Open top loading is the loading of cargo into an open-top container — a shipping container without a fixed roof — by crane, from above. It is the answer to one specific geometry problem: cargo that is too tall to pass through a standard container’s end doors, or too heavy and awkward to be pushed, rolled, or carried in, but that still fits within a container’s walls. Instead of fighting the doorway, the roof comes off the equation entirely: the piece is lifted over the top and lowered straight down into the box, positioned, and professionally secured for the voyage. At TRT International, open top loading is one of our named solutions for out-of-gauge cargo, performed at our facilities inside Port Newark-Elizabeth and inside the Port of Savannah. This guide explains how to tell whether your cargo needs an open top, how the loading is planned and carried out, how an open top compares with a flat rack and a standard container, and what to send us so the right equipment is waiting when your cargo arrives.
The Problem an Open Top Solves
A standard container is a closed box with one opening: the doors at the end. Everything about that design assumes cargo can pass through that opening and be loaded horizontally — on a forklift, on a pallet jack, rolled in on its own wheels. Plenty of real cargo breaks that assumption in one direction only: height. A tall machine stands higher than the door opening even though its footprint would sit comfortably on the container floor. A heavy component cannot be dragged through the doors without damaging it or the box. A crated piece must not be tilted, so it cannot be maneuvered through a doorway at an angle. In each case the cargo is not too big for a container — it is too big for the container’s door. Open top loading removes the door from the problem. With no fixed roof, a crane lifts the piece vertically, over the walls, and sets it directly onto the container floor in its final position. The walls the cargo could not get past become the walls that protect it for the whole voyage.
How to Tell If Your Cargo Needs Open Top Loading
Three questions sort most shipments. First: is the cargo over-height for a standard container door, while still fitting within a container’s length and width? If yes, an open top is the natural fit. Second: can the cargo only be loaded by lifting? Pieces that must be craned — because of their weight, their shape, or because they cannot be tilted or rolled — belong in equipment that loads from above. Third: does the cargo still benefit from walls? If the piece fits inside the box’s footprint, the container’s walls and floor give it structure and protection on the sides that an open platform cannot. If the answer to all three is yes, you are describing an open-top shipment: tall industrial machinery, large industrial components, construction equipment, tanks, crated project cargo, and heavy or delicate pieces whose handling plan starts with a crane. If the cargo is over-width as well as over-height, or too heavy for a walled box, the answer changes — that is flat rack work, covered below.
Step 1: The Assessment Comes First
Every open top job at TRT starts with the cargo itself: its exact size, weight, and shape, and how it has to be lifted. A tall machine that lifts cleanly from above is planned differently from a crated piece that must stay level, and that assessment drives everything that follows — the container, the lifting plan, and the securing. This is also the step that protects the schedule. Booking an open top is a decision made from dimensions, not from a guess at the dock. Send us exact measurements and weight before the cargo moves and the equipment question is settled on paper; discover the height problem with the cargo already standing at the facility and the same decision costs a rebooking, a delay, and a second handling. The assessment also settles the lift itself: where the piece can be rigged, how it will hang, and what specialized equipment the loading requires.
Step 2: Container and Equipment Matched to the Cargo
From the assessment we match the cargo to the right open-top container and the specialized equipment the loading requires — container handlers, heavy-duty forklifts, and craning arranged around the piece, not the other way round. Our logistics team works with carriers and port authorities where needed to select the most efficient and secure transport options for the full move, not just the load-in. That wider view matters: an open-top container is specialized equipment in the carrier’s system too, so the loading plan, the vessel booking, and the onward leg are coordinated together. A container loaded perfectly but booked wrong helps no one. Because our facilities sit inside the ports, the container, the cargo, and the team doing the loading are all in the same place — the piece does not travel between a warehouse, a loading yard, and a terminal under three different companies before it is even in the box.
Step 3: Preparation Before the Lift
Before anything is lifted, the cargo is prepared by our Wrapping & Craning team: custom crating where a piece needs structural support, protective wrapping where it needs a barrier against weather and handling. Preparation is part of the loading plan, not an extra. A piece that will be lifted by crane has to be protected in the places the rigging and the handling will touch it, and a piece riding in an open-top container needs its weather protection in place before the top is closed over it — after the lift, access is limited and the moment to wrap or crate properly has passed. Doing this work at our facility, with the same team that will load the piece, means the protection is built around the actual lift and the actual container, not around a guess made at the shipper’s dock.
