8 сентября 2026 г.
The question that decides what unloading your container costs
Two containers arrive the same morning, same size, same weight, same commodity. One is emptied in under an hour by one person on a forklift. The other takes a crew most of a day. Nothing on the paperwork tells you which is which before it arrives, and the difference is the single largest variable in what devanning costs. Here is how to know in advance, and what to do when the answer is the expensive one.
What floor-loaded actually means
Floor-loaded means the cargo was stacked into the container by hand at origin, carton on carton, wall to wall, with no pallets underneath. It is done for one reason and it is a good one: pallets take up space, and a floor-loaded container holds noticeably more than a palletized one of the same size.
That saving is real and it happens at origin. The cost of it happens at destination, and usually to somebody else, which is why it keeps surprising the person paying for the unload.
Palletized is the opposite. The cargo is already on pallets, and emptying the box is a forklift driving in and out. The unit of work is a pallet rather than a carton, and there are perhaps twenty of them instead of two thousand cartons.
Why a 40 is worse than twice a 20
A floor-loaded 40ft high cube is not double the work of a 20ft. It is double the volume, and then a little worse again, because the far end of a 40 is a long way from the door.
Every carton at the nose of the container has to be carried the length of the box before it reaches the dock plate. On a 20 that is a short walk. On a 40 it is a long one, repeated for hours, by people who get slower as the day goes on, which is not a criticism of them but a fact about carrying things.
This is why devanning is quoted as three separate rates rather than one, and why anybody who gives you a single devanning number without asking which you have is guessing.
The paperwork will not tell you
A packing list that says cartons and gives no pallet count is the tell. It does not prove the container is floor-loaded, but it means nobody has told you otherwise, and the default assumption should be the expensive one.
A packing list that gives a pallet count, pallet dimensions or a pallet weight is almost certainly palletized. So is anything where the shipper mentions ISPM 15, since that standard is about wood packaging and there is no wood in a floor-loaded box.
The reliable answer is to ask the shipper directly before the vessel sails, in those words: is this floor-loaded or on pallets, and if on pallets, how many. It takes one line in an email and it decides a number that can differ by more than the ocean freight on a short lane.
What to do when the answer is floor-loaded
Book the crew rather than discovering you need one. A floor-loaded container that arrives unannounced sits while a crew is found, and it sits on per diem.
Decide before it is emptied what happens to the freight, because floor-loaded cargo has to become something. Onto pallets for storage or onward trucking, straight onto a trailer, or sorted as it comes off. Deciding while cartons are already stacked on a dock means handling everything twice.
And ask whether it needs to be floor-loaded next time. If the same lane runs repeatedly, the extra cubic feet at origin may be costing more at destination than they save, and that is a conversation with the shipper rather than with a warehouse.
The clock nobody counts
While the box is being emptied it is still the shipping line's container, and per diem runs on it. A slow unload is not only a labour cost, it is a container cost, and the second one is invisible until the invoice arrives.
That is the argument for emptying it near the port rather than at a warehouse an hour inland. The box goes back the same day instead of the day after tomorrow, and the freight waits on a rack instead of in equipment somebody else is charging for.
It is also the argument for knowing which kind of container you have before it lands, because the cheapest version of this problem is the one you planned for.
Devanning · Warehouse · Floor loaded · Pallets · Per diem
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Вопросы
Прямые ответы
What does floor loaded mean?
Floor loaded means the cargo was stacked into the container by hand at origin, carton on carton, wall to wall, with no pallets underneath. It is done for a good reason: pallets take up space, and a floor-loaded container holds noticeably more than a palletized one of the same size. The saving happens at origin and the cost happens at destination, usually to somebody else, which is why it keeps surprising whoever is paying for the unload.
How do I know if my container is floor loaded before it arrives?
The paperwork rarely says so outright. A packing list that gives cartons and no pallet count is the tell: it does not prove the box is floor loaded, but nobody has told you otherwise and the safe assumption is the expensive one. A pallet count, pallet dimensions, a pallet weight or any mention of ISPM 15 points to palletized, since there is no wood in a floor-loaded box. The reliable answer is to ask the shipper in those words before the vessel sails.
Why does unloading a floor-loaded 40ft cost more than twice a 20ft?
It is double the volume and then a little worse again, because the far end of a 40 is a long way from the door. Every carton at the nose has to be carried the length of the box before it reaches the dock plate. On a 20 that is a short walk; on a 40 it is a long one, repeated for hours, by people who get slower as the day goes on. That is why devanning is quoted as separate rates rather than one number.
Does per diem run while my container is being unloaded?
Yes. While the box is being emptied it is still the shipping line's container, and per diem runs on it. A slow unload is not only a labour cost, it is a container cost, and the second one stays invisible until the invoice arrives. That is the argument for emptying near the port rather than at a warehouse an hour inland: the box goes back the same day instead of the day after tomorrow, and the freight waits on a rack instead of in somebody else's equipment.
What should I do when the answer is floor loaded?
Book the crew rather than discovering you need one, because a floor-loaded container that arrives unannounced sits while a crew is found, and it sits on per diem. Decide before it is emptied what the freight becomes: onto pallets for storage or onward trucking, straight onto a trailer, or sorted as it comes off. Deciding once the cartons are already stacked on a dock means handling everything twice. Then ask the shipper whether the next one has to be floor loaded at all.
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