Shipping Containers for Sale in Windsor

Van Blanc sells shipping containers to Windsor buyers from our 4 Brantford yards. The public yard at 90 Morton Avenue East holds 200-plus graded units, and you choose yours by container number, walking the rows or on a video call. Every size and grade on our sale list travels on our own tilt-deck trucks, and you pay on delivery, once the box is on your ground.

A one-trip container is a new box that made a single loaded voyage from the factory, which is why the trade calls it one-trip. Used boxes come in three more grades, laid out further down this page. A new box gives the longest service life and the best resale, so our new one-trip stock is the place to start when the container will face customers.

Windsor is a factory city on an international border. Statistics Canada counted 229,660 residents in the 2021 census, up 5.7 per cent from 2016. The census classified 102,870 Windsor residents in the labour force by industry, and 20,385 of them were in manufacturing, about one in five.

Stellantis Windsor Assembly Plant sits at the centre of that manufacturing count. The plant has built minivans since 1983 and now assembles the Chrysler Pacifica, Chrysler Voyager and Grand Caravan alongside the Dodge Charger family. Its third shift started on February 17, 2026. That shift brought more than 1,700 newly trained workers onto the line and took plant employment to nearly 6,000 people. Stellantis counts approximately 10,000 employees across Canada.

The plant is the headline, and the container demand comes from the supplier ecosystem around it. Tier-1 suppliers across the LaSalle, Tecumseh and Lakeshore corridor run sequencing, kitting and JIT logistics. Tier-2 component makers feed those Tier-1 shops from plants across the wider Windsor-Essex region, and cross-border freight moves between Windsor and Detroit around the clock. Each link in that chain buys steel differently, from a 40-foot high cube for pallet buffers to a 53 for whole trailer loads.

Paul LeBlanc, owner: “Windsor is one of the most reliable industrial-buyer cities we deliver into. The supplier ecosystem is mature, the operations teams know what they want, and the procurement process is straightforward. Most of our Windsor orders are 40-foot or 53-foot HC Cargo Worthy units going onto a Tier-1 yard, used as JIT buffer or returnable-packaging staging. Repeat business is the norm, the supplier owns one or two and is adding a third when production ramps.”

Windsor at a Glance

A border city at the western end of Highway 401, joined to Detroit by the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Tier-1 and Tier-2 automotive suppliers run through LaSalle, Tecumseh and Lakeshore, with an industrial belt south and east of the Stellantis plant. Container demand comes mostly from automotive supplier yards, cross-border logistics operations and contractors doing facility build-outs, with a steady residential and small-business thread alongside.

Tier-1 Supplier Yards and JIT Buffers

Windsor Tier-1 suppliers order containers in a more standard pattern than most industrial buyers, because global automakers set the operating rules. Stellantis, plus Ford and GM on the supplier-network side, run their supply chains on JIT (just-in-time) and JIS (just-in-sequence). The supplier ships parts into the assembly plant in the exact order they will be installed. Container demand follows that shape:

JIT pallet-stack buffer: 40-foot high cube cargo worthy containers parked on the supplier yard, holding pallet-stacked finished components ready for the next milk run into the assembly plant. The bin sits there for 24 to 72 hours per pallet, then gets reloaded.
Returnable packaging staging: 53-foot high cube containers holding the metal totes, dunnage and racks that move between supplier and automaker. The bin is the staging buffer that keeps the returnable cycle moving.
Material overflow: a standard 40-foot box beside the plant wall takes the overflow when the warehouse runs out of room during a production ramp.
Tier-2 logistics yards: smaller component makers feeding the Tier-1s use 40-foot or 45-foot high cube boxes as finished-goods buffer between production runs and Tier-1 milk runs.

Buying from our Brantford yards matters more to these buyers than it might in a smaller market. A Windsor supplier needs the box on the promised date, in the grade specified, with the invoice, grade and container number that procurement asks for. Van Blanc has operated since 1995, and every unit sits in our own Brantford yards before it ships. Those two facts answer most of what an enterprise procurement team checks.

Cross-Border Yards and the 53-Foot High Cube

Invest WindsorEssex calls the Windsor-Detroit crossing the busiest commercial border crossing between Canada and the U.S. The Gordie Howe International Bridge opened to traffic on July 27, 2026, so truck freight now has a second bridge over the Detroit River. On the Canadian side, customs brokers, freight forwarders, transload yards and bonded warehouses buy containers on a different profile from the supplier ecosystem.