Step 4: The Lift — Loading From Above
The cargo is lifted and positioned with specialized equipment and lowered into the container from above. Craning is what makes open top loading possible at all: the heaviest and tallest pieces cannot be rolled or carried into place — they have to be lifted, precisely, by a team that manages the entire process from loading to delivery. This is the step that justifies everything before it. The piece comes up off the ground or off the delivering trailer, travels over the container wall, and is lowered straight down onto the floor in the position it will ride in — no dragging, no tilting through a doorway, no forcing. Positioning is done in the air and on the way down, so the piece lands where the securing plan wants it: balanced in the box, placed for the lashing points, and set down once. Every re-lift is extra handling and extra risk, so the plan aims for one lift, done right.
Step 5: Securing and Inspection Inside the Box
Lowered in is not the same as ready to ship. Inside the container, the cargo is secured with professional methods — blocking, bracing, and lashing — so it cannot shift in transit, and the loaded unit is inspected before it moves. Every shipment is inspected and secured to prevent movement or damage during transit. Securing an open-top load has its own logic: a tall piece carries its weight high, and the forces of a sea voyage work on it accordingly, so the securing plan is built from the cargo’s shape and center of gravity, not from a standard pattern. The container’s walls help — they limit how far anything could move — but walls are not securing. The blocking, bracing, and lashing inside the box are what hold the piece against the voyage, and the final inspection is what confirms the work before the container is closed up and released.
Step 6: Onward Movement Under the Same Team
From the container yard, the move continues under the same team that loaded it. Our drayage collects or delivers the container inside Port Newark-Elizabeth or inside the Port of Savannah, our ocean freight team coordinates the vessel leg, and warehousing is available at both ends if the cargo needs to wait before or after the loading. The fleet behind that movement runs Freightliner day-cab trucks — 85+ trucks, all driven by company drivers — with 300+ company chassis including tri-axles, and flatbeds, step decks, RGNs, and perimeter trailers, on local bonded drayage and over-the-road service throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico, with electric forklifts and lower-emission equipment working across our facilities. One company assessed the cargo, matched the container, prepared it, lifted it in, secured it, and moves it on — so accountability for the load never changes hands mid-move.
Open Top, Flat Rack, or Standard Container?
The three container choices divide by geometry. A standard container is right when the cargo passes through the doors and loads horizontally — it is the cheapest, simplest box and should be used whenever it honestly fits. An open-top container is right when the cargo is over-height or must be lifted in, but fits within the container’s walls: the walls give the load structure and protection, and the cargo is craned in from above. A flat rack is right when the cargo is over-width, over-height and over-width, or extremely heavy — it rides on an open platform and is professionally lashed to it by our flat rack lashing team. Many project shipments use more than one: the tall machine goes open top, the wide base goes flat rack, the hardware goes standard. The expensive mistake is forcing the wrong box — a standard container booked for over-height cargo does not become usable at the dock, and the rebooking, rehandling, and delay that follow cost far more than the assessment that would have prevented them.
What Booking the Wrong Equipment Costs
It is worth spelling out, because it is the most common open top problem we see: cargo arrives, the booked container cannot take it, and the shipment stops. The cargo has to be rehandled or held, storage time starts running, the vessel cutoff approaches, and a new booking on specialized equipment has to be found on a timeline the shipper no longer controls. Every part of that is avoidable with exact dimensions and weight shared at the quote stage. The second most common problem is the mirror image: an open top booked for cargo that would have fit a standard box, paying specialized-equipment cost for a door the cargo could have walked through. Both errors come from the same place — equipment chosen before the cargo was measured. Our process runs the other way: assessment first, equipment second, quote built on both.
Open Top Loading in Newark and Savannah
Open top loading is performed at our facilities in Newark, inside Port Newark-Elizabeth, and in Savannah, inside the Port of Savannah. In Newark we operate 150,000 square feet of warehouse space — a 120,000-square-foot warehouse plus a 30,000-square-foot site whose feature is its loading docks — with headquarters at 250 Port St, Newark, NJ 07114. In Savannah, our brand-new 316,800-square-foot warehouse stands on a 30-acre site, with our Savannah public address at 117 A Parkway Dr, Rincon, GA 31326. TRT has many warehouses; Newark and Savannah are the main ones. Working inside the ports means an export piece can be received, prepared, loaded, and handed to the vessel leg inside one facility, and an import open-top container can be received and unloaded by the same team at the other end — the loading and unloading of open tops is work we do in both directions.
