The complete taxonomy
Types of Shipping Containers
Everything in the fleet descends from one idea: a standardised steel box with eight corner castings. What varies is what the box is optimised to carry. This page is the map; each mainstream type links to its full specification page.
Mainstream types
Dry / general purpose — the standard enclosed box (90% of the fleet); 20 and 40 ft.
High cube — one foot taller; the default for new 40 ft builds.
Reefer — refrigerated, −30 to +30 °C.
Open top — tarpaulin roof for crane loading.
Flat rack — platform with end walls for machinery and OOG cargo.
Tank — 21,000–26,000 L liquid vessel in a 20 ft frame.
Access variants
Double door (tunnel) — doors at both ends.
Open side — bi-fold doors along the full wall; forklift access to any pallet.
Hard top — open top with a removable steel roof instead of tarpaulin, for repeated crane loading.
Climate variants
Ventilated — passive vents along the top and bottom rails for cargo that breathes (coffee, cocoa); nicknamed the “coffee container”.
Insulated — insulated walls without machinery; holds temperature by mass, for cargo that must avoid shocks, not hold a setpoint.
Special formats
Half-height — 1.3 m tall open-top for dense bulk (ore, aggregates) where weight maxes out long before volume.
Bulk (BU) — roof hatches and door discharge for grain and granulates.
Tricon / Quadcon — military boxes at 1/3 and 1/4 of a 20 ft footprint; three Tricons or four Quadcons lock together into one ISO 20 ft position.
Swap body — European road/rail box, wider than ISO but not stackable or craneable by the top.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main types of shipping containers?
Six mainstream types: dry (general purpose), high cube, reefer, open top, flat rack and tank. Specialised variants add double door, open side, ventilated, insulated, half-height, bulk and military Tricon/Quadcon formats.
What is the most common shipping container type?
The general-purpose dry container — around nine of every ten boxes afloat. Within it, the 40 ft high cube is now the most-built single format.
What is a Tricon container?
A military/logistics container exactly one-third of a 20 ft footprint (about 1.96 × 2.44 × 2.59 m). Three connected Tricons occupy one standard 20 ft slot and ship as 1 TEU.