Container shipping
20ft container shipping to Juba: what fits and what to check
A 20ft runs out of weight before it runs out of space. That one fact decides most of what follows.
The defining characteristic
A 20ft container has roughly half the internal volume of a 40ft, but its maximum payload is much closer to that of the larger box. For dense cargo that means the 20ft is the efficient choice: you reach the weight limit either way, so there is no point paying to move empty space.
For light cargo it means the opposite. You will fill a 20ft long before you load it to capacity, and you will need two of them where one 40ft would have done.
What loads well in a 20ft on this route
- Cement, tiles, sanitary ware, building hardware
- Steel, pipes, rebar, metal products
- Generators, pumps, compressors, machine parts
- Tinned and packaged food in dense cartons
- Bagged goods, fertiliser, grain
What does not
- Furniture, mattresses, foam
- Empty packaging and plastics
- Light consumer goods in bulky cartons
- Anything where you are buying volume rather than weight
Axle loads are a real constraint
A Mombasa to Juba move crosses Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, each enforcing axle load limits. A 20ft loaded close to its maximum gross weight is a heavy unit on a long haul.
If a truck is stopped for overloading, the cargo may have to be transhipped at your cost, with all the delay that brings. Give us the actual gross weight when you ask for a rate, not a round number.
Check these before you book
- Actual gross weight, including packaging and pallets
- Whether the delivery point can take the vehicle. Access, turning space, surface.
- Offloading arrangements. Equipment and labour available within the free time.
- Who returns the empty, to where, by when, and at whose cost
- The free days on the line's equipment, and when they start
That fourth point catches more people than any other. Juba is a long way from where the shipping line wants its container back.
How detention and demurrage work
Published 20ft rates
Our 20ft rates from both Mombasa and Nairobi are published, split by whether the cargo is a Kenyan export or foreign cargo in transit.
20ft container transport to Juba
If you can't fill one
Paying for a full container you can't fill is the most common way to overspend on this route. Compare against groupage before you commit.
Get a quotation
Tell us what you are shipping
Send us the cargo description, weight or volume, and the pickup and delivery addresses. We reply with a written rate, the transit time and the documents you will need.