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IBC TotesSan Francisco
Learn · Case studies

Three jobs, written up honestly.

Including the delivery that went to the wrong door, the harvest week we under-reserved for, and the thirty-four watering rigs whose drip outlets clogged in three weeks. Every one of these has a “what went wrong” section, because case studies without one are advertisements.
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Describe the problem rather than the container. The useful part of every job below happened before anyone picked a product.

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The common thread across all three: the container was never the hard part. Disposal logistics, seasonal storage and a five-day watering cycle were the actual problems. In each case the right answer involved rearranging how containers move rather than buying better ones.

From the yard

Rows of used caged IBC totes stacked two high on a concrete pad under an overcast sky
01Graded stock on the outdoor pad, waiting on a wash slot
A single clean 275 gallon caged IBC tote showing its data plate marked 275 Gallon 1041 Liter and Transport 1650 kg max
03The plate carries the capacity and the maximum gross mass. Read it before you fill
Interior of a warehouse with IBC totes racked on shelving and stored on the floor in a range of colours and conditions
08Racked and floor stock under cover, sorted by grade
The Bancroft Avenue reconditioning yard packed with IBC totes, with the Bay Bridge and the San Francisco skyline behind it
San Francisco from the pad — the shortest delivery run we make
A blue tractor unit with a flatbed trailer loaded with strapped IBC totes beside a warehouse roller door
A flatbed loading out — strapped over the cage rail, never over the bottle
A wide view of an outdoor container yard with dozens of stacked IBC totes, trees and blue sky behind
Roughly 1,400 containers on the ground on a normal week
Mixed-condition IBC totes in an outdoor yard under a blue sky, including one heavily stained amber unit
What arrives looks like this: clean, stained and finished, all on one pallet run
FAQ

Frequently asked

What do these case studies actually document?

Real projects with real numbers, including the parts that went wrong. Each one covers the brief we were given, the constraints that made it awkward, what we built or supplied, what it cost and what it saved, and a section about the mistake we made along the way. That last section exists because a case study without a failure in it is an advertisement, and you cannot learn anything useful from an advertisement.

Are the figures in these case studies verified?

They come from the customer's own operating data rather than our estimates, and the customers reviewed the write-ups before publication. Savings figures are net of container investment and freight, which is why some of them look smaller than the headline numbers competitors quote. Where a figure is a modelled projection rather than a measured outcome, the text says so explicitly.

Can you do something similar for my operation?

Usually, and the useful conversation starts with the problem rather than the container. Every one of these projects began with somebody describing a handling, disposal or storage headache, not with somebody specifying a tote. Tell us what the liquid is, how much of it moves per week, who touches it and what happens to the empty packaging today, and the container specification falls out of that almost by itself.

How long does a project like these take to set up?

A closed rotation on standard reconditioned stock can be running in two to three weeks. A seasonal leasing arrangement needs to be reserved months ahead — food-grade harvest stock books out by June most years. A fabrication programme depends on design review and prototype sign-off, and thirty-plus custom rigs is realistically a two to three month job from first drawing to final delivery.

Do you publish case studies for every customer?

No, and most customers prefer it that way. Anything published here was agreed with the customer, and several are anonymised to a description rather than a name because procurement teams do not always want their supplier arrangements public. If you would rather your project stayed private it simply stays private; it has no bearing on pricing or priority.