Red and white cordon of switched shipping containers

Caru Containers has been operating in this way at the airport since 2016 and has now also leased eighty shipping containers to Heijmans for project VDR. Nice side effect of this type of "drop-off tape" is that prying eyes from outside are warded off.

The usual red and white drop-off tape is not exactly appropriate for a location like Schiphol Airport, begins Wesley van Nes of Caru Containers, active worldwide in the purchase, sale and rental of shipping containers of all shapes and sizes. "Since infrastructure work at the airport often takes place in close proximity to taxiing aircraft, it is important that employees are protected from the blast of aircraft engines. Switched shipping containers provide that protection. Moreover, the alternating color red and white is known within Schiphol as a hazardous situation, so this way we kill two birds with one stone."

Eighty containers

Since 2016, Caru Containers has been a preferred supplier of shipping containers for infrastructure contractors performing work at Schiphol. "So we have been doing business with Heijmans at Schiphol for some time," says Van Nes. "A few months before construction starts, we are usually contacted to supply the containers. It almost always involves several dozen. For project VDR, it involves eighty 20-foot (6-meter) containers. It is then up to us to provide an appropriate response at relatively short notice. This is actually always successful, thanks to our extensive network. Although it was a little tense for project VDR because of corona. We had slightly less visibility on the supply because of the container shortage. There is not so much a shortage of containers, but a shortage of containers in the right place. So at one point we made the decision to have containers come from our depot in France to make enough of them available for Heijmans."

Second or third life

Caru Containers works with regular carriers. "Especially for a location like Schiphol Airport, this is incredibly important," Van Nes emphasizes. "They know the ins and outs and have a lot of experience with transport at the airport, where slightly different/higher requirements than usual apply. Heijmans then removed the eighty containers from the chassis with a crane and positioned and coupled them in the right location for a stable base. For Schiphol it is important that the colors are right: red and not pink; white and not cream white. If necessary, we still have the containers painted in the right color." A drop-off ribbon of containers is not reserved for Schiphol, by the way. "Our containers are regularly used in the infrastructure sector, sometimes also for noise protection and of course for storage or as a mobile workshop." Caru Containers not only supplies new containers, but also grants containers written off by shipping companies a second or even third life.