Greg from Kiwi Box is a highly skilled refrigeration technician who makes hiring a refrigerated shipping container straight forward and hassle-free.
Let’s look at the process you’ll follow when you lease a refrigerated shipping container (also known as a reefer container) from Kiwi Box at any of their various locations throughout the South Island and Lower North Island.
Think about your requirements, then get in touch with Greg.
To get the ball rolling, have a think about your refrigerated storage needs, then give Greg a call or an email. Greg and his team are experts in refrigerated storage — they’ll ask you the following questions to determine what sort of refrigerated shipping container will best suit your product and objective.
What power supply will you run the Kiwi Box refrigerated shipping container with?
In some cases, the power supply you have access to at your container site will determine which size refrigerated shipping container you hire.
Some of our 20ft reefer containers only require a single-phase power supply, which means they can be powered by a home’s residential power supply, i.e., you can run an extension cord from any power point in your home.
While our 20ft refrigerated shipping containers and their power supply requirements provide convenience and lower running costs, we recommend you consider a three-phase container if you have heavy-duty chilling or freezing requirements, or you need the additional capacity of a 40ft reefer container.
What temperature will your product be when it goes into the reefer container?
What you ask of your hired reefer container will directly influence what size and power supply the Kiwi Box team will recommend you use.
For instance, simply keeping a product chilled will require much less of a container than keeping it frozen will.
Similarly, if you have a product that arrives fresh from the field on +30-degree day, chilling this down to your required temperature will take more chilling power than if your product arrives already chilled.
The same applies for product you need to store frozen — will it arrive frozen, or will it arrive fresh and need to be quickly loaded and frozen down to anything from 0c to -18c? The latter scenario will of course require more performance from the leased reefer container.
How does a Kiwi Box refrigerated container get to your site?
Once Greg has determined the most suitable refrigerated shipping container size and power supply, he’ll walk you through the delivery process.
He’ll use his reliable transport industry contacts to get you a competitive quote for delivery of your container to your site, at a time that suits you.
Once you’re happy with a delivery plan, Greg will email a refrigerated shipping container lease agreement for you to sign.
What refrigerated shipping container site preparation is required?
During your dealings with Greg, it’s a good idea to discuss the site you have in mind for your hired reefer container to occupy during your lease period.
It’s recommended that the site is level and firm enough to hold the weight of a container and your product.
If your site isn’t level or hardstanding, Greg will advise you around how to level the shipping container using wooden chocks or a similar item, that will also stop it from sinking.
Looking at the reefer container lengthways, we recommend having the back (motor end) sitting marginally higher than the front (door end) so that when you wash the container out, the water flows naturally towards and out the open doors
Get in touch or learn about running costs and dimensions
That’s everything you need to consider before you contact Greg to lease a refrigerated shipping container from Kiwi Box.
If you’d like to know more about running costs and container dimensions, read our related posts:
How much does it cost to run a refrigerated shipping container?
What you need to know about refrigerated shipping container dimensions.