IBC totes
Denver.
Postal code and quantity, plus whether you have a dock or a forklift. That is enough for a delivered Denver number that will match the invoice.
Denver, CO is 850 road miles from our St. Louis yard — 4 – 5 business days in transit on a monthly lane. Denver's brewing industry is the reason we serve Colorado at all, and it is a familiar conversation: Grade A for glycol, technical top-cuts for spent grain, food grade or rebottled for liquor, stainless for hot or long-held product. At 850 miles the mode decides everything — forty-eight units on a truckload is competitive, four units is not and we will say so.
What drives container demand in Denver
- Brewing cluster along the Front Range
- Construction and municipal water at scale
- Food manufacture and distribution
- Controlled-environment growing
Colorado is the western limit of where we can serve honestly. At 850 miles, LTL freight on a small order will approach or exceed the value of the goods, and there are competent suppliers much closer. We say so, because a customer who discovers that on the invoice is not a customer again.
Freight to Denver, by quantity
These are indicative per-unit freight figures on empty 275 gallon totes over 850 road miles. Note the shape rather than the absolute numbers: an empty IBC occupies a full 48 × 40 inch pallet position and weighs 125 lb, which makes it the worst possible LTL freight — you pay for the trailer floor and get almost no billable weight onto the bill.
| Quantity | Best mode | Freight per unit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 unit | Standard LTL | $247 – $395 |
| 4 units | Standard LTL | $140 – $214 |
| 10 units | Volume LTL | $66 – $148 |
| 24 units | Partial truckload | $49 – $79 |
| 48 units | Full truckload | $30 – $56 |
At 850 miles this is a truckload market or it is not a market. A four-unit order carries freight approaching the value of the goods, and there will be a closer supplier — we would rather say so than let you find out on the invoice. Where we genuinely compete at this distance is volume and scarce formats: documented food-grade stock and matched 330 gallon units are harder to source locally than ordinary technical grade.
Accessorials are the other half of a delivered price and they are entirely predictable if somebody asks: liftgate $95–$140 per stop if you have no dock, limited access $75–$110 for a farm, site or school, residential $85–$120, and appointment or notify $25–$45. We ask about your dock and forklift up front specifically so those land in the quote rather than on the invoice. Full detail on the freight guide.
Selling empty totes from Denver
Shared freight on 24+ units; quoted against current routing Our outbound trucks deliver reconditioned units into Colorado and would otherwise return to St. Louis empty, so collecting your empties on that return leg costs us the deviation and the loading time and very little else. That is a routing accident rather than generosity, and it is why the terms are as good as they are.
Prepared stacks collect faster and grade better. Four high with cages interlocked, drained and capped, data plates facing the aisle, food-history separated from chemical-history. Mixed stacks get graded down, which is a direct cost to you — see the buyback terms.
Local conditions
Both failure modes apply. Plan for 10% winter headspace and fit a UV sleeve on anything that lives outside more than one season.
Beyond climate, the two failure modes that actually end containers are the same everywhere and both are handling rather than wear. Standing water under the base frame corrodes galvanised tube from the underside where nobody inspects, and forklift strikes bend the lower cage rails until the frame is beyond jig recovery. Keep units off wet ground and a cage will outlast three bottles.
Denver logistics
- Road distance
- 850 miles
- Drive time
- 15 hours — not a will-call distance
- LTL transit
- 4 – 5 business days
- Lane frequency
- monthly
- County
- Denver County
- ZIP prefixes
- 802, 800, 801
- Will-call practical
- Not really — consolidate instead
Delivered price bands
275 gallon units, ten-unit order, goods plus the freight figure above.
- Technical
- $95 – $145 + $66 – $148
- Grade A
- $155 – $225 + $66 – $148
- Food grade
- $225 – $340 + $66 – $148
- Rebottled
- $340 – $430 + $66 – $148
- Cage only
- $35 – $60 + $66 – $148
Also served on this run
Aurora CO · Lakewood · Thornton · Westminster CO · Boulder · Brighton CO
Usually at the same freight. If you are between markets, send the postal code and we will tell you which run you fall on.
Buyback, from here
- Food grade
- $55 – $95
- Grade A
- $35 – $60
- Technical
- $15 – $35
- Scrap
- $6 – $12
- Freight
- Shared freight on 24+ units; quoted against current routing
Denver questions
How quickly can you deliver IBC totes to Denver?
Denver is 850 road miles from the yard, which is 4 – 5 business days in LTL transit once a shipment is picked up. Add one to three business days ahead of that for grading, washing and staging — technical and Grade A units move fastest, food grade takes two to five days because of the documented wash cycle, and rebottled units are built in batches at five to ten business days. Colorado is on a monthly lane.
What does freight to Denver actually cost?
On empty 275 gallon totes, roughly $247 – $395 per unit for a single unit by standard LTL, $66 – $148 at ten units on volume LTL, and $30 – $56 at forty-eight units on a full truckload. That spread is the single biggest lever on your delivered cost — larger than any grade discount — because an empty tote occupies a full pallet position and weighs only 125 lb, which makes it the worst possible LTL freight.
Will you collect empty totes from Denver?
Shared freight on 24+ units; quoted against current routing Prepare them properly and it goes faster and grades better: stack four high with cages interlocked, drain fully and cap the valves, face data plates to the aisle, and keep food-history units in separate stacks from chemical-history ones. A driver can load a prepared stack in thirty minutes and an unprepared sprawl in two hours.
Is it worth driving to the yard from Denver?
Probably not. Denver is 15 hours — not a will-call distance each way, so unless you are already making the trip, a consolidated delivery will beat the fuel and the day. The exception is a single urgent unit, where LTL freight at $247 – $395 makes the drive look less unreasonable than it sounds.
What grade do Denver buyers usually need?
Locally the demand is driven by brewing cluster along the front range, construction and municipal water at scale, food manufacture and distribution. Brewing, agriculture and construction water, at the far edge of our economic range. Truckload or a closer supplier — we will tell you which. The honest advice we give most often is to leave the grade field blank and describe the product instead — about a third of enquiries are specified wrong and two in three of those are overspecified, which means paying for a certificate or a paper trail the application never uses.
Do you deliver outside Denver itself?
Yes — Aurora CO, Lakewood, Thornton, Westminster CO, Boulder, Brighton CO and the surrounding area are all quoted on the same run, usually at the same freight. If you are between two of our listed markets, give us the postal code and we will tell you which run you fall on.
Nearby on the same lane
Quoting Denver delivered
Postal code, quantity, and whether you have a forklift. Those three give you a number that will match the invoice.