Freight equipment
Reefer container
A reefer is a refrigeration machine built into a container. It holds a setpoint against the outside world — it does not pull warm cargo down to temperature.
- Mode
- Ocean
- Published figures
- 14, each with a named publisher
What the unit is actually doing
A reefer container circulates air at a set temperature through the cargo space. Its job is to remove the heat that leaks in and the heat the cargo itself generates, and to hold the air it delivers at the value it was set to.
It is not a cooling-down device. Cargo loaded warm stays warm at the centre for a long time, and in the meantime the unit reads its own delivery air as correct while the product is not. Goods are brought to temperature before packing, by a facility built for it, and the container maintains what arrives.
Airflow is the part that gets packed wrong
Cold air is delivered along the floor and returns at the top. That circuit only works if it is not blocked: cargo is loaded so air can move under and through it, the floor channels stay clear, and the load does not rise above the marked line that would starve the return.
A container packed solid to the roof and wall to wall will run its unit continuously and still develop warm pockets. The failure is invisible at the doors — the readout is fine because the air leaving the unit is fine.
The chain is only as cold as its gaps
A reefer needs power. It has it on the vessel, at a terminal with plugs, and on a road vehicle with a generator set. The intervals in between — waiting for collection, sitting in a yard, standing at a border, on a chassis without a genset — are unpowered, and the temperature drifts through every one of them.
The useful question about a temperature-controlled movement is never what the container can do. It is where the power comes from at each stage and how long the unpowered gaps are, and that is a routing question decided before booking.
Setpoint, ventilation and who owns them
The temperature setpoint, any ventilation setting for produce that respires, and any humidity or controlled-atmosphere arrangement are all instructions given to the container. They come from the party that knows the commodity, not from the carrier and not from the forwarder.
Requirements differ by product, by market and sometimes by the terms of the sale, so they are stated explicitly for the shipment rather than left to a default.
Suited to
What this equipment is for.
- Chilled and frozen foodstuffs already brought to temperature before packing
- Pharmaceutical and life-science cargo within a defined temperature range
- Produce needing ventilation as well as temperature
- Goods that tolerate a narrow band and cannot recover once outside it
Specifications
Published figures, and who publishes them.
These are not industry constants. Each figure below is one named publisher’s statement about its own equipment on the date it was checked, and where publishers disagree the row says so. For a specific shipment, the specification that matters is the one for the actual vehicle or container being used.
20ft
- Internal dimensions
- 5,450 x 2,280 x 2,159 (L x W x H) mmInternal height is the problem field here: Hapag-Lloyd 2,159, Maersk 2,167, ONE 2,263 mm — a 104 mm spread, far wider than any dry container, because the refrigeration unit and the T-bar floor intrude differently by design. Length 5,450-5,456 mm, width 2,280-2,290 mm. A reefer is materially smaller inside than a 20ft dry (roughly 450 mm shorter and 230 mm lower), which is the substantive point for the page and holds across all three publishers.Hapag-Lloyd — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Door opening
- 2,290 x 2,264 (W x H) mmWidth 2,290 mm is unanimous across Hapag-Lloyd, ONE and Maersk. Height varies 2,212-2,264 mm (Maersk 2,212; ONE 2,221; Hapag-Lloyd 2,264) — a 52 mm spread.Hapag-Lloyd — source, checked 2026-08-14
- External dimensions
- 6,058 x 2,438 x 2,591 (L x W x H) mmONE is the only carrier among those fetched that publishes outside measurements, and it does so for reefer and flat rack but not for its dry containers. Identical to the external envelope CIMC gives for the 20ft dry, which is the expected result: the box must fit the same cell and lashing geometry regardless of type.Ocean Network Express — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Tare weight
- 2,810-2,990 (ONE 2,810; Hapag-Lloyd 2,860; Maersk 2,990) kg180 kg spread. A reefer is roughly 600-800 kg heavier empty than a 20ft dry because of the machinery and insulation — that comparison is consistent across all three publishers and is more robust than any single figure.Ocean Network Express (low endpoint); high endpoint Maersk at https://www.maersk.com/~/media_sc9/maersk/local-information/files/africa/south-africa/important-information/container-type-and-sizes/reefer-equipment-specifications-updated.pdf — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Maximum gross weight
- 30,480 (ONE, Maersk) or 32,000 (Hapag-Lloyd) kgA genuine 1,520 kg divergence in the rating. Both reconcile internally (Hapag-Lloyd 2,860 + 29,140 = 32,000; ONE 2,810 + 27,670 = 30,480; Maersk 2,990 + 27,490 = 30,480). Two of three publishers say 30,480 kg.Hapag-Lloyd (32,000); the 30,480 figure is Ocean Network Express and Maersk — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Payload
- 27,490-29,140 (Maersk 27,490; ONE 27,670; Hapag-Lloyd 29,140) kg1,650 kg spread, driven by the max gross divergence above rather than by tare. Quoting Hapag-Lloyd's 29,140 kg for a box that turns out to be rated 30,480 kg gross would overstate capacity by more than 1.6 tonnes.Maersk (low endpoint); high endpoint Hapag-Lloyd at https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/services-information/cargo-fleet/container/20-reefer.html — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Cubic capacity
- 27-28.2 (Maersk 27; Hapag-Lloyd 28.1; ONE 28.2) m3Two problems, both worth knowing before publishing. First, a 1.2 m3 spread, over 4%. Second, Hapag-Lloyd's page prints '28,1 cbm / 1,006 cbft', but 1,006 ft3 converts to 28.5 m3, not 28.1 — the source's own two units disagree by about 1.4%, so I have reported the metric figure as printed rather than reconciling it. Confidence in any single reefer capacity figure is low.Ocean Network Express (28.2); low endpoint Maersk (27) at https://www.maersk.com/~/media_sc9/maersk/local-information/files/africa/south-africa/important-information/container-type-and-sizes/reefer-equipment-specifications-updated.pdf — source, checked 2026-08-14
40ft High Cube
- Internal dimensions
- 11,599 x 2,290 x 2,425 (L x W x H) mmInternal height spread is 129 mm (Maersk 2,415; Hapag-Lloyd 2,425; ONE 2,544) — the widest disagreement on any dimension in this dataset, so height should not be published as a single number for this type. Length 11,580-11,599 mm, width 2,275-2,290 mm. Note the internal length is over 400 mm shorter than a 40ft dry.Hapag-Lloyd — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Door opening
- 2,290 x 2,557 (W x H) mmWidth 2,276-2,290 mm (Maersk 2,276; Hapag-Lloyd and ONE 2,290). Height 2,471-2,557 mm (Maersk 2,471; ONE 2,502; Hapag-Lloyd 2,557) — an 86 mm spread.Hapag-Lloyd — source, checked 2026-08-14
- External dimensions
- 12,192 x 2,438 x 2,896 (L x W x H) mmOnly ONE publishes outside measurements among the carriers fetched. Identical to the external envelope CIMC gives for the 40ft high cube dry, as expected.Ocean Network Express — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Tare weight
- 4,420-4,520 (Hapag-Lloyd 4,420; ONE 4,490; Maersk 4,520) kg100 kg spread — one of the tighter agreements in the dataset. Roughly 600 kg heavier empty than a 40ft HC dry across all publishers.Hapag-Lloyd (low endpoint); high endpoint Maersk at https://www.maersk.com/~/media_sc9/maersk/local-information/files/africa/south-africa/important-information/container-type-and-sizes/reefer-equipment-specifications-updated.pdf — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Maximum gross weight
- 34,000 kgUnanimous across Hapag-Lloyd, ONE and Maersk — one of only two figures in this dataset with no variation, and notably higher than the 32,500 kg of a 40ft HC dry. Caveat on ONE specifically: its stated 34,000 kg does not reconcile with its own tare and payload rows (4,490 + 30,510 = 35,000, a 1,000 kg internal error on ONE's page). Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk both reconcile exactly.Hapag-Lloyd — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Payload
- 29,480-29,580 from the two publishers that reconcile (Maersk 29,480; Hapag-Lloyd 29,580) kgI have deliberately excluded ONE's published 30,510 kg from this range: it is arithmetically impossible against ONE's own stated 34,000 kg gross and 4,490 kg tare, which sum to 35,000 kg. Using it would import a known error. The two publishers that reconcile agree within 100 kg.Hapag-Lloyd; corroborated by Maersk at https://www.maersk.com/~/media_sc9/maersk/local-information/files/africa/south-africa/important-information/container-type-and-sizes/reefer-equipment-specifications-updated.pdf — source, checked 2026-08-14
- Cubic capacity
- 67.5-67.7 (ONE and Maersk 67.5; Hapag-Lloyd 67.7) m3Tight agreement, 0.3%. Worth noting for the page: a 40ft HC reefer holds roughly the same volume as a 40ft standard dry (67.7 m3), not the 76 m3 of a 40ft HC dry — the insulation costs about 9 m3. That comparison is consistent across all three publishers.Hapag-Lloyd (67.7); 67.5 from Ocean Network Express and Maersk — source, checked 2026-08-14
Considerations
What constrains it.
- Product is pre-cooled before loading; the container maintains, it does not chill
- Airflow: load below the line, keep floor channels clear, do not pack solid
- Power at every stage, and the length of every unpowered gap in the routing
- Setpoint and ventilation are specified by whoever knows the commodity
- Performance specifications were not published here because no primary source stated them
From equipment to load plan
Confirm the unit against the actual cargo.
Suitability depends on the goods, loading method and the specification of the equipment that will actually be used.
European road freight