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Pillar Guide
Conex Box in Georgia: A Complete Guide for Georgia Buyers
Conex box, shipping container, storage container: the words get used interchangeably, but each has a backstory. Here is the field guide for Georgia buyers, with specific notes for Savannah and Chatham County and the surrounding communities, including Marietta, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, Smyrna.
The word conex (sometimes spelled CONEX) is short for "container express," a term coined by the United States military in the 1950s for a standardized steel shipping container used to move equipment and supplies during the Korean War. The original CONEX boxes were 8.5 feet by 6 feet by 6.8 feet, much smaller than today's intermodal units, but the principle was identical: a stackable, lockable, weatherproof steel box that could move by truck, rail, or ship without unpacking.
By the late 1960s the commercial shipping industry had standardized on 20-foot and 40-foot intermodal containers, the units you see on every cargo ship and rail line today. The military term stuck in everyday speech. In Georgia, contractors, farmers, and homeowners still call any large steel storage box a conex, even when the unit is technically an ISO shipping container or a purpose-built storage container.
For practical buying purposes the three terms describe the same thing across Georgia: a corrugated steel container, 20 or 40 feet long, with cargo doors on one end, designed to keep wind and water out for decades.
Conex Box vs Shipping Container vs Storage Container
The vocabulary lines up like this:
Conex box. Originally a military-spec container. In modern use, a colloquial name for any steel shipping container used for storage. Most commonly applied to 20-foot and 40-foot units in residential and contractor settings.
Shipping container. The technical term for an ISO-standard intermodal container. These are the units that cross oceans on cargo ships. They are built to ISO 1496 specifications, which dictate dimensions, lifting points, and structural strength.
Storage container. A general retail and rental term used by ground-storage companies. Often refers to the same intermodal unit, but the phrase also covers purpose-built ground-level containers that have never seen ocean service.
If you are shopping for storage, the difference rarely matters. The same physical unit can be sold as any of the three. What matters more is the size, the condition grade, and the delivery logistics.
Standard Conex Box Sizes
Georgia customers typically choose from three sizes:
20-foot standard. Length 20 ft, width 8 ft, height 8 ft 6 in. Roughly 1,170 cubic feet of interior space, about the same as a two-car garage. Fits most residential driveways. The most popular size in our network.
40-foot standard. Length 40 ft, width 8 ft, height 8 ft 6 in. Roughly 2,350 cubic feet, double the 20-foot. Best for contractors, farms, and businesses.
40-foot high cube. Length 40 ft, width 8 ft, height 9 ft 6 in. The extra foot of headroom adds about 350 cubic feet of usable space, which matters when you store racked goods or tall equipment.
Specialty sizes (10-foot, 45-foot, refrigerated, double-door, side-opening) exist but are less common. We can source them on request.
Common Uses by Industry
Demand in Georgia is anchored by Poultry. Georgia is the country's leading broiler state, and the belt running through Gainesville, Hall, Habersham, Franklin and Jackson counties keeps feed, bedding, equipment and biosecurity supplies dry between houses., Floor covering. Dalton and Whitfield County produce a large share of the carpet and hard surface flooring sold in the United States, and the mills, sample houses and freight brokers around them run on overflow storage., Ports and drayage. The container terminal at Garden City in Savannah and the roll-on roll-off auto terminal at Colonel's Island in Brunswick generate steady demand for on site storage from drayage carriers, warehouses and freight forwarders., Film and television production. Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Assembly in Doraville, and location work in Savannah and Senoia move set, prop, grip and wardrobe inventory that lives in containers between builds., Row crop and specialty agriculture. Peanuts, cotton and pecans across the southwest, Vidalia onions in Toombs and Tattnall counties, and peaches around Fort Valley and Byron all run on seasonal storage that has to lock., Timber and forest products. Pine plantations, chip mills and pulp and paper operations across the southern half of the state keep containers at landings, gates and equipment yards., Kaolin mining. The white clay belt around Sandersville and Gordon supports mines, haul fleets and processing plants that need parts and tooling stored close to the pit., Granite and dimension stone. Elberton and Elbert County quarry and finish granite, and Jasper and Tate in Pickens County work Georgia marble., Automotive and battery manufacturing. Kia in West Point, the Hyundai plant in Bryan County near Ellabell, and SK Battery in Commerce have pulled supplier parks into three separate corners of the state., Military installations and their contractor base. Robins Air Force Base at Warner Robins, Fort Stewart near Hinesville, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay at St. Marys and Moody Air Force Base at Valdosta anchor a wide base of contractors who store tools and parts on site., Residential construction. Metro Atlanta and the coastal counties are among the fastest growing housing markets in the Southeast, and framers, roofers, electricians and remodelers are the single most common container buyer in both., alongside residential construction and the storage cycle that tropical systems and their inland remnants drives.
The uses we see most often:
Tool, chemical, and equipment storage at working yards. Steel walls, lockable doors, and on-site placement make a conex the simplest substitute for a built shed, a fenced compound, or a temporary office.
