Reefer container on rent

Reefer container rental price

On 23 October 2026, the lessors’ own pages that rank on Google for reefer rental advertised:

• 10 ft reefer: about ₹30,000 to ₹45,000 a month;
• 20 ft reefer: about ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 a month;
• 40 ft reefer: mostly ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 a month;
• by the day: from ₹1,300 at one lessor, about ₹39,000 over 30 days.

These are the lessors’ own figures, outside our price survey, which found no reefer rent with the period it pays for. Most ask for a month at least, and none says clearly whether GST is included or what state the box is in. Renting a reefer is taxed like selling one, at 18%; a business paying more than ₹50,000 a month may also have to deduct TDS from the rent. For a wedding or an event of a few days, ask for the daily rate and for both trips, which can weigh more than the rent itself. The partner offer on the container on rent page covers dry boxes, not reefers.

What a reefer costs to run: electricity by state

Our estimate of the energy alone, for a reefer running round the clock; your bill adds fixed charges and electricity duty.

A reefer draws power day and night, so electricity is a large part of what it costs to keep, and the estimate can be higher in summer heat, with fruit that needs fresh air, or while the unit pulls down warm goods. Where your state has a cold storage tariff for your produce, it costs less than a shop’s commercial rate: in Maharashtra the agricultural tariff covers cold storage of farm produce, while Karnataka and Tamil Nadu bill cold storage plants at their industrial rate, Tamil Nadu asking for an Udyam registration, and Karnataka gives fisheries cold storage ₹1 off each unit. Tamil Nadu revises its rates each July: check the rate on your bill.

If the reefer needs a new connection for the season only, your distribution company (discom) may bill it as a temporary supply, at a higher rate: ₹10.50 a unit in Karnataka and ₹13.25 in Tamil Nadu (2025-26), and 1.25 times the energy charge of its category in Maharashtra. In another state, multiply some 2,600 units a month for a 20 ft, or 5,000 for a 40 ft, by the rate per unit on your bill. A roof over the box and fewer door openings cut the bill; the reefer power supply section explains what the unit draws.

Rent or buy a refrigerated container?

Our survey of 20 October 2026 found few used reefers with a price: a used 20 ft reefer is priced from ₹6,50,000, typically ₹7,75,000 (4 sellers), and a used 40 ft high cube reefer from ₹5,50,000, typically ₹6,00,000 (8 sellers): the refrigeration unit makes most of the price, so the bigger box is not the dearer one. At ₹30,000 a month, rent adds up to the typical price of a used 20 ft reefer in about 26 months, and at ₹50,000 in about 16; a 40 ft rent reaches the typical price of a used one in about 12 months at ₹50,000, and 8 at ₹75,000. The electricity is the same either way; an owner also pays for the delivery and for servicing the unit, and can sell the box again at the end.

• Rent for a need with an end date: a harvest or a fish landing season, a wedding or an event, a pharma stock while a cold room is built. The lessor keeps the unit serviced and takes it back.
• Buy when the cold room runs most of the year: the reefer container price page lists the checks to run on a used unit before you pay.

For fruit, vegetables and other horticulture produce, the guidelines of 2025 of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) list refrigerated containers among the post-harvest projects they support: a subsidy of 35% of the cost in general areas and 50% in the North-East, the Himalayan states and some other areas, tied to a bank loan and paid once the project is done; groups, farmer producer organisations and self-help groups of 25 members or more can apply without a loan. The guidelines set no cost norm for a container of its own and do not say whether a used box qualifies: ask your State Horticulture Mission before you buy.

What to agree when you hire a reefer

• Power and plug. A container reefer runs on three-phase power through a 32 A, four-pin socket; a farm with only single-phase power needs a new connection or a generator (can a reefer run on single-phase power?). Have an electrician check your supply and fit the socket before delivery.
• Generator set. If the grid fails or does not reach, ask for a quote with a reefer generator set (genset), and who pays the diesel. A container unit draws at most 15 kW (18.75 kVA), about what the clip-on sets made for reefers deliver. A set built since July 2023 should meet the latest emission norms (CPCB IV+), and any diesel set up to 1,000 kVA made since 2005 must have a built-in acoustic enclosure, which matters near houses or at a wedding venue.
• Set point. Agree the temperature you need: set at −20 °C or colder, a reefer works as a freezer container; at +2 to +8 °C, as a cold room for medicines. The data sheets give 20 ft units a range down to −25, −30 or −40 °C depending on the unit, whatever a listing claims; the set points by product are in the reefer guide.
• Warm goods. A reefer holds the temperature of goods that are already at it and cools warm produce only very slowly. Pre-cool a harvest or a catch, or load it in batches, and ask the lessor how much the unit can pull down in a day.
• Records and alarms. Ask whether the unit logs temperatures, how you download the log, and whether it sends an alarm when the temperature drifts.
• Breakdown. Who repairs the unit, how fast, whether a replacement comes if it cannot be fixed on site, and who pays for goods lost: write it in the agreement, and ask your insurer about the stock.
• Delivery and placement. A 20 ft reefer weighs about 2,920 kg empty, so it comes off the truck by crane or side-lifter, onto firm level ground near the power point, in shade if possible (site preparation and unloading).
• The rest of the terms: minimum period, deposit, both trips and the condition report, as on the rental agreement checklist.

Temperature records for food and medicines

A reefer that stores vaccines or other biological products has to keep proof of its temperature. The Good Distribution Practices for biological products of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), in force since 2012, ask for temperature records at set intervals, kept for the life of the product plus one year, a temperature map of the storage, calibrated instruments, an alarm and a backup supply for power cuts. For other medicines, CDSCO’s guidance on the same lines is still a draft. For food, Schedule 4 of FSSAI’s licensing regulations, as we read it, asks for temperatures kept under control and records available for inspection. Ask the lessor for a unit with a data logger, and keep the downloads.

Cold storage container on rent: what fits inside

A 20 ft reefer holds 28.2 m³, or 10 Euro pallets on its floor; a 40 ft high cube reefer 67.5 m³, or 23. Keep the load below the red line near the roof, so the air can get back to the unit. The reefer container guide gives the temperatures, the units and the other sizes, the 10 ft included.

Asia Containers does not rent out reefers. Partners near you, by PIN code, who rent reefers can reply to a quote request, which is free: choose “Rent” and “Reefer”, and write in the message box the start date, the number of months, the temperature, what you will store and whether three-phase power is on site.

Ask for reefer rental quotes →