The 53-foot high cube leads these orders. A 53-foot domestic container matches North American trailer length, so an operator can hold a full trailer load on the yard without breaking it down. Our 53ft page puts its floor at 28 to 30 standard 48-by-40-inch pallets in a single layer. Cargo worthy is the usual grade. On a 53 that means AAR-acceptable structural condition, because the box is built to Association of American Railroads rules for domestic rail and carries no CSC ocean plate.

Van Blanc typically holds 2 to 4 of them in our Brantford yards and supplies fleet orders of 10 to 20. A specific grade we do not have on hand is sourced to order in 2 to 4 weeks. The quote says which applies before you commit.

Sarnia and the Bluewater Bridge carry the Lambton County crossings, and the Windsor crossings take the larger share of the freight. Either way, these yards want steel that can take a forklift hit and a roof load. The box also has to sit through years of yard exposure without eating the budget in rust patching.

Most Canadians call them sea cans, contractors say c-can, the industry says shipping container, and procurement systems log them as intermodal containers. They are the same corrugated steel box, 8 feet wide in the ocean sizes and 8 ft 6 in on the 53. Every one of them ships out of our Brantford yards.

What Size Container Fits a Windsor Yard?

Windsor buyers choose between the ocean sizes and the domestic 53. The outside measurements below decide whether a box fits the lot, the dock apron or the laydown, and the second table shows the working room inside. Every figure comes from the spec table on that size’s own Van Blanc page.

Size	External L x W x H	Internal volume	Best fit for Windsor
10ft dry box	2.99 x 2.44 x 2.59 m (9’10” x 8′ x 8’6″)	about 16 m³	Shop backstock, tight residential lots, a parts crib inside a plant yard
20ft dry box	6.06 x 2.44 x 2.59 m (19’10” x 8′ x 8’6″)	33.2 m³	Tier-2 supplier overflow, contractor jobsite, residential, small commercial
40ft standard	12.19 x 2.44 x 2.59 m (40′ x 8′ x 8’6″)	67.8 m³	Tier-1 supplier yard, automotive component buffer, manufacturing overflow
40ft high cube	12.19 x 2.44 x 2.90 m (40′ x 8′ x 9’6″)	76.1 m³	Pallet-stacked JIT buffer, tall component packaging, automation buffer
45ft high cube	13.72 x 2.44 x 2.90 m (45′ x 8′ x 9’6″)	86.0 m³	Larger industrial yards, the most volume in one unit short of a 53
53ft high cube	16.15 x 2.59 x 2.90 m (53′ x 8’6″ x 9’6″)	110.5 m³	North American trailer length, cross-border logistics yards, bonded warehouses
20ft reefer unit	6.06 x 2.44 x 2.59 m (20′ x 8′ x 8’6″)	27.7 m³	Climate-controlled component storage, lab cold inventory
40ft high cube reefer	12.19 x 2.44 x 2.90 m (40′ x 8′ x 9’6″)	67.0 m³	Larger climate-controlled inventory or food-processing buffer

Inside dimensions decide what actually loads. The door opening matters as much as the floor when a pallet jack or a forklift mast has to clear the frame. The full dimensions guide covers the sizes this table leaves out.

Working room inside each dry size, from Van Blanc’s product spec tables
Size	Inside floor, L x W	Inside height	Door opening, W x H	Empty weight
20ft standard	19 ft 4 in x 7 ft 8 in (5.898 x 2.352 m)	7 ft 10 in (2.385 m)	7 ft 8 in x 7 ft 6 in (2.340 x 2.292 m)	2,260 kg (4,982 lb)
40ft standard	39 ft 6 in x 7 ft 8 in (12.040 x 2.337 m)	7 ft 10 in (2.388 m)	7 ft 8 in x 7 ft 6 in (2.340 x 2.292 m)	3,780 kg (8,333 lb)
40ft high cube dry box	39 ft 6 in x 7 ft 8 in (12.040 x 2.337 m)	8 ft 10 in (2.692 m)	7 ft 8 in x 8 ft 6 in (2.340 x 2.597 m)	3,980 kg (8,775 lb)
45ft high cube	44 ft 6 in x 7 ft 8 in (13.556 x 2.347 m)	8 ft 10 in (2.696 m)	7 ft 8 in x 8 ft 6 in (2.340 x 2.597 m)	4,900 kg (10,800 lb)
53ft high cube	52 ft 4 in x 8 ft 2 in (15.951 x 2.489 m)	9 ft 1 in (2.769 m)	8 ft 2 in x 9 ft 1 in (2.489 x 2.769 m)	5,020 kg (11,070 lb)

