Freight and logistics
Short answer
Playground equipment is almost always limited by volume, not by weight. A 40ft high-cube container has about 76 m³ of internal volume and a payload of roughly 26 tonnes, but a full container of steel play equipment typically comes in somewhere between 8 and 15 tonnes — so the container is full long before it is heavy. That means the freight cost of each play structure is decided at design stage, by how well the equipment knocks down and how tightly the components nest, not by the shipping rate you negotiate later.
| 20ft standard | 40ft standard | 40ft high-cube | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal length | ≈ 5.90 m | ≈ 12.03 m | ≈ 12.03 m |
| Internal width | ≈ 2.35 m | ≈ 2.35 m | ≈ 2.35 m |
| Internal height | ≈ 2.39 m | ≈ 2.39 m | ≈ 2.69 m |
| Internal volume | ≈ 33 m³ | ≈ 67 m³ | ≈ 76 m³ |
| Maximum payload | ≈ 28 t | ≈ 26–28 t | ≈ 26 t |
| Door opening width | ≈ 2.34 m | ≈ 2.34 m | ≈ 2.34 m |
| Door opening height | ≈ 2.28 m | ≈ 2.28 m | ≈ 2.58 m |
| Effect on the load | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| Bolted rather than welded assemblies | Large reduction in container count | Flat, nestable parts use the full height of the box; welded frames leave voids around and above them |
| Maximum component length | Major | Items longer than about 2.3 m must run lengthwise and block the middle of the container |
| Nesting of slide flumes and panels | Major | Curved flumes and panels are the most volume-hungry components; nesting them can halve the space they take |
| Packaging format | Moderate | Crates protect better and waste more volume; steel strapped in bundles saves space but needs protection at contact points |
| Load stability and dunnage | Fixed cost | The load has to arrive undamaged. Some volume is always spent on bracing, and that is not waste |
| Mixed loads across product lines | Usually negative | Filling the awkward spaces between long items with small components helps; mixing two large structures in one container rarely does |
A 40ft high-cube container will accept around 26 tonnes. A container loaded with steel play equipment typically weighs somewhere between 8 and 15 tonnes when it is completely full. The difference is the whole point: you are buying a 76 m³ box and filling it with something that weighs about a third of what the box could carry. Every cubic metre you fail to use is paid for anyway.
This is the single most useful thing a buyer can understand about imported playground equipment, because it moves the cost lever to a place they can influence. The freight rate is the freight rate. What the buyer controls is the equipment design — whether the structure ships as welded frames or as flat, bolted components, and whether long members were designed to a length that fits efficiently inside the box.
It also explains a counter-intuitive commercial fact: a lighter product is not automatically cheaper to land. HDPE and aluminium components save weight, but if they occupy the same volume as the steel version, the freight cost per unit is the same. On cube-limited cargo, volume efficiency beats weight reduction.
The difference between a well-designed modular structure and a poorly-designed one is not a few percent. As a working example: a set of play equipment that ships as welded frames with the decks and roofs attached might occupy 15 m³. The same equipment, redesigned with bolted connections, nested panels and posts cut to a length that loads efficiently, might occupy 8 m³ — which is very nearly twice as much equipment in the same container, and therefore very nearly half the freight per set.
Design decisions that matter most are unglamorous. Post lengths: a post of 2.4 m cannot be loaded across the container and must run lengthwise, so cutting it to 2.3 m and bolting an extension changes the packing arithmetic for the whole container. Flat panels: decks, roofs and cladding nest if they are flat and stack if they are consistent in size, and they waste enormous space if each one has a bracket welded to it. Curved flumes: these are the most volume-hungry items in any shipment, and a supplier who has designed them to nest inside one another can halve the space they consume.
The trade-off is assembly labour on site and a longer bill of materials. That trade is usually worth making, because site labour is local and container freight is not. What is not worth doing is compromising the structure to save volume — reducing post sections or removing bracing to make an item pack flatter creates a structural problem that no freight saving pays for.
A loading plan is a drawing or spreadsheet that shows what goes into each container, the volume it occupies, the weight of each item and the order of loading. Ask for it before production starts, not after the goods are finished, for a simple reason: at the loading-plan stage the design can still be changed. Once it is welded, it is welded.
Four numbers to check on it. First, total volume against the realistic usable volume — for mixed play equipment, a plan claiming to use 95% of a 40ft high-cube is not credible, and 60–80% is the normal range. Second, total weight against the payload limit, and the weight distribution along the length: a container must not be loaded with all the heavy steel at one end. Third, the longest single item against the door opening and the internal length, because an item that fits diagonally on a drawing may not fit through the door. Fourth, the packing list against the plan — a discrepancy between the loading plan and the packing list is the most common cause of a short shipment being discovered at site rather than at the factory.
If a supplier cannot produce a loading plan, that is information in itself. It usually means the equipment is packed by whoever is free that day rather than planned, and the consequence is a partially empty container you have already paid for.
