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Post by woodsman on May 7, 2006 9:26:15 GMT -5
I've been looking into prices for used cargo containers latley and the price for a 20' marine cargo container is not bad. My Idea is to load it with all the building materials and supplies I would need to get a remote homestead going. mabey even load a small tractor inside. all purchaced in the lower 48 to save money and it would alow me to stock pile supplies while still in Idaho. Then after my land was purchaced I would prepare a pad for the container to sit on. and then have the container shiped from Idaho to either Anchorage or Fairbanks and from there have a sky crane helicopter deliver the container to the prepared pad. I still have a lot of figureing to do. The shipping costs might make it too expensive. In that case a lot of my supplies would be hauled over land during the winter by a catipiler type tractor. yet the container would make a nice storage area.
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Post by ugashikrobert on May 8, 2006 19:39:32 GMT -5
Woodsman: Everything you said made sense untill you got to the part about renting a skycrane. If you can find one you will think you are buying it instead of renting it when you check rates. Rotary time is astromonically high especially something big enough to hoist a loaded container. You will also have to sign a release removing them from any liability if they have to drop in case of high winds or other problems. Depending on the barge company you may get a good rate shipping it up here. Most barge companys won't charge you the weight of the container if you buy it from them.
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Post by 1withNature on May 10, 2006 10:29:36 GMT -5
A few suggestions. You might consider other types of transportation for the container. Such as trucking it to a shipping port in say Washington State and then having it sent by ship to Anchorage and then by air to your property. The cost factor, as I see it, would greatly increase when that business/truck/plane/etc. can't earn additional monies because they are hauling only your container. Similar to the cost of getting a plane out to the bush for one person or family to travel into town. that plane and the costs to operate it can't be shared by many customers. My $.02. Using a container sounds like a spendid idea, just like loading the camper for the camping trip, everything goes in one shot. However, I would price ALL means of transport before embracing or rejecting your idea.
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Post by ugashikrobert on May 10, 2006 19:08:52 GMT -5
Woodsman: I wasn't trying to dampen your idea just throw in a few realitites of the costs I've been involved in. You will find containers everywhere in the bush as they make excellent storage and I've seen many converted to to garages with just the addition of a roof. We have shipped by barge for several years and there is not much in the form of a good deal by barge. You are dealing with professionals at the art of setting tarrifs to extract the maximum fare from there customers. Except for the possibility of manuvering a questionable commodity to a lower tarrif class there just isn't many ways around there rates. I have seen a couple cases where they will allow you to ship a container purchased from them for free. Otherwise the best rates are obtained by loading the container yourself at the other end. The highest rate is LCL or less than container load. You will also be charged a wharf*ge charge just to load the container and lately they have been adding a fuel surcharge. I have yet to get a barge bill that was correct and have never seen an error in my favor. They must use the assumption that everyone in the bush is a wealthy idiot.
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