A 10ft box is priced on the same levers as every other size, plus one of its own. It is either a true 10 built at the factory or a cut-down made from a 20ft with a new end wall welded on. It needs half a parking stall, holds 560 ft³ and floor-loads 4 standard pallets. For a shop corner or a backyard, the 8ft, 9ft and 12ft boxes and the minis fill the gap below it.

Grades From One-Trip to As-Is

New (one-trip): one loaded voyage from the factory, so the paint is clean, the doors are tight and there is no rust. Pick it for branded units that face customers, residential placements and conversions.
Cargo worthy (CW): used 8 to 15 years, with CSC re-certification still valid and the box wind and water tight. Surface rust on the outside is normal. This is the most popular grade we sell, and it carries most Windsor supplier yards, cross-border logistics and manufacturing buffer.
Wind and water tight (WWT): used 12+ years. The roof and floor are sealed, and the CSC plate may have lapsed. Stationary storage is where it shines, anywhere the plate is not needed.
As-is: a project box with every defect disclosed in writing before purchase, made for modification builds where the shell will be cut and reworked.

Every Windsor quote names the grade of the exact box, by its container number.

Windsor Delivery via the 403 and 401

Windsor is one of our longer southwestern Ontario runs. The truck leaves Brantford on Highway 403 west, joins Highway 401 at Woodstock and stays on it to the Windsor exits, about 270 km in all. The table measures the road distance from the Morton Avenue East yard to stops across Windsor and Essex County, using two OpenStreetMap route planners, Valhalla and OSRM. Their car times differ, so both are shown. A tilt-deck hauling a 40-footer moves slower than either estimate, and that is why the quote names a delivery day and a time window.

Road distance from 90 Morton Avenue East to Windsor and Essex County stops, October 2026
Stop	Road distance	Car time, h:min (Valhalla to OSRM)	Last leg off the 401
Belle River, Lakeshore	246 km	2:24 to 2:54	Belle River Road
Leamington	250 km	2:30 to 2:59	Highway 77 south
Town of Essex	256 km	2:32 to 3:02	East Puce Road, Naylor Sideroad
Tecumseh	263 km	2:36 to 3:06	Manning Road
Windsor Assembly Plant	267 km	2:43 to 3:09	Walker Road
LaSalle	271 km	2:38 to 3:09	Herb Gray Parkway, Todd Lane
Downtown Windsor, City Hall	271 km	2:48 to 3:15	Provincial Road, Howard Avenue
Ambassador Bridge, Huron Church Road	275 km	2:43 to 3:14	Herb Gray Parkway, Huron Church Road
Amherstburg	287 km	2:56 to 3:27	Howard Avenue, Front Road

Lead Time on a Windsor Order

From the moment you confirm the order, a Windsor delivery lands in 1 to 3 days from our Brantford yards. Every quote comes with a real lead time, not a hopeful one. For automotive-supplier orders timed against a production ramp, give us the critical-path date when you ask for the quote, and the delivery day gets planned around it.

Tilt-Deck Drops on Supplier Yards

Our trucks are tilt-deck flatbeds. The deck tilts hydraulically and the container slides off onto your prepared spot, set exactly where you point. Your site needs no forklift, no crane and no poured concrete pad, and most manufacturing yards already have a slab or compacted gravel ready. Where a fence or a building blocks the straight pull-out, a crane truck can lift the box over the obstacle instead.

Concrete Slab or Gravel for a Windsor Container

A Windsor container can sit without a concrete slab. Its weight comes down through four corner castings, so what it needs is firm, level ground that drains. Compacted gravel, timbers or blocks under each corner, or an existing yard slab all work. Ties, blocks and gravel compared side by side shows which base suits which ground. Before truck day, a Windsor site also needs:

A level spot on that firm base.
Straight pull-out room for the tilt-deck, sized in our pull-out space guide for 20ft and 40ft drops.
Overhead clearance, with no low branches, hydro lines or building eaves above the placement spot.
For a reefer unit, the power supply the unit is specified for, close to the spot.
An adult on site (or a facility contact for industrial deliveries) to point the driver and complete payment.

