1 prefix · leasing company
CARU container prefix: CARU Containers
CARU is registered to CARU Containers, a container leasing company. CARU Containers owns the box and does not carry it: track it with the shipping line named on your booking or bill of lading, because that line holds the record of where it is. The check digit is worked out below for this prefix.
CARU Containers grew from a Rotterdam trading house into a lessor with a strong sideline in selling used boxes to end customers.
Its single code is common on one-way leases, so CARU boxes often finish their journey as somebody’s storage unit.
4 letters + 7 digits, printed on the doors. It is on your bill of lading too.
The answer appears as you type. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The CARU Containers prefix
| Prefix | A valid number | Check digit | Where the code comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
CARU | CARU 426139-8 | 8 | — |
Prefix register verified against two independent sources on 2026-08-03. The example numbers are computed to show the arithmetic. They are valid by construction, not numbers we saw on a box.
Data: BIC Container Prefix Register · ISO 6346:2022
CARU: check digit, worked through
CARU is registered to CARU Containers. Take CARU 426139-8: each of its first ten characters has a value and a weight, the products are added, and the remainder after dividing by 11 is the check digit — here 8.
| Character | Value | Weight | Product |
|---|---|---|---|
C | 13 | ×1 | 13 |
A | 10 | ×2 | 20 |
R | 29 | ×4 | 116 |
U | 32 | ×8 | 256 |
4 | 4 | ×16 | 64 |
2 | 2 | ×32 | 64 |
6 | 6 | ×64 | 384 |
1 | 1 | ×128 | 128 |
3 | 3 | ×256 | 768 |
9 | 9 | ×512 | 4608 |
Sum 6421 → 6421 mod 11 = 8 → check digit 8 → CARU 426139-8
Owner and operator: who tracks a CARU Containers box
If your CARU box is on a shipping journey, the operating line tracks it; if you bought it outright, there is nothing to track.
Can you see where the ship is?
Not from the container. A standard dry box has no power, no radio and no satellite receiver — it is a steel case with a number painted on it, and it reports nothing about itself. Every position you see against a CARU Containers shipment was reported by something else: a terminal crane, a gate reader, or the ship.
A live map on a carrier’s tracking page is almost always plotting AIS, the transponder every large vessel broadcasts with its position, course and speed. That is genuinely useful at sea: it is a real position rather than a schedule, and an ETA recalculated from actual movement. It is also the ship’s position, not your box’s, and the two part company the moment the container is discharged.
On land the map goes quiet. Between the gate-out and the delivery there is no vessel to follow, and the road leg appears only as whatever events the terminal and the trucker report. A container sitting on a chassis in a yard shows the last position of a ship it left days ago. Only specialised IoT equipment reports its own location, and wherever that exists it is a paid product sold to the shipper, not something a tracking page gives away.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns the CARU container prefix?
CARU Containers does, a container leasing company — the BIC register lists CARU under it, and the boxes sail in other lines' fleets.
How do I track a CARU container?
Not with CARU Containers — a CARU box is leased, so the record of its journey is with the shipping line named on your booking confirmation or bill of lading. Open that line's tracker and paste the number there.
Is CARU a shipping line prefix or a leasing prefix?
A leasing prefix — CARU Containers owns the steel box while a shipping line operates it, which is why the owner and the tracker are different companies.
Is CARU4261398 a valid container number?
Yes — CARU 426139-8 passes the ISO 6346 check: the weighted sum for CARU426139 leaves a remainder of 8 when divided by 11, which gives check digit 8. It is an example computed for this page, not a box we have seen.
One page, every owner code
Know whose box it is before you search
All 85 owner prefixes mapped to their line or leasing company, with the leased ones marked — so you can tell at a glance when to track with the line instead. Container dimensions are on page two.
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