Weather-event storage for documents, heirlooms, and inventory. Long-cycle uses where the container becomes part of the operation rather than a temporary fix.
Construction jobsite storage on long-cycle builds. Project-driven needs where timing, access, and short-term affordability all matter.
Acreage and farm storage. Permanent storage for the things a garage or barn cannot fit.
How to Choose the Right Conex Box
Three questions narrow the decision quickly:
How much space do you need? Photograph what you intend to store. A 20-foot unit holds the contents of a three-bedroom home, the materials for one residential framing job, or two pallets stacked four high. A 40-foot unit doubles that. If your list of contents fits on a single garage floor, a 20-foot is enough.
How clean does the interior need to be? If you are storing tools, equipment, or boxed goods, a used wind-and-water-tight unit is fine. If the unit will be converted to an office, a workshop, or a clean storage space, a one-trip unit saves the cost of repainting and floor refinishing later.
Will it move? If the container will sit on a single property for the whole life of its use, buying makes sense. If you are running a project that ends in three to twelve months, renting is usually the better answer. Our rent vs buy guide walks through the crossover math.
How Delivery Works in Georgia
Conex boxes are delivered on a tilt-bed (sometimes called a roll-off) truck. The driver tilts the bed up, and the container slides off onto your placement site. Most deliveries follow the same physical sequence:
Site assessment. When you book, we walk through the access route, the placement spot, and overhead clearance. A 20-foot delivery needs roughly about 70 feet of straight clearance and at least at least 14 feet of overhead room. A 40-foot delivery needs about about 100 feet of straight clearance.
Surface check. Concrete, asphalt, gravel, hard-packed dirt, and grass all work. Soft, waterlogged, or steeply sloped ground may need preparation. We can advise.
Final placement. The driver positions the truck, levels the container, and confirms placement before leaving. Repositioning later is possible but usually requires a second visit.
Delivery timing is honest, not aspirational. Across Georgia:
Metro Atlanta, inside and outside the Perimeter, including Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Clayton and Henry counties: typically 1 to 2 weeks.
Savannah, Chatham County and the coast down through Brunswick to St. Marys: typically 1 to 2 weeks.
Macon, Warner Robins and Middle Georgia, served from the Atlanta depot about 90 miles up I-75: typically 1 to 2 weeks.
Permits and Local Rules
Permit rules depend on the municipality. Rural counties often have no requirement at all for a temporary storage container. Urban codes are stricter, and some HOAs prohibit container placement entirely. Before ordering, check with your local building or planning department, and verify HOA rules if they apply. Our local guide walks through the most common scenarios: container permits in Georgia.
What a Conex Box Costs in Georgia
Pricing is ZIP-specific, because distance from the serving depot drives a meaningful part of the total. Georgia delivered pricing: starting at $2,067 for a 20ft Wind and Water Tight container delivered in Savannah. Price always includes delivery. That figure is an anchor for the best-served part of the state, not a quote for every address, and it was captured live on 2026-08-06.
We do not publish statewide price tables on this page, because they are inaccurate the moment they are written. Tell us your ZIP and what you need, and we will send back an all-in number with delivery included. No haul fee surprises, no padded line items. If you would rather spread the cost, ask about rent-to-own when you call.
Frequently Asked Questions About Conex Boxes
Conex is short for Container Express, a United States military term from the 1950s for the reusable steel boxes that moved supplies. The name stuck long after the original program ended, which is why an older contractor in Georgia will say conex box while the freight industry says intermodal container and the storage industry says storage container. For buying purposes the three words describe the same thing.
For anything you are likely to buy, yes. Both describe a corrugated Corten steel box, 20 or 40 feet long, with cargo doors at one end, built to keep wind and water out for decades. The words that actually change what you receive are the grade and the size, not which of the three names the seller happens to use.
Three sizes cover almost every order in Georgia. A 20ft is 160 square feet on the ground and fits driveways and tight lots. A 40ft is 320 square feet and gives you one long room. A 40ft high cube is the same footprint with about a foot more interior height, which matters if you are racking pallets or planning to insulate and finish the inside, because insulation takes headroom you do not get back.
A tilt bed truck backs in, raises the bed and slides the container off, so it needs a firm, reasonably level straight run behind the drop point and clear space overhead for the bed to rise. That overhead requirement is what surprises people in Georgia, because intown Atlanta and the Savannah Historic District both have mature live oak and water oak canopy hanging over the approach. Walk the route from the street to the drop spot and look up as well as down. The exact clearance figures for each size are listed on our sizes page.
Containers are supplied and delivered by Container One, dispatched from depots at Atlanta and Savannah. Savannah matters because Garden City Terminal is the busiest single container terminal in North America, so boxes come ashore there before they go anywhere else in the state, and that is the plain reason Savannah is the lowest delivered price in Georgia. Atlanta is the shortest haul in the state at about 0.4 miles from the depot and still prices higher, which tells you that distance to the depot is only one input in a delivered price.