In full-container-load shipping, the arithmetic is simple: one container, one price, and the only question is how full it is. In less-than-container-load shipping, the arithmetic is not simple. LCL is charged on the greater of volume and weight, using a conversion where one cubic metre is treated as equivalent to 1,000 kg. Play equipment is light for its volume, so the charge is calculated on volume essentially every time — and light, bulky cargo is the worst case for LCL economics.
That means LCL is normally only sensible for small orders and spares. For anything approaching a full set of play equipment, the point at which a 20ft container becomes cheaper than LCL is usually reached sooner than buyers expect, and it is worth pricing both before assuming that sharing a container is the economical option.
The same logic explains why quotations that look 30% apart are frequently not comparable: one is ex-works, one is FOB, one is CIF. On cube-limited cargo the freight element is a large share of the landed cost, so the Incoterm changes the number more than the equipment price does. Always compare quotations at the same Incoterm, and see the buyer’s guide on comparing quotations for the other items that are commonly missing.
Two things reliably go wrong on a container of play equipment. The first is condensation. A steel container crossing climates accumulates moisture, and galvanised components that sit in it for weeks can arrive with white surface staining — cosmetic in most cases, alarming on arrival, and preventable with ventilation, dunnage and container desiccants. The second is chafing: steel components strapped against each other, or against the container wall, rub through coatings in transit. Both are packing decisions, and both are worth writing into the purchase order rather than leaving to the loading day.
Documentation matters for the same reason. The packing list should identify each bundle or crate, so that a missing item can be found or claimed before the container is unpacked at site. Photographs of the loaded container, taken before the doors are closed, settle most damage claims in the buyer’s favour and cost nothing to produce. Ask for them as a standard deliverable on every shipment, not as a special request.
Assuming you have hit the container’s weight limit because it looks full
Play equipment cubes out at roughly a third to a half of the payload limit. If the container is full, the constraint was volume, and the lever is design, not shipping.
Accepting the supplier’s cubic metre figure without a loading plan
A CBM number on a quotation is an estimate made before the equipment was designed in detail. The loading plan is the document that shows what actually goes in each container, and it should be issued before production.
Choosing a 20ft container to save money on a large order
Per cubic metre, 40ft containers are cheaper to ship, and high-cubes cheaper still. A 20ft container is the right choice for a partial load, not for a full set of equipment split across several boxes.
Redesigning equipment to pack flatter without checking the structure
Reducing post sections or removing bracing to save volume creates a structural problem that no freight saving pays for. Volume should be saved in connections, nesting and packaging, not in the load path.
Comparing quotations at different Incoterms
Ex-works, FOB and CIF quotations for cube-limited cargo can differ by 30% or more with identical equipment. Always compare at the same Incoterm, and write the Incoterm on the purchase order.
Treating shipping damage as something that is discovered at site
Photographs of the loaded container before the doors close, plus a packing list keyed to bundle numbers, turn most claims into a paperwork exercise. Ask for both on every shipment.
The volumes and container counts discussed here are planning figures for early-stage budgeting, not quotations. Real loading depends on the specific equipment, its packing format, the container actually supplied and the carrier’s weight limits on the route. Ask for a loading plan against your actual equipment list before you commit to a container count.
It depends almost entirely on how well the equipment knocks down, not on its weight. As a worked example: if a set occupies about 8 m³ packed as bolted, nested components, roughly nine sets fit in a 40ft high-cube at a realistic 75% utilisation. The same equipment shipped as welded frames at 15 m³ per set would be four or five sets. Ask for a loading plan against your actual equipment list rather than a rule of thumb.
Per cubic metre, a 40ft container is normally cheaper than two 20ft containers, and a 40ft high-cube is cheaper again because it carries about 13% more volume for a similar freight rate. A 20ft container is the right choice when your order genuinely fills only half a 40ft, or when the destination cannot handle a 40ft trailer.
It is a document showing what goes into each container, how much volume and weight each item takes, and the loading order. Ask for it before production rather than after, because at that stage the design can still be adjusted — post lengths cut to load better, assemblies bolted rather than welded. It is also the document you check the packing list against, so a short shipment is found at the factory rather than at the site.
Because play equipment is limited by volume, not weight. Freight is charged per container, and the container fills with air around bulky components long before it approaches its payload limit. A lighter material occupying the same volume costs the same to ship. On cube-limited cargo, what reduces freight per unit is packing more equipment into each container.
Wet storage stain, or white rust, forms when galvanised steel is shipped or stored wet with limited air circulation — which is exactly the environment inside a sea container on a humid route. It is usually cosmetic and weathers away outdoors, but it looks like a defect on arrival. It is controlled with ventilation, dunnage so the load is not sitting in condensation, and container desiccants.
No, provided the knockdown is designed rather than improvised. Bolted connections with proper brackets and the same member sections are structurally equivalent to welded ones and are how most modular play systems are built. What weakens a structure is removing material or bracing to make an item pack flatter — that is a saving taken out of the load path, and it should be refused.
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Send the site plan, the age group and your target budget. We will come back with an equipment layout, a specification and an indicative price — and we will tell you which parts of the budget we would move if it does not fit.