For container suppliers: quote requests from buyers in India

Where the requests come from

Buyers read this site’s container prices, size guides and product pages, then send the quote form, or add containers to a quote list from the product pages. Asia Containers does not sell containers and sets no price: you reply to the buyer with your own price and terms. A request can name up to five containers: the first one decides which sellers receive it, and the others are listed in the buyer’s message. The prices shown on the site are not sent with it. Buyers have seen the asking prices of our survey, which do not include delivery: your delivered quote is the price that counts for them.

What a quote request contains

• The need: buy, rent or either, with the rental period if the buyer chose one; the container (10 ft, 20 ft, 40 ft, 40 ft high cube, reefer, open top, flat rack, converted or other); new or one-trip, used, or either; and how many, from 1 to 50. The message can add the grade wanted, a reefer’s temperature, power on site and unit test, or the roof bows and tarpaulin of an open top.
• The use and the timing: storage, site office, office, home, shop, shipping, farm or other; within two weeks, a month or three months, or not decided.
• The delivery: city, PIN code and state; whether the buyer needs a crane or side-lifter, can unload on site or does not know; a preferred colour, subject to your stock; and, when the buyer came from a product page, the container it showed.
• The buyer: individual or business, with the company name and GSTIN if given; name, phone and e-mail; and the buyer’s own message.

What is checked, and what is not

The form checks that the phone number has the format of an Indian mobile or landline number, that the e-mail address and the PIN code are well formed and that a GSTIN, if given, has the right format. The buyer must agree to share the request with Quotbox and with at most 5 partner sellers, and confirm being 18 or older; a hidden field and a minimum filling time stop simple automated submissions. Nothing is verified by an SMS code or a call: a request can still carry a wrong number or e-mail. If you receive one that is not genuine, tell us from the contact page.

Who receives which request

A request goes to at most 5 partner sellers who cover the delivery PIN code and supply the first container it names: a dealer in used 20 ft and 40 ft boxes around Navi Mumbai does not receive a reefer request from Kolkata. A request may list other containers that you do not supply: say so in your reply. Where fewer partners cover a PIN code, fewer receive the request. The buyer’s details are never shown on a page of the site, so they are not sold as leads to every seller who reads it. Requests reach you by e-mail and in your Quotbox account.

What we ask of partner sellers

• Answer every buyer you receive within one working day, even to decline.
• Quote a delivered price, and say how GST applies: included, on top, or on your margin under the margin scheme (GST on containers).
• When the buyer asks, send photos of the very box you offer, its container number and its CSC plate.
• Use the buyer’s details only to answer the request, and delete them if the buyer withdraws consent.

After a justified complaint from a buyer, Quotbox removes the partner.

How to join

Partners are businesses that sell, rent or convert containers regularly. They sign up on Quotbox, the platform that forwards the requests of this site to them. Before your first request, Quotbox checks your GSTIN on the GST portal, your company registration (CIN or Udyam registration) and your PAN, your insurance, your yard or stock, by a visit or a video call, and your years in business or customer references. When you sign up, you say which PIN codes or areas you deliver to and which containers you sell, rent or convert: that is how requests are matched to you. The terms for partners are given when you sign up.

Sign up as a partner seller on Quotbox →

Your prices in our price survey

The price survey reads the asking prices that sellers publish on marketplaces and on their own sites. They are shown without the seller’s name or a link: in medians and ranges and, on the size and product pages, as anonymous offers with the asking price, grade, area, date and marketplace. If you think a figure taken from your listings is wrong, write to us from the contact page with the listing: a wrong figure is corrected or removed. A correct figure stays: it is a public asking price.