A high-cube container is one foot taller than standard: nine feet six inches high instead of eight feet six, giving roughly an extra thirteen percent of volume in a forty-foot box. High-cubes dominate modern forty-foot fleets and carry an identifying size code and often a yellow-and-black height marking.
The extra foot is free capacity for light, voluminous cargo, which is most consumer freight; weight limits stay in the same range, so dense cargo gains nothing. In ISO 6346 size-type codes the height shows in the first two characters, for example 45G1 for a forty-foot high-cube dry box.
The height has landside consequences: on a standard chassis a high-cube can exceed road height limits on some routes, requiring low-profile chassis or routing care, particularly where bridges are old and clearances tight.
Equipment type rides along in tracking data as the size-type code on the container, which is how systems and yards plan slots and chassis. When a booking specifies high-cubes, the booking’s equipment lines and the tracked containers should agree; mismatches surface in TrackingMCP as unexpected size codes, worth catching before the dray is dispatched.
A high-cube container is one foot taller than standard: nine feet six inches high instead of eight feet six, giving roughly an extra thirteen percent of volume in a forty-foot box. High-cubes dominate modern forty-foot fleets and carry an identifying size code and often a yellow-and-black height marking.
Ocean pricing for a forty-foot high-cube is typically at or near the standard forty-foot rate, since it occupies the same slot. Inland legs can price height where special chassis or routes are needed.
The size-type code on the box (first character 4 or L height classes, e.g. 45G1) and the height warning marks. Documents echo the code in the equipment description.
Decode container numbers →
Track any equipment type →
More in Inland moves & equipment: Drayage · Chassis · Street turn · Rail ramp · Inland container depot (ICD) · Pre-carriage & on-carriage · Multimodal vs intermodal · Carrier haulage vs merchant haulage · Reefer (refrigerated container) · Flat rack container · Out of gauge (OOG) · SOC vs COC containers · Tare weight · Seal number · Browse all 106 terms →