Barrel, Box or Container: Which One Fits Your Shipment?
Choose by what you are sending, not by habit. A barrel is the family workhorse for food, clothes and household goods. A box suits smaller, lighter loads and single-household top-ups. A container is for moving a household, stocking a business, or sending a vehicle with belongings — and it answers the other question people type: how much does it cost to ship a container to Haiti? Companies publish container prices openly: Interworld Freight in Miami publishes $1,400–$2,000 for a 20ft container and $2,400–$3,200 for a 40ft container, while Latin American Cargo in New Jersey publishes $2,800–$5,200 for a 20ft container and $160–$260 per CBM for LCL — Less than Container Load, meaning you buy part of a container instead of the whole thing.
Below, each option is weighed the same way: what it holds well, what its published prices look like, and who it is really for. By the end you will know which conversation to have with a shipping company — and you will be having it about the right box, barrel or steel box.
Ship to Haiti Without Getting Burned
The short, plain guide to sending barrels, boxes, cars and parcels home — what to ask, what to get in writing, and how people get burned, so you do not.
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When is a barrel the right answer?
When you are sending the classic family load: food, clothes, toiletries, household basics, some tools. Barrels are strong, stackable, sealable, and every shipping company knows them. Published prices tell the story of the range: Crowley Logistics publishes $67 for a barrel from its Miami CFS in its tariff; Zion Shipping Tech publishes $189 for a 55-gallon barrel; JP's Logistics & More publishes $240 for a 55-gallon barrel and $265 for a 70-gallon barrel, plus boxes at $125–$150. The spread is about what is included — pickup, the barrel itself, help in Haiti — so read the barrel cost guide before treating any one number as the number.
Choose barrels when your load splits naturally into family-sized units, when your receiver can collect barrels at a warehouse or port, and when nothing in the load is too long or too fragile to live in a round steel or plastic drum. Pack them by the method in how to pack a barrel for Haiti.
When is a box the right answer?
When the load is smaller, lighter or more occasional: a top-up between barrels, gifts, clothes for one person, goods for a small shop shelf. Boxes are priced by size, weight or flat rate depending on the company — JP's Logistics & More publishes boxes at $125–$150, and in New York OneVision Multiservices publishes shipping by weight from $2.50/lb across its boxes, barrels and parcels. Boxes demand honest packing: strong tape, no overfilling, fragile things double-boxed or moved into a barrel instead.
Choose boxes when speed of packing and simplicity matter more than toughness, and when the contents are not heavy for their size. A box of books is a box that bursts; books belong low in a barrel. If your load keeps growing as you pack, that is the load telling you it wants to be a barrel — or several.
When is a container the right answer — and what about sharing one?
| Company | Published container prices |
|---|---|
| Interworld Freight (Miami) | 20ft container — $1,400–$2,000 · 40ft container — $2,400–$3,200 |
| Latin American Cargo (New Jersey) | 20ft container — $2,800–$5,200 · LCL (part of a container) — $160–$260 per CBM |
| CargoMax International (Canada pickups) | Containers — $800–$4,000+ |
A whole container fits a household move, a business restock, construction materials, or a vehicle travelling with belongings. You load it (or pay for loading), it is sealed, and it travels as one unit to the port. Sharing — LCL — fits everything between a few boxes and a whole container: you pay for the space you use, priced per CBM, a cubic metre of space, and your goods travel inside a container with other people's. LCL needs tidier paperwork and a clear contents list, because your goods share a sealed box with strangers' goods.
Interworld Freight also publishes an LCL reference on its site, and a commonly cited reference rate for LCL from Miami to Port-au-Prince is about $1,050 — treat that as a reported reference for orientation, not a quote for your load. Your real number comes from your volume, your route and your company. Compare container companies on the South Florida and New York & New Jersey corridors, and if a vehicle is part of the plan, read the car shipping guide alongside this one. Still unsure which size your load really is? The frequently asked questions page has the short version, and your two shortlisted companies will happily measure the load with you — measuring is free.