feet for a 40 or 45.
- Overhead clearance, no low-hanging branches, hydro lines, or barn eaves above the placement spot.
- An adult on site to point the driver to the exact placement and to handle payment when the container is on the ground.
That is it. The driver places the bin, you inspect it, you pay, the truck leaves.
The Facebook Trap and Why We Have Never Asked for a Deposit
Every week we get the same call. An Aylmer-area buyer phones to ask if Van Blanc can match a Facebook Marketplace listing that is cheaper than our quote. Two weeks later, sometimes the same week, that buyer phones back to say the listing was a scam, the wire transfer cleared, and the container never arrived. We do not enjoy taking that call. We have been taking it for thirty years.
The pattern, and the rule that protects you from it
Every container scam we have seen, and the BBB has documented dozens of them across Canada, hinges on one thing: the buyer pays before the container is on the property. Wire transfer, bank draft mailed to a holding address, cryptocurrency, e-transfer to an unverified email, “escrow” through a third-party site that does not exist. Once the money has moved, the container never does, and the seller’s phone number stops working.
The rule: if anyone asks you to pay for a shipping container before it is on your property and you have inspected it, walk away. Van Blanc has never asked a customer for an upfront deposit, an upfront wire transfer, or any payment before the container is on the ground at the delivery address. We accept cash, certified draft cheque, or e-transfer on the day of delivery, after you have inspected the unit. If the bin does not match what was sold, the truck leaves with the container and you owe nothing.
This is not a marketing position, it is the actual operational policy that has been in place at Van Blanc since 1995. Paul has 19 years specifically in the container industry and four decades in Asian trade going back to import-export of footwear and bulk goods, and the no-deposit-COD model has been the company’s anti-scam moat the entire time. Christian, Paul’s son, has been working the Brantford yard full-time for four years and travelling to Asia with his father since he was 15, and the policy has not changed.
If you want a deeper read on the Canadian container scam pattern, our blog post on shipping container scams walks through the ten red flags every buyer should know.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a shipping container cost in Aylmer?
In Aylmer the price of a shipping container depends on grade (Wind & Water Tight is the most affordable, Cargo Worthy mid-range, New/One-Trip the highest), size (a 20ft sits well under a 40ft), the delivery distance from our Brantford yard, and where the steel market and our stock stand, with reefer units higher again. We do not post a fixed sticker because an honest number depends on those factors. Call 519-754-6844 or request a quote and we will price your exact container and delivery to Aylmer the same day, payment on delivery, nothing hidden.
Where can I buy a shipping container in Aylmer?
You can buy from Van Blanc in Brantford and have it delivered to Aylmer in 1 to 3 days from our 4 Brantford yards. Our 90 Morton Avenue East yard is open during business hours for in-person inspection before purchase, which is the safest way to buy a sea can in Ontario. Some Aylmer-area buyers drive the 93 kilometres up the 403 to walk the inventory, others quote and order over the phone, both are normal.
What is the difference between a sea can and a shipping container?
Nothing. They are the same eight-foot-wide steel box. “Sea can” is the rural Canadian term, “shipping container” is the global industry term, “c-can” is contractor shorthand, “intermodal container” is the procurement-system word, and “conex” is the military-origin term. They all describe the same product, the words just identify which kind of buyer is talking.
How long does delivery from Brantford to Aylmer take?
1 to 3 days from our 4 Brantford yards from order confirmation. Aylmer is 93 kilometres up Highway 403 to 401 to 73 to 3, about an hour and twenty minutes of driving for a tilt-deck flatbed. We will give you a real ETA at quote time, not a hopeful one.
Can a container be modified into an office or shop in Aylmer?
Yes. New (one-trip) units are the right grade for conversions, the steel is pristine and the modifications hold up. Roll-up doors, man-doors, windows, vents, electrical, insulation, and paint can all be added by Aylmer-area builders or container modification specialists. See our custom features page for what is typical.
Do you charge extra for Aylmer delivery compared to Brantford?
Delivery is priced by route distance, not by city or postal code. The Aylmer rate reflects the 93-kilometre Brantford-to-Aylmer drive. We quote it as a separate line item on the invoice, you see the math, you decide.
Can I rent a shipping container in Aylmer for a seasonal farm or harvest project?
Yes. We rent shipping containers in Aylmer and offer rent-to-own, which fits a seasonal farm or harvest project in the corn and ethanol corridor that only needs storage for part of the year. We will tell you honestly whether renting or buying suits your cycle. Delivered to Aylmer on a quoted route.
Is there a closer storage container yard than driving to Brantford from Aylmer?
Our Brantford yard at 90 Morton Avenue East is about 90 kilometres from Aylmer, and it is the closest yard where you can actually walk the units and read the CSC plates before buying. Many Aylmer buyers make the drive once to choose their box. We also deliver to Aylmer in 1 to 3 days.
Is there a Big Steel Box or PODS dealer in Aylmer, or is there a local alternative?
There is no Big Steel Box or PODS yard in Aylmer itself, but Van Blanc is the local family-run alternative: you buy or rent a real steel container outright and inspect it at our Brantford yard first, instead of paying a national franchise monthly. Delivered to Aylmer in 1 to 3 days.
Sources
- Town of Aylmer Economic Development. (2025). Aylmer Agricultural and Industrial Community Profile. aylmer.ca.
- Elgin County Agriculture. (2025). Elgin Tobacco-Belt Transition and Ethanol Corridor Profile. progressivebydesign.ca.
- International Organization for Standardization. (2022). ISO 6346:2022, Freight containers, coding, identification and marking. iso.org.
- Business View Magazine. (2023). Aylmer, Ontario, Proud heritage, bright future, on IGPC Ethanol, PFI, Rem-Tech, Motif Labs, Imperial Tobacco closure. businessviewmagazine.com.
- StratCann. (2024). Organigram acquires Motif Labs, making it Canada’s largest cannabis company by market share. stratcann.com.
- Better Business Bureau. (2024). BBB Scam Alert: in the market for a shipping container, watch out for this con. bbb.org.
Reach Van Blanc in Brantford
Aylmer quote in 24 hours. Call 519-754-6844 or our toll-free 1-888-509-6658, or use our quote request form. Tell us the size, grade, and Aylmer delivery address. We respond with a real number, a real lead time, and a written quote you can hold as long as you need. No deposit. No upfront wire. Payment on delivery.
Visit the yard: 90 Morton Avenue East, Unit 1-B, Brantford, ON N3R 7J7. Worth the drive for unbeatable quality and family customer service with 30 years of experience.
Related Reading
- Shipping Containers in London, Ontario, the regional centre 50 kilometres north of Aylmer.
- Shipping Containers in Ingersoll, Ontario, half-hour drive north up Highway 19.
- Beware of Shipping Container Scams, the ten red flags every Canadian container buyer should know.
- Containers for Sale, full Brantford-yard inventory across all sizes and grades.
- Custom Container Features, modifications for office, shop, and farm use.
Ready to price your container?
Tell us the size and your postal code and we’ll send back an honest, all-in number, container, delivery, and placement, usually within 1-3 days. No pressure, no mystery fees.
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.