The most common container sizes used in international commerce are 20 ft, , 28 ft, 40 ft, and 48 ft. Other sizes are 10 ft (used primarily in Europe and by the military services), 24 ft, 44 ft, 45 ft, 46 ft, 53 ft--and probably others I have not yet heard of. As of 2007, the most common containers used in international commerce were 20 and 40 ft, with some 48 ft units.
(Why some of the odd sizes? They are multiples of the cargo pallets on which most goods are loaded into containers. There are also trailer length restrictions in many areas.)
The typical container height is 8 ft 6 inches. So-called high-cube containers are 9 ft 6 in. Some containers of less than 8 ft height are also used for triple-stack shipment of automobiles. (These containers can be triple-stacked on rail cars or double stacked on highway chassis. There are also half-height containers of about four feet for some special-purpose applications.) For information on the relatively new COLTainer® coal containers, see the Recent Developments section at the end.
The standard width of containers used in international commerce is 8 ft (96 inches).
So-called domestic containers, used only for land transport (rail or road) are 53 ft long and 102 inches wide--six inches wider than standard ISO containers. These domestic containers are built to lighter standards, as they are not designed to be exposed to the elements atop a ship at sea. For more about 102-inch wide containers, see the following section.
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