Buying · July 25, 2023
Buying Used Containers Without Getting Burned: Four Questions
Four questions, asked by email, before any money moves. The quality of the answers tells you more than the price does.
The short version
Ask what was in it, what wash standard was applied, whether there's a valid UN marking with a registered reconditioner behind it, and what grade it is under a published definition. Vague answers to any of these are the answer.
The used-container market runs largely on trust, and trust is easiest to extend to the person offering the lowest number. That combination produces most of the bad outcomes in this business. Four questions defuse nearly all of them, they take two minutes to ask, and you can ask them by email before committing to anything.
1. What was in it?
This is the question that determines everything downstream: whether the container can hold food, whether residues persist, whether it belongs anywhere near livestock, and whether you can put a regulated chemical in it.
'We don't know' is a completely legitimate answer for a cheap jobsite container, and you should be able to buy one on that basis at a corresponding price. It is a disqualifying answer for anything edible, anything going near animals, and anything you intend to fill with a chemical you'd have to report on.
A good answer names the product or the class of products, and can produce it in writing. A bad answer is a reassurance about how clean the container is, which answers a different question.
2. What wash standard was applied?
'Cleaned' means nothing on its own. It spans a hose-down and a recirculating caustic clean-in-place at 160°F with recorded parameters, and those two things are not comparable.
Ask for a named standard and a record. We publish five so that customers can name one; other yards may use different names, which is fine — what matters is that a name exists and that the parameters behind it are written down. If neither exists, price the container as unwashed and plan to clean it yourself.
3. Is there a valid UN marking — and who reconditioned it?
Only relevant if you'll ship regulated product on public roads. If you will, this question has two halves and most sellers only answer the first.
- Is there a marking, and what's the most recent test date marked on it? Outside the retest window, the container isn't authorised regardless of what the plate says.
- Who performed the reconditioning, and what's their registration number? Only a registered reconditioner may restore a UN marking after repair.
A plate on a cage from an unregistered yard is decoration. And because you are the offeror of the shipment, the legal consequence of getting this wrong lands on you rather than on whoever sold you the container.
4. What grade is it, under whose definition?
Grade only means something if the seller publishes what their grades mean. Ask for the definition in writing. Without it, comparing two quotes that both say 'Grade A' is comparing two unrelated products that happen to share a label.
The claims that mean nothing
| Claim | What it replaces |
|---|---|
| "Food grade" | A prior-contents record and a wash record |
| "UN rated" | A registration number and a marked test date |
| "Professionally cleaned" | A named standard with parameters |
| "Like new" | A grade with a published definition |
| "Food safe" | Nothing at all — it isn't a defined term |
And then inspect on arrival
Questions handle the history; inspection handles the physical container. Five points — cage base welds, bottle at the outlet, valve seat, lid gasket, pallet feet — take five minutes and catch nearly everything. Raise problems before the driver leaves; it's far easier to resolve at the tailgate than a week later.
None of this is arduous. Four questions and five minutes, against a purchase that will sit in your yard for a decade. It's a good trade.
Published July 25, 2023 · Filed under Buying
