What one trip, cargo worthy and WWT mean on a container

Container grades at a glance

What does a one trip container mean?

A one trip container, also written 1 trip or one tripper, is a new box that has carried a single load, usually from a factory in China, where nearly all containers are built: it is filled with cargo for its first voyage instead of travelling empty, and sold after it is unloaded. It is almost new, but that one trip can leave scratches and dents that a box shipped empty would not have. Its CSC plate is new: the first examination falls due at most five years after it was built. The new and one-trip 20 ft, 40 ft and 40 ft high cube pages give their prices.

What is a cargo worthy container?

A box judged fit to carry cargo: sound structure, no holes, doors that close and lock, a floor that holds. There is no official definition: a marine insurer’s note calls “cargo worthy” the name the trade gives to each operator’s own inspection criteria, and we found no official form of a “cargo worthy certificate”. It is not the same thing as a valid CSC plate either, as the lessors’ institute points out: a box can be called cargo worthy by a seller and still have a plate whose examination date has passed. If you will ship goods in the box, ask for both: the seller’s word that it is cargo worthy, and a CSC plate with a valid date.

Cargo worthy vs wind and water tight

A wind and water tight box keeps rain, wind and dust out, which is all a box on the ground needs. A cargo worthy box should also be strong enough to be stacked and carried at sea. We found no definition of wind and water tight from the lessors, the classification societies or a standard, only from sellers, and one large supplier warns that there is no universal standard for grades at all. For storage on your land, a sound wind and water tight box is enough; for shipping, it is not.

What does IICL mean on a container?

The Institute of International Container Lessors sets the criteria to which leased containers are inspected and repaired when they go out on lease and come back, now in their sixth edition. When a seller writes “IICL”, it means the box was repaired to those criteria, usually by a leasing company before selling it: one large lessor sells its boxes as-is, IICL, or certified cargo worthy.

The CSC plate behind the grade

The CSC safety approval plate, usually on the left-hand door, is what allows a box to travel internationally under the Convention for Safe Containers, which India has ratified. It carries:

• the date of the next examination: the first falls at most five years after the box was built, the next ones at most 30 months apart;
• or the letters ACEP: the owner’s continuous examination programme. That programme ends when the box is sold out of the owner’s fleet, so a box bought from a lessor under ACEP needs a new examination date before it goes to sea again.

When a box leaves service and no longer has to meet the Convention, the IMO’s guidance asks its owner to remove the plate. A box whose examination has lapsed can still stand on the ground as a store, but may not carry goods across the sea until it is examined again. In India, the Indian Register of Shipping is authorised by the government to certify containers under the Convention: its surveyor examines the box, stamps the next examination date on the plate and issues a certificate. No qualification is required of an inspector who extends a plate’s date, so ask who examined the box.

How sellers in India use the words

The words come up often in listings, but rarely with the papers behind them. We read them three ways on 20 October 2026:

• On one marketplace, 858 listings: 208 wrote “cargo worthy”, 10 “wind and water tight”, 7 “as-is”, 4 “IICL” and 2 “one trip”; none mentioned the CSC plate.
• On the marketplaces, prices by seller: a used 20 ft box was asked at a typical ₹1,20,000 (46 sellers) with “cargo worthy” and ₹1,20,000 (79 sellers) with no grade, and a 40 ft one at ₹1,85,000 (25 sellers) against ₹1,75,000 (60 sellers): the word hardly changed the price.
• In our smaller survey of listings with an exact price, sellers described the condition as follows:

How sellers in India described the condition in the survey of listings with an exact price of 20 October 2026.

Which grade for which use?

• Ground storage, a site store, a farm shed: wind and water tight is enough, if the roof and floor are sound: see used containers for sale.
• An office, a shop or a home: a one trip box for a clean finish, such as a new 40 ft high cube, or a sound cargo worthy used high cube to save money.
• Shipping goods or stacking: cargo worthy, with a CSC plate whose examination date is still valid.
• A wall, a frame to clad, a scrap store: as-is, after seeing the damage: see the 20 ft as-is and 40 ft as-is boxes.

How long does a shipping container last?

Container lessors count about 13 to 14 years of service at sea for a dry box, and 12 for a reefer, and then sell their boxes, typically at around 13 years, to depots, storage companies and freight forwarders. We found no figure for the life of a box kept on land: it depends on its roof, floor and doors being kept up.

What to ask the seller in writing

1. What the grade means for this box, in the seller’s own words.
2. The container number, to check on the door and on the invoice.
3. A photo of the CSC plate, with its examination date or ACEP mark, if you will ship goods in it.
4. Photos or a video call of the roof, the floor and the doors of that very box: how to inspect a used container lists what to look at.
5. For a box that came from abroad, the bill of entry on which it was cleared for use in India: see buying a used container from a yard.