What is a storage container rental?
A storage container rental is a steel shipping container delivered to your ground, set level, and left with you for as long as you need it, with the doors and the key entirely yours. There is no depot, no access hours and nothing loaded onto a truck each time you want something.
The boxes are the same ISO shipping containers you see stacked at the Packer Avenue terminal, built from weathering steel in the ASTM A588 family with cast corner fittings to ISO 1161 so they can be lifted and stacked. Containers that have been in international service also carry a CSC safety approval plate under the International Convention for Safe Containers, which records the build date and the rated weights. That construction is why they survive a Philadelphia winter on an open lot without anything happening to them.
People search for pods, because one brand name became the generic term. What we deliver is a steel container on a tilt bed or roll off truck, not a branded moving box on a lift system. The container is stronger, cheaper by the month and far harder to break into. It also needs more room to land.
Container sizes and what actually fits
| Size | External | Internal floor | Capacity | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 ft | 10 x 8 x 8 ft 6 in | About 9 ft 3 in long | Around 560 cu ft | Tight rowhouse yards |
| 20 ft | 20 x 8 x 8 ft 6 in | 19 ft 4 in by 7 ft 8 in | About 1,170 cu ft | Most jobs |
| 40 ft | 40 x 8 x 8 ft 6 in | 39 ft 5 in by 7 ft 8 in | About 2,390 cu ft | Large sites, long jobs |
| 40 ft high cube | 40 x 8 x 9 ft 6 in | Same floor, taller | About 2,694 cu ft | Bulky or racked storage |
ISO 668 sets those external dimensions, which is why a container from any yard in the world is the same box. The door opening on a standard unit is about 7 feet 8 inches wide by 7 feet 5 inches high, and that opening is what decides whether a scissor lift, a pallet of tile or a stack of cabinets goes in.
Detail on each size is on 20ft storage containers and 40ft storage containers. If you need a desk and a heater rather than a shelf, look at mobile office trailer rental instead.
How much does a storage container cost to rent?
Published market bands for this region, reviewed July 2026, put a container at $100 to $250 a month with $125 the typical figure. Delivery and collection sits at $50 to $150. Those are ranges from market data, not a quote for your job.
| Line | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Container rental, per month | $100 to $250, typically $125 |
| Delivery and collection | $50 to $150 |
| Relocation on the same site | Quoted per move |
| Longer term rate, 6 months plus | Below the monthly band |
What moves your number is the size, how far the yard has to drive, how long you keep it and whether the truck can get in first time. Full detail on storage container rental cost, and the same distance logic runs through dumpster rental cost and porta potty rental cost.
Will a container fit on my Philadelphia site?
This is the question that decides the job, and it is not about the box. A tilt bed truck delivering a 20 foot container needs roughly 60 feet of straight, clear run to slide it off, and a 40 foot container needs close to 100 feet. Overhead you need around 15 feet of clearance while the bed is up.
On the rowhouse blocks through South Philadelphia, Fishtown, Kensington and Point Breeze, that run often does not exist. What we look for instead:
- A vacant lot or a demolished pad on the same block
- A driveway with a straight approach and no low branches
- A parking lot with an owner who has agreed in writing
- A church or school yard next to the job
- Failing all of that, a 10 foot box instead of a 20
Send a photo of the drop point when you enquire. Two minutes of looking at a picture saves a wasted truck run, and a wasted truck run is charged. The placement guide covers the same ground for units, and the same rules apply to a roll off dumpster landing on the same block.
Ground bearing and weight
An empty 20 foot container has a tare weight around 4,850 pounds, and an empty 40 foot box around 8,340 pounds. ISO 668 caps the maximum gross weight for both at 30,480 kilograms, about 67,200 pounds, though no one loads a static storage box anywhere near that.
The weight sits on four corner castings, not spread across the floor, so it concentrates on small patches. That is why we place on:
- Asphalt or concrete, first choice
- Compacted gravel, which is fine
- Timber or steel plates on soft ground, which we bring
- Not fresh topsoil, not a new lawn, not a slab poured in the last week
Philadelphia clay holds water. A container that lands level in October can be sitting out of true by March if it went down on soft ground, and doors that do not line up are the first symptom. Level ground now beats a callout later.
Security, weather and what stays dry
Container doors are two steel leaves on four locking bars, and they defeat casual theft on their own. What they do not defeat is a bolt cutter on an exposed padlock, so a lockbox welded over the handle is the standard answer and it is what we send on units going to open sites.
On weather:
- The roof and walls are weathering steel and they do not leak when the box is sound
- Condensation is the real enemy, not rain, since warm damp air meets cold steel overnight
- A vented unit, pallets under stock and a few desiccant bags fix most of it
- Never store anything you care about directly on the steel floor over winter
Sites that need lighting after 4pm in December usually pair the container with a light tower, and there is a number behind that: OSHA 1926.56(a) requires a minimum of 5 foot candles across a general construction area, and 3 foot candles on access ways and active storage areas, which is exactly the route between the gate and the container doors. Sites that need the whole compound secured pair it with temporary fence rental or chain link fence panels.
