Refrigerated freight has been tied to the road for much of Australia’s history. Heavy vehicles have offered flexibility, national coverage and familiarity, and they have long been the default choice for moving perishable goods across the country.
While this equipment still plays a critical role in the transport of freight around Australia, freight volumes are continuing to grow and driver shortages and road congestion don’t seem to be improving. Thus, mounting environmental and cost pressures are seeing many operators look beyond the highway to rail.
Rail transport delivers scale and offers a significantly smaller environmental footprint compared to road transport, but it also presents several challenges. Longer journey times can potentially put product integrity at risk, but to combat this, there are significant investments being made in track improvements on existing rail corridors including the building of the Inland Rail. These are the challenges Containermax has positioned itself to meet.
Containermax has been part of the Australian logistics sector since 1989. The company set out to build reefers and containers that would be both designed to strengthen supply chains and suitable to Australian rail conditions, and it has since pioneered in this space by manufacturing the first domestic two-pallet-wide reefers.
Containermax has consistently proven its ability to deliver containers that endure the harshest operating environments over more than three decades. For instance, its refrigerated containers were developed to withstand daily Bass Strait crossings in Tasmania where reefers are loaded and unloaded six days a week (one of the highest duty cycles in Australia). The floor and base structures of these units were therefore constructed in an effort to be the strongest and longest lasting ones in the Australian reefer market.
“Containermax’s reputation was cemented with the development of its highly durable iron-clad light-weight stainless reefer wall construction,” says Containermax General Manager – Development and Engineering, Maarten van der Vorst. “This robust design, created to withstand relentless forklift traffic and the toughest conditions, quickly set an industry benchmark. Operators recognised Containermax reefers as durable, dependable assets that have outlasted expectations, and that reputation for strength and reliability continues to this day. It formed the foundation on which Containermax has expanded its product portfolio.”
While modular cold storage has existed in the industry for years, Containermax has taken the concept further by refining it for the demands of rail and intermodal logistics.
“Traditional cold storage can be slow to build, expensive to operate and tied permanently to a site,” Maarten explains. “Once constructed, it remains fixed even as freight routes evolve or demand shifts.”
Containermax’s Modular Relocatable Cool Stores are designed so that operators can relocate investments when their businesses expand. The product can be commissioned in weeks, rather than months, and installed even on challenging terrain. Loading docks and ante rooms can also be added and configured to suit operations or available space.
“Our Modular Cool Store products can be deployed at most sites to create immediate cold storage capacity exactly where it is needed, even inside an existing dry freight shed,” says Containermax Business Development Manager, Steve Lipple. “They can also be easily expanded by adding more modules.
“As requirements shift, the Cool Store can be adjusted between chilling and freezing. When operations relocate, the units can move too, ensuring that infrastructure never becomes a bottleneck. Planning and building permits are often not required – depending on individual council requirements.”
Containermax possesses deep knowledge of the road, rail and short-sea shipping sectors in Australia and New Zealand with a team that has accumulated more than 100 years in container development, fleet management, trailer building and innovation of logistics concepts. Steve says this factor has prepared the business for many challenges and demands.
“By combining proven container durability with specialist rail knowledge, Containermax has created refrigerated transport solutions that have already set the benchmark,” he says. “We are ready to help the industry adapt to moving freight from road to rail.”
SCT Logistics is one of the many customers utilising Containermax’s refrigerated container solutions. The integrated rail and logistics provider, established in 1974, has become a national, multi-modal transport and logistics company through its business approaches.
SCT Logistics Queensland State Manager, Ben Popp, says Containermax helped the company transition from outsourced cold storage to an on-site Modular Cool Store – a process which presented many benefits.
“Containermax provided us with the options we were looking for,” he says. “The Cool Store was operational in weeks which meant we could realise immediate savings and significantly reduce the number of truck movements.
“More importantly, we know we can expand it when the need arises and move it if our network changes. That flexibility has changed the way we think about cold storage.”
Beyond the technical specifications, Containermax is offering confidence that freight will remain secure, that operations can expand without hesitation and that investments will not be wasted on facilities which cannot adapt.
“The transition from road to rail is no longer a distant ambition,” Maarten says. “It is a reality that is shaping investment decisions across the cold chain sector.
“Operators are already exploring the transition to rail by commencing on a smaller scale to learn all the intricacies, so that when the Inland Rail opens, they will be ready to hit the ground running. These operators are the ones that will leverage the efficiency of rail with the adaptability of flexible infrastructure.”
Containermax is prepared to drive this transition. With reefers that have set standards for durability and intermodal solutions refined for the environment, the company is giving operators the tools to embrace rail without compromise.
“Our solutions are bridging the gap between transport and infrastructure, ensuring that refrigerated transport will remain aligned with the freight network itself,” Steve says. “The future refrigerated transport sector will be defined by resilient, mobile infrastructure that enables the transition away from today’s challenges.
“Containermax has spent more than 30 years building towards this vision. With the strength of our iron-clad reefers, flexibility of our Modular Cool Stores and rail expertise of our subsidiary, Freightquip, we are leading the way into a rail-driven future.”
