Conex box, shipping container, storage container: the words get used interchangeably, but each has a backstory. Here is the field guide for Pennsylvania buyers, with specific notes for Philadelphia and the southeastern collar counties and the surrounding communities, including King of Prussia, Norristown, Upper Darby, Bensalem, Levittown.
The word conex (sometimes spelled CONEX) is short for "container express," a term coined by the United States military in the 1950s for a standardized steel shipping container used to move equipment and supplies during the Korean War. The original CONEX boxes were 8.5 feet by 6 feet by 6.8 feet, much smaller than today's intermodal units, but the principle was identical: a stackable, lockable, weatherproof steel box that could move by truck, rail, or ship without unpacking.
By the late 1960s the commercial shipping industry had standardized on 20-foot and 40-foot intermodal containers, the units you see on every cargo ship and rail line today. The military term stuck in everyday speech. In Pennsylvania, contractors, farmers, and homeowners still call any large steel storage box a conex, even when the unit is technically an ISO shipping container or a purpose-built storage container.
For practical buying purposes the three terms describe the same thing across Pennsylvania: a corrugated steel container, 20 or 40 feet long, with cargo doors on one end, designed to keep wind and water out for decades.
The vocabulary lines up like this:
If you are shopping for storage, the difference rarely matters. The same physical unit can be sold as any of the three. What matters more is the size, the condition grade, and the delivery logistics.
Pennsylvania customers typically choose from three sizes:
Specialty sizes (10-foot, 45-foot, refrigerated, double-door, side-opening) exist but are less common. We can source them on request.
Demand in Pennsylvania is anchored by Natural gas and the midstