Freight › Container leasing
Two of our containers carry nine tenths of a grain hopper — and the grain never leaves the box.
A grain hopper carries grain and nothing else, so it goes home empty. Ours comes back loaded. Specialised dry bulk containers, leased from our own fleets in Poland and Ukraine — 43.5 m³ on a standard 20 ft footprint.
- Loads— through two hatches in the roof
- Discharges— out of one end, tipped. Nobody opens a door
What a wagon actually carries
A hopper wins on tonnes. It loses on what happens next.
Grain is light for its bulk. It fills a standard container long before it reaches the wagon’s weight limit. A standard box travels full and underloaded at the same time. Ours does not.
| Equipment | Grain carried | Against a hopper |
|---|---|---|
| 1 grain hopper | 70.0 t | 100% |
| 2 × our K1412 | 63.0 t | 90% |
| 2 × standard 20 ft | 51.8 t | 74% |
Each box takes 31.5 t on rail — the wagon runs out of payload before the container does. Hopper figures from published wagon data: model 19-752 at 70 t, Tagnpps 102 m³ at 69.8 t, Tagnpps 130 m³ at 68 t. A bigger hopper body does not carry more grain — every one of them reaches its weight limit first. The extra volume is for light cargo such as sunflower seed.
You give up a tenth
Two boxes carry 63 tonnes against a hopper’s 70. That is the honest number, and it is the price of everything below.
The grain never leaves the box
At the gauge break they transload the grain, or the wagon gets new bogies. Our box is lifted from one wagon to the next. The seal is not broken and nobody handles the cargo.
It can come back loaded
A grain hopper carries grain and nothing else, so it returns empty by design. A container can be backloaded — fertiliser, coal, anything dry that flows.
At the gauge break
They move the grain. We move the box.
Why we know the empty leg costs money
We built a marketplace to sell it.
RailX is our spot market for empty block-train legs on the Poland corridor. Nobody builds that unless the empty leg is costing them every week. It is also why a container that can earn on the way home is not a detail to us — it is the whole economics.
A hopper cannot be backloaded at any price. That is not a criticism of hoppers; it is what they are for.
Project K1412 · ISO 2NG1 · 20 ft
Loads through the roof. Discharges through the end.
The walls bulge 562 mm past the corner fittings. Same footprint on the wagon, more volume inside. That is the whole design idea, and it is why the box looks oval rather than square.
| Internal volume | 43.5 m³ |
|---|---|
| External | 6058 × 3000 × 2896 mm |
| At the corner fittings | 2438 mm |
| Internal | 5888 × 2836 × 2655 mm |
| Tare | 3.5 t |
|---|---|
| Payload | 33.5 t |
| Gross | 37 t |
| Loading | 2 roof hatches, 1700 × 860 mm |
|---|---|
| Discharge | 1 end hatch, 1954 × 750 mm |
| Temperature | −40 °C to +50 °C |
Built to ISO 668, ISO 1161, ISO 1496-1 and ISO 6346. Approved under the Customs Convention on Containers 1972 and the CSC 1972, so it crosses under customs seal without being opened. Steel frame with cast corner fittings, corrugated 2 mm walls, 3 mm floor, sealed hatches with places for customs seals.
Why it matters to your cargo
What the shape actually buys you.
More cargo per slot
The bulge adds volume without adding footprint. The wagon carries the same number of boxes and each one holds more, so the cost per tonne falls on the same train.
Nobody enters the box
Grain goes in through two roof hatches and comes out of one end, tipped past the angle of repose. Nobody opens a door and nobody goes inside. Fewer ways to contaminate a food cargo.
It crosses sealed
Approved under the 1972 Customs Convention, so the container moves under customs seal. Nobody breaks the seal to inspect the load at the gauge change.
Who owns the fleet
Two companies, one on each side of the border.
The containers are not rented in for a job. United Multimodal Services holds a stake in the companies that own them, alongside Risoil S.A. and, in Ukraine, investors from Azerbaijan.
United Multimodal Containers
Sp. z o.o. · Poland
Owns and leases the specialised bulk fleet on the EU side. United Multimodal Services holds a stake alongside Risoil S.A., the Geneva-based agro-industrial group behind the Chornomorsk port terminals.
General Container Services
TOV · Ukraine
The same business on the Ukrainian side of the border. United Multimodal Services and Risoil S.A. hold stakes alongside investors from Azerbaijan.
We lease from them too. United Multimodal Services is a customer of both companies. We lease the boxes on our own trains on the same terms as anyone else — which is why we can quote you a container and a train from one desk.
Container enquiry
Tell us the count and the period.
Availability moves, so we quote it rather than publish it. You get an answer in one working day — or an honest no, in the same reply.
If your cargo does not flow freely, these are the wrong boxes and we will say so rather than sell you them.
Plain definition
What intermodal actually means.
One loading unit, several modes of transport, and the cargo is never handled on its own. The container is filled once at origin and opened once at destination. It moves from wagon to ship to chassis as a sealed box.
Intermodal and multimodal are not the same thing. Multimodal means one carrier takes responsibility for the whole journey under one contract, whatever the equipment. Intermodal is about the box: the same unit crosses every mode without the goods being touched. A journey can be both, and ours usually is.
The practical gain is not speed. It is that nobody opens the cargo at a border, a port, or a gauge change — which is where loss, contamination and delay come from.
Questions before the first container
How does this compare with a grain hopper?
Two of our containers carry 63 tonnes on a 60 ft flat wagon against a hopper’s 70 — about nine tenths. You give up a tenth of the load and get a box that crosses the gauge break without the grain being touched, and that can carry something on the way back.
Why not just use standard containers?
Grain fills a standard 20 ft box before it hits the weight limit — about 26 tonnes in a box rated for more. Ours holds 43.5 m³, so it reaches 31.5 tonnes on the same wagon. Two standard boxes carry 51.8 tonnes; two of ours carry 63.
What happens at the gauge break?
The container is lifted from a 1520 mm wagon to a 1435 mm one. The grain stays inside and the customs seal is not broken. Grain moving in hoppers is either transloaded through an elevator or the wagon has its bogies changed.
Will they fit my wagons and my terminal?
Yes. The walls bulge to 3000 mm but the corner fittings stay at the standard 2438 mm, so the box sits on ordinary flat wagons — 40, 60 and 80 ft, EU and post-Soviet — and a reach stacker picks it like any other container.
What can they carry?
Dry bulk that flows — grain, oilseed, meal and similar. They load through two roof hatches and discharge by tipping through a hatch at one end. If your cargo does not run freely, these are the wrong boxes and we will say so.
Can I lease without buying transport?
Yes. The fleets lease to the market, not only to us. United Multimodal Services is a customer of both companies on the same terms as anyone else.
Do they cross the border sealed?
Yes. They are approved under the Customs Convention on Containers 1972, so the container moves under customs seal and nobody opens it at the gauge change.
Tell us the count and the period.
How many boxes, what cargo, where you want them and for how long. You get an answer in one working day — or an honest no, in the same reply.
Price in 1 working day