How secure are shipping containers?

​Shipping containers, like your home, car, or garage, are as secure as you are willing to make them! Like any belongings, we would recommend keeping your container close to a well lit area, if possible with CCTV cameras and high foot traffic. 

We would recommend having a security lockbox fitted to your container doors. These often come as standard with new containers but you would need to purchase one, for around £60, with a used container. A lockbox is a steel shroud that is welded around the lug which houses your padlock on your container doors, the box shape covers the whole lug with the exception of the bottom rectangle which is where you would attach your padlock. The shroud is tight to the container making it extremely difficult to access the padlock area with bolt cutters or similar tools.

We recommend that you purchase your padlock from a container dealer. The padlocks utilised in the industry are very secure and insurance rated, they are also specifically made to work with the aforementioned lockboxes.

As standard, shipping containers are manufactured from Corten steel, just a couple of millimetres thick. Therefore, like your garage, if somebody really wanted to access it, they could, utilising a circular saw or similar cutting equipment. However, with a few preventative measures you can reduce the chances of such damage to your container. One measure which we find works particularly well is a number of simple stickers available from most hardware stores located around the container, stating that the container is storing flammable equipment. There truly is a risk of fire when cutting steel, dependent on the goods stored, and this small addition may cause prospective thieves to reconsider accessing your container with this kind of equipment.

Alarms and CCTV packages can be purchased online for shipping containers.

We hope you have found this information useful. Should you have any questions or require any further details, please call us on 01543 373768.