Costs · September 11, 2026
Four different things get called "container storage", they cost wildly different amounts, and the expensive one is the default.
When someone asks what container storage costs in the Puget Sound, the honest first answer is a question: where is the container right now, and is it still yours to move? Four situations get the same name and they are not close in price.
A box sitting inside a terminal past its Last Free Day is not in storage. It is accruing demurrage, charged by the terminal per container per day, on a sliding scale that rises the longer it stays. This is the most expensive place in the region to leave a container, by a wide margin, and it is where containers end up by default when nobody makes a decision.
Terminals also do not want it there. Yard space is their working capital, which is exactly why the rate is designed to hurt. If your box is here and your consignee is not ready, the answer is to move it, not to compare storage rates. See how to avoid demurrage at the Port of Tacoma.
Pull the box off the terminal before the LFD and park it in a carrier's yard. This is what people usually mean by "container storage rates near the port", and it is what we do in our Kent and Tacoma yards.
What you pay: the pull itself (a move, priced as a dray), then yard storage per container per day, then delivery when the consignee is ready. Daily yard rates are a fraction of terminal demurrage — that gap is the whole reason pre-pulls exist.
The charge people forget: per-diem. The container is the steamship line's, and their clock runs from the moment it leaves the gate until the empty is returned, whether it is sitting in your consignee's yard or ours. A pre-pull stops demurrage; it does not stop per-diem. Any quote that shows you a cheap daily yard rate without mentioning this is showing you half the bill.
Devan the container, store the freight, return the empty. Per-diem stops that day. From then on you are paying warehouse storage — normally per pallet position per month, plus a handling charge in and out.
For anything longer than about a week this is usually the cheapest option by a clear margin, because you stop renting a shipping line's steel box to act as a shed. It costs you one handling of the cargo. It also unlocks things a sealed container cannot do: partial releases, counts, inspection, rework and picking. See transloading and cross-docking and freight warehousing.
The trade-off is honest: a transload costs real money up front, so for two or three days it is not worth it. For three weeks it is not close.
If the container is yours — bought, leased long-term, or a one-way box you now own — there is no per-diem and no demurrage. It is just parking, priced per container per month in a yard. Cheapest of the four and the least urgent, which is why it is the one nobody asks about.
How long. Under a week: pre-pull and hold the loaded box. Over two weeks: transload and send the empty back. In between, do the arithmetic with your actual per-diem rate.
Your per-diem rate. This varies by steamship line and by your contract more than most importers realise, and it is the number that decides where the break-even sits. Look it up before you decide, not after.
Loaded or empty. A loaded box takes ground and carries liability. Empties stack.
Where the yard is. Kent and Fife yards cost less per day than land nearer the waterfront, and for a container that is not moving today the extra fifteen minutes of drive time is irrelevant.
20' or 40'. Ground space is ground space; a 40' takes more of it.
Because a per-day container storage number on its own is close to meaningless, and quoting one is how carriers win a comparison they should have lost. The bill is the pull, plus the days, plus the per-diem, plus the delivery, plus what the empty return costs — and a carrier who quotes a low daily rate and a high pull has simply moved the money.
What we will do is quote all of it on one sheet, with each line named, and tell you which of the four options above is cheapest for your specific container and dwell time — including when the answer is "leave it at the terminal for two more days and take it straight to the consignee".
It depends which of the four situations above you are in. Terminal demurrage is by far the most expensive and rises daily; a drayage yard is a fraction of it; warehouse storage per pallet is cheaper again once the freight is out of the box. Send us the container, the dwell time and the steamship line and you get the full picture on one sheet.
Under about a week, store the loaded container. Over about two weeks, unload it and send the empty back — you stop per-diem entirely, and warehouse storage per pallet is cheaper than renting a container to act as a shed. The break-even depends on your per-diem rate.
Yes — yard space in both Tacoma and Kent, for loaded and empty containers. Kent is about 25 minutes from the Tacoma terminals and 20 from Seattle, which makes it usable for boxes off either port.
No. Per-diem runs until the empty is back at an accepting depot, wherever the box is parked in the meantime. Only returning the empty stops it — which is why a long dwell usually argues for a transload.
Yes, that is the normal pre-pull: we pull it before the Last Free Day, hold it in our yard, and deliver when your consignee has an appointment.
Priced per pallet position per month with a handling charge in and out. See freight warehousing and storage.
Tell us what you are moving and a dispatcher replies the same day.