What can go in a container, and what should not
Anything dry, non perishable and legal. That covers tools, materials, furniture, records, stock and equipment. What we ask you to keep out is short and it is not negotiable:
- Fuel, propane, solvents and anything else flammable in quantity
- Anything alive, including plants
- Food waste of any kind
- Chemicals, paint thinners and pool supplies over household quantities
- Anything you would not want a summer roof temperature applied to
Waste does not go in a container either. That is what a dumpster is for, and the rules on what may be disposed of are on what cannot go in a dumpster and dumpster weight limits.
Do I need a permit for a storage container in Philadelphia?
On private ground, usually not for a construction related box during active work. Standing anything in the cartway or across a sidewalk is a different question, and it is the one worth answering before delivery day rather than after.
Philadelphia's building and zoning approvals come from the Department of Licenses and Inspections, and a container placed as construction storage is treated differently from one left as a permanent accessory structure. The one routing this city is genuinely unusual about is portable sanitation: portable toilet and holding tank applications go to the Department of Public Health under its infectious waste program rather than to a streets department, which catches out contractors every week. That is covered on porta potty permit requirements, and skip loads have their own route on dumpster permit requirements.
Container, dumpster or office trailer
| Need | Right unit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Keep tools and materials dry and locked | Storage container | Doors you control, no depot |
| Get demolition debris off site | Roll off dumpster | Hauled away and weighed |
| Somewhere to sit, plan and hold a meeting | Mobile office trailer | Power, heat, desks |
| Both storage and an office in one drop | Ground level office container | Half locked store, half office |
| Short burst of overflow at an event | Container plus fence | Secure compound, no build |
Whatever else lands on the compound, the sanitation is not optional. OSHA 1926.51(c)(1) sets the requirement at one toilet for 20 or fewer workers on the site, and ANSI/PSAI Z4.3, the industry standard for non sewered waste disposal systems, treats weekly service as the baseline under ordinary use. A container does not change either figure.
Renovation jobs in this city usually run a container and a dumpster together, since the box holds what is being installed and the skip takes what is coming out. Sizes are set out on dumpster sizes and dimensions, 10 yard, 20 yard, 30 yard and 40 yard skips.
How long do people keep them?
Longer than they plan to. The typical rowhouse gut renovation books a container for two months and keeps it for five, because the box becomes where the kitchen lives while the kitchen is being built.
Common terms we see:
- Rowhouse renovation, 3 to 6 months
- University and hospital construction, 12 months or more
- Retail fit out, 4 to 10 weeks
- Event and festival storage, a week either side of the date
- Emergency and flood recovery, open ended
Long term rates sit below the monthly band, so tell us the honest expected term rather than the optimistic one. Rolling a short rate over five months costs more than booking six.
Delivery across Philadelphia and the ring
The city core is where access bites. Northeast Philadelphia, the river wards with lot frontage and the suburbs are all straightforward by comparison, with driveways and parking lots that a tilt bed can use.
We deliver out to King of Prussia, Norristown, Conshohocken, Doylestown, Bensalem, Abington, Lower Merion, Haverford, Upper Darby, Chester, Camden and Cherry Hill. The full list with distances is on service areas.
Questions about storage container rental
Is the container watertight?A sound container keeps rain out. Condensation is the thing to manage, with pallets and vents.
Can you move it once it is on site?Yes, if the truck can still get to it. A repositioning charge applies.
Do I need to empty it before collection?Yes, completely. We collect the box, not the contents.
Can I put a container on the street?Not without dealing with the right of way question first. Ask us and ask Licenses and Inspections before you book the truck.
Do you do refrigerated containers?Cold storage is a specialist line with a power requirement. Ask and we will tell you honestly whether we can serve your date.
What else lands on the same site?Most of our storage jobs run alongside construction site services, portable toilet rental, handwashing stations and construction dumpsters.
Book a storage container
Is self storage container rental the same as an on-site box?
No. Ours lands at your address. Self storage means you drive to the unit.
Is portable storage container rental delivered flat?
It arrives on a tilt-bed and slides off. Rental storage container drops take about twenty minutes.
Send the address, the size you think you need, the term and a photo of where the truck would drop it. We will tell you if it fits before we take a booking. Request a quote or contact us. Also read crowd control barriers, temporary fence cost, temporary power poles, home renovation units, monthly porta potty rental, porta potty rental in Philadelphia, the rental checklist, the FAQ, about us and the home page.
Next step
Get a delivery date
Tell us the address, the dates and the headcount. We size the order and confirm the route.