IBC totes
Houston.
Postal code and quantity, plus whether you have a dock or a forklift. That is enough for a delivered Houston number that will match the invoice.
Houston, TX is 790 road miles from our St. Louis yard — 3 – 4 business days in transit on a fortnightly lane. Houston is the most compatibility-led market we serve. The question here is almost never grade and almost always whether poly will hold the product: aromatic and chlorinated solvents swell and permeate HDPE, ketones attack it, strong oxidisers are unsuitable outright, and anything above 140 °F creeps. A large share of Houston enquiries end in reconditioned stainless, and we would rather quote that than sell a bottle that fails slowly.
What drives container demand in Houston
- Petrochemical and refining at scale
- Industrial and specialty chemical manufacture
- Oil-field services and completion chemistry
- Port-served bulk handling
Texas is where our usual advice inverts. Everywhere else, the honest answer is normally a cheaper grade of reclaimed poly than the customer asked for. In the Gulf Coast chemical corridor the honest answer is frequently stainless, because the chemistry is aggressive, the temperatures are high, and HDPE fails slowly enough that a bad decision arrives months after it is made.
Freight to Houston, by quantity
These are indicative per-unit freight figures on empty 275 gallon totes over 790 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 | $234 – $374 |
| 4 units | Standard LTL | $132 – $202 |
| 10 units | Volume LTL | $62 – $140 |
| 24 units | Partial truckload | $47 – $75 |
| 48 units | Full truckload | $28 – $53 |
At 790 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 Houston
Shared freight on 24+ units; quoted against current routing Our outbound trucks deliver reconditioned units into Texas 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
High UV load. Two uncovered summers will chalk and embrittle an HDPE bottle at the shoulders, so budget for a fitted sleeve or site tanks in shade. Freeze risk is real but short.
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.
Houston logistics
- Road distance
- 790 miles
- Drive time
- 14 hours — not a will-call distance
- LTL transit
- 3 – 4 business days
- Lane frequency
- fortnightly
- County
- Harris County
- ZIP prefixes
- 770, 772, 773, 774, 775
- 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 + $62 – $140
- Grade A
- $155 – $225 + $62 – $140
- Food grade
- $225 – $340 + $62 – $140
- Rebottled
- $340 – $430 + $62 – $140
- Cage only
- $35 – $60 + $62 – $140
Also served on this run
Pasadena TX · Baytown · Texas City · Sugar Land · Conroe · Beaumont
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
Houston questions
How quickly can you deliver IBC totes to Houston?
Houston is 790 road miles from the yard, which is 3 – 4 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. Texas is on a fortnightly lane.
What does freight to Houston actually cost?
On empty 275 gallon totes, roughly $234 – $374 per unit for a single unit by standard LTL, $62 – $140 at ten units on volume LTL, and $28 – $53 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 Houston?
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 Houston?
Probably not. Houston is 14 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 $234 – $374 makes the drive look less unreasonable than it sounds.
What grade do Houston buyers usually need?
Locally the demand is driven by petrochemical and refining at scale, industrial and specialty chemical manufacture, oil-field services and completion chemistry. The largest industrial chemical market we serve, and the one where the answer is most often stainless rather than poly. Long distances mean truckload economics or nothing. 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 Houston itself?
Yes — Pasadena TX, Baytown, Texas City, Sugar Land, Conroe, Beaumont 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.
Quoting Houston delivered
Postal code, quantity, and whether you have a forklift. Those three give you a number that will match the invoice.