What Drives the Cost of Open Top Loading
Open top loading is priced per job, not off a flat rate. The honest variables are the cargo’s size and weight, the container and lifting equipment the load requires, the securing it needs, any preparation such as wrapping or custom crating, and any storage or onward transport combined with the loading. Delicate and high-value pieces that need extra structure and care are quoted accordingly. Accurate dimensions and weights up front produce the most accurate quote — a quote built on estimated dimensions is a quote that will be revisited when the real numbers arrive. As with every TRT service, you receive a clear, detailed quote before work is accepted, with no hidden fees.
Shipper’s Checklist: What to Send Us
- Exact dimensions (length x width x height) and total weight for each piece — measured, not estimated
- Clear photos of the cargo, including its lifting points and any parts that must not be tilted, dragged, or loaded through a door
- Whether the cargo is crated, wrapped, or bare, and whether it needs crating or weather protection before loading
- Where the cargo is now, where it is going, and whether the move is an export load-in or an import unload
- Any vessel cutoff, delivery window, or project deadline the loading has to meet
- Whether you also need drayage, warehousing, or onward transport combined with the loading
Talk to TRT About Open Top Loading
If your cargo is too tall for the door, too heavy to push in, or can only be loaded by lifting, send us the checklist above and we will assess the piece, match the container, and come back with a loading plan and a clear, detailed quote. Call us at +1 973 344 7100 ext 221, or email drayage@usatrt.com. Our headquarters is at 250 Port St, Newark, NJ 07114, and our Savannah address is 117 A Parkway Dr, Rincon, GA 31326. TRT International – Delivering Excellence since 1994.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is open top loading?
Open top loading is the loading of cargo into an open-top container — a shipping container without a fixed roof — by crane, from above. It is used for cargo that is too tall to pass through a standard container’s doors, or that can only be loaded by lifting. Once lowered in, the cargo is professionally secured for transport.
What types of cargo need open top loading?
Cargo that is over-height for standard container doors or must be lifted from above: tall industrial machinery, large industrial components, construction equipment, tanks, crated project cargo, and heavy or delicate pieces whose handling plan starts with a crane. If the cargo is over-width as well, a flat rack is usually the right platform instead.
How is cargo loaded into an open-top container?
The cargo is assessed first, then prepared — wrapped or custom-crated where it needs protection — and lifted with specialized equipment and craning. It is lowered into the container from above, positioned precisely, secured with professional methods, and inspected before the container moves.
How is cargo in an open-top container protected and secured?
Two ways. Before loading, our Wrapping & Craning team protects the piece itself with protective wrapping or a custom-built crate. During loading, the cargo is secured inside the container with professional securing methods — blocking, bracing, and lashing — and every shipment is inspected and secured to prevent movement or damage during transit.
Should my cargo go in an open-top container or on a flat rack?
If the cargo is over-height but fits within a container’s walls, an open-top container gives it structure and protection on the sides. If it is over-width, over-height and over-width, or extremely heavy, a flat rack platform with professional lashing is usually right. Send us the dimensions and weight, and we will match the cargo to the equipment as the first step of the quote.
Can TRT unload an open-top container as well as load one?
Yes. Open top loading and unloading are both part of the service at our facilities inside Port Newark-Elizabeth and inside the Port of Savannah, using container handlers, heavy-duty forklifts, and specialized lifting equipment. The same team provides the drayage, warehousing, and onward transport around the move.
What does open top loading cost?
Open top loading is priced per job. The quote is built from the cargo’s size and weight, the container and lifting equipment required, the securing it needs, any wrapping or crating, and any storage or onward transport combined with the job. Accurate dimensions and weights up front produce the most accurate quote, and you receive a clear, detailed quote before work is accepted, with no hidden fees.
How do I get a quote for open top loading?
Tell us what the cargo is, its exact dimensions and weight, where it is, and where it is going, or call +1 973 344 7100 ext 221. Headquarters is at 250 Port St, Newark, NJ 07114, and the Savannah public address is 117 A Parkway Dr, Rincon, GA 31326. We will provide a loading plan and a clear, detailed quote before any work is accepted.