Dock-Side Storage Between JIT Releases

Windsor’s supplier ecosystem runs on just-in-time, and a container is the buffer that keeps JIT on schedule. A used cargo worthy 40ft high cube at the dock apron holds a week of packaging. A 53-footer swallows a full trailer load between releases. The delivery day is set when you order, 1 to 3 days out, so materials managers book the drop like any inbound load: dock assignment, spotter, done in minutes. The box shows up empty exactly once and earns its keep every release week after.

Sea Cans for Windsor Homes and Shops

Plenty of Windsor sea cans never see a loading dock. In South Windsor or Forest Glade, a 20ft on a gravel pad beside the driveway works as garage overflow or as a store-room through a renovation. Behind a shop in Walkerville or along Wyandotte Street, a box holds seasonal stock and fixtures. On building lots in Tecumseh, LaSalle and Lakeshore, contractors lock tools and finishing materials in one overnight.

Shipping container modification for Windsor buyers happens in our Brantford yards before the box makes the drive. The shop at 90 Morton Avenue East frames a roll-up door, 8 or 10 feet wide, into the long side or the end wall. A shop or a contractor can then open the box every day without swinging the cargo doors. Vents, lockboxes, man doors, windows and security bars go in the same way. Paint, adhesives or packaged stock that must not freeze can go into an insulated container, no compressor needed. Any final electrical hookup is done on site by your own licensed electrician.

South and east of the city, Essex County farmland gives way to the greenhouse belt around Leamington and Kingsville. Growers there keep packaging and spares in dry boxes and run reefers for the cold chain. Those orders have pages of their own: containers for Leamington greenhouse growers and sea cans around the Town of Essex. Amherstburg, at the mouth of the Detroit River, is the farthest stop in the delivery table, and its quote carries the same 1 to 3 day lead time.

Cheapest Shipping Containers and the Facebook Trap

The cheapest shipping container is whichever box does the job at the lowest landed cost, meaning the steel, the delivery and the placement together. The grade of the box drives most of that figure. As-is and wind and watertight units price lowest, cargo worthy lands mid-range and new one-trip prices highest. Size and the steel market then move each one up or down. Ask Van Blanc for a Windsor quote and you get one all-in figure covering box, truck and drop, usually the same day. A listing far below every real Ontario yard is the deposit scam pattern, and the story below is how it plays out.

Every week we get the same call somewhere in our service area, and Windsor is no exception. A Windsor 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. Automotive-industrial buyers are particularly attractive scammer targets because the orders are large and the lead times are tight.

Pay on Delivery, Once It Lands

Container scams run on one move: the buyer pays before the box is on their property. A wire to a bank in another province, an e-transfer to an unverified email, an escrow site that turns out not to exist. Once the money moves, the container never does. Van Blanc works the other way round. You get photos of the exact unit and its CSC plate before you commit, and the driver phones ahead of the run. Payment happens on delivery, once the box sits on your Windsor ground. We take draft cheque, cash, wire transfer, or a credit card through our authorisation form.

Before you pay anyone for a box you have not seen, run the checks in our scam red-flag checklist. The Marketplace scam traced step by step shows how the deposit disappears.

Windsor orders settle the spec before the truck loads, so the box lands ready to work on the first drop. That is why Windsor buyers lean on the grade walk-through and on modifications finished in our yards before the drive: doors, vents and security hardware.

Windsor Quote: Size, Grade, Postal Code

Tell us the size and your postal code and we’ll send back an honest, all-in number, container, delivery, and placement, usually the same day. No pressure, no mystery fees.

Get a Quote (519) 754-6844Call the Brantford yards

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.

Ordering for a Windsor plant, put the dock or door number on the quote request so the driver knows where to set the box before he leaves Brantford.

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 Windsor sale quote or call the yard at 519-754-6844.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a shipping container cost in Windsor, Ontario?

Van Blanc posts one container price list rather than a Windsor list, because the delivered number moves with the market. The grade and the size set most of it, with grades running from as-is to new one-trip and sizes from a 10ft up to a 53ft high cube. Delivery to your Windsor address and the steel market that week set the rest. Call 519-754-6844 or request a quote and we will price the container, delivery and placement to your Windsor address, usually the same day. You pay on delivery.

Where can I buy a shipping container or sea can in Windsor?

From Van Blanc, with delivery to your Windsor address in 1 to 3 days from our Brantford yards. Our public yard at 90 Morton Avenue East is a container store Windsor buyers can walk before they pay, open Monday to Friday with no appointment needed. It sits about 270 kilometres from Windsor by the 401 and the 403. Some Windsor buyers make the drive to walk the rows, and others pick a unit by container number on a video call and order by phone.

Do you deliver to Stellantis-area Tier-1 and Tier-2 automotive suppliers?

Yes. Tier-1 and Tier-2 supplier yards around Windsor Assembly, Tecumseh, LaSalle and Lakeshore are part of our regular delivery rotation. Most of those orders are 40-foot and 53-foot high cube cargo worthy units, specified for JIT pallet-stack buffer, returnable packaging staging or component overflow. Each one ships with the invoice, grade and container number your procurement team needs on file.

Why do Windsor auto suppliers keep shipping containers at the dock?

As the buffer between JIT releases: a 40ft high cube holds packaging and dunnage a week deep, and a 53-footer takes a full trailer load when a release slips. The delivery day is fixed at quote time, 1 to 3 days out, so the drop books like any inbound load and the box is working from the next shift.

Can I get a 53-foot HC container delivered to a Windsor cross-border logistics yard?

Yes. The 53-foot high cube matches North American trailer length and is one of our regular Windsor deliveries for cross-border logistics yards. Cargo worthy is the usual grade. On a 53 that means AAR-acceptable structural condition, because the box is a domestic rail container with no CSC ocean plate.

How long does delivery from Brantford to Windsor take?

1 to 3 days from our Brantford yards once the order is confirmed. Windsor is about 270 kilometres west of Brantford by Highway 403 and Highway 401, roughly three hours by car. The quote gives you the delivery day and a time window.

What is the difference between a sea can, a shipping container, and an intermodal container?

Nothing material: they are the same corrugated steel box. Sea can is the rural Canadian term and shipping container is the global industry term. C-can is contractor shorthand, and intermodal container is the procurement-system word used in automotive and cross-border logistics. The ocean sizes are 8 feet wide and the domestic 53 runs 8 ft 6 in.

Can I rent a shipping container in Windsor, or only buy one?

No. Van Blanc sells containers outright and does not rent, lease, or offer rent-to-own. A Windsor buyer who needs project storage buys the box and uses it for as long as the job runs. After that, keep it, sell it on, or ask us about buyback. To spread the cost, set up an equipment loan or line of credit with your own bank. Your lender gets the invoice, the grade and the serial number from us.

Do you deliver storage containers to a Windsor business or industrial yard?

Yes. We deliver storage containers to Windsor businesses and industrial yards, secure steel boxes for parts, inventory, and equipment, placed by tilt-deck truck. Sizes run from a 10ft up to the 53ft, plus 20ft and 40ft high cube reefers, all from our Brantford yards.

Sources

Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Windsor, City, checked October 2026.
Stellantis Media, Stellantis Expands Canadian Workforce as Windsor Assembly Plant Surpasses 1,000 New Hires for Third Shift, checked October 2026.
MoparInsiders, Stellantis Launches Windsor’s Third Shift to Boost Charger and Minivan Production, checked October 2026.
Invest WindsorEssex, Location and Proximity to Markets, checked October 2026.
WDIV ClickOnDetroit, Gordie Howe International Bridge officially opens to traffic, checked October 2026.
OpenStreetMap route planners, Morton Avenue East yard to Windsor City Hall: OSRM route planner and FOSSGIS Valhalla route planner, checked October 2026.

Morton Avenue Yard Hours and Directions

Windsor quotes, usually the same day. Call 519-754-6844 or send the size, grade and Windsor delivery address through the Van Blanc quote page. For automotive-supplier or cross-border orders, add the production window. The reply names the container, the delivery day and one all-in number.

Visit the yard: 90 Morton Avenue East, Unit 1-B, Brantford, ON N3R 7J7, open Monday to Thursday 9:30 to 5 and Friday 9:30 to 4 with no appointment needed. Worth the drive for unbeatable quality and family customer service with 30 years of experience.

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Shipping Containers in Windsor, Ontario

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