Contact us

One address for everything

We work by email. Questions, drawings, photos, changes to a spec and follow-ups on an order all go to info@shippingcratesforsale.com, and our answers come back from it. Keeping things in writing means the details of a crate, its numbers and its marks, sit in one thread you can forward to a colleague, a forwarder or the person receiving the load.

We publish no phone number and no street address, and there is nowhere to drop in. Crates are built to order and delivered to the shipper's dock, so there is no counter or showroom. A clear email with the numbers in it gets a useful answer sooner than a description passed along by voice.

What to put in an email

A good first message answers the questions we would otherwise ask. Start with what the load is, in plain words: a pump skid, a control cabinet, a set of stamping dies, a crated engine going back for rebuild. Then add the numbers below. Short is fine, and a list beats a paragraph.

• The load's inside dimensions, L x W x H, in inches
• Its gross weight in pounds, and whether that is weighed or estimated
• The destination country, or US for domestic
• The mark wanted: HT stamp, none, or not yet known
• Quantity, and the date the crates are needed at your dock
• The delivery or pickup address and any dock limits, such as no forklift or a narrow door

Questions about an order already quoted

If we have already sent you a quote, reply on that thread rather than starting a fresh one. The quote and the spec behind it are right there, so we can see the crate, the quantity and the date without asking you to repeat them.

Changes before the build are normal: a scale ticket that came in heavier than the estimate, a second destination, a date pulled forward, a few more units. Say what moved and we will tell you whether the quote still holds or needs redoing. A load that no longer matches the one quoted usually needs a fresh price, because the skid, the blocking or the treatment may change with it.

Questions about ISPM 15 and export marks

We can explain how an export crate is built and marked: heat-treated solid wood, the IPPC stamp, and where the stamp goes on the finished crate. APHIS states that heat-treated packaging must carry the ISPM 15 official mark together with an ALSC accredited agency quality mark. What we will not do is rule on whether a given country requires it or how its border inspectors apply it.

For that, go to the source. APHIS covers the US side, and the destination country's national plant-protection authority sets what it accepts at its border. Your freight forwarder or customs broker may know the lane well too. Once you have the answer, send us the mark and we build to it.

Sending drawings and photos

Attach drawings and photos to a message to info@shippingcratesforsale.com and put the item name in the subject. A general arrangement drawing with overall dimensions and weight helps most. For photos, show the base the load stands on, the lifting eyes or fork pockets, anything that protrudes, and any face that must not be touched.

If a file is too big to attach, say so and describe what it shows. A marked-up sketch with the main dimensions, the heavy end circled and the lift points arrowed often does the job. What you send is used to understand and quote that load.

Who writes to us

Most of our mail comes from people who move industrial freight for a living. Shipping managers at machine builders and plants ask about crates for finished equipment. Exporters ask about treated lumber and markings. Freight forwarders and 3PLs write on a shipper's behalf, often against a sailing or a cut-off. Plant buyers ask about runs of standard sizes and repeat specs.

If you are writing for someone else, as forwarders and 3PLs often are, say whose load it is and where the empty crates should be delivered, so the spec and the truck go to the right dock and the right contact.

Questions that belong elsewhere

Some questions sit outside crating, and a quick pointer saves you a wait. Customs paperwork, duties, export licences and tariff codes belong with your customs broker or forwarder. Whether a battery, a fuel tank or a refrigerant charge makes the load dangerous goods is decided under 49 CFR for ground and sea and under IATA rules for air, usually by your own hazmat-trained staff.

Once those answers exist, bring them to us. A declared hazmat classification, a forwarder's packing instruction or a consignee's receiving rules can all be written into the crate spec, alongside the stencils, labels and ISO 780 handling pictograms the crate faces should carry.

The contact form and the quote request

The contact form below this copy is for questions: how a construction works, whether an unusual load can be crated, what a spec on file covers, how a knockdown set goes together. It lands in the same inbox as email.

For a priced crate, use the quote request at /quote. It asks for every figure a quote needs, from inside dimensions and gross weight to the treatment mark and the needed-by date, and that saves a round of back-and-forth before we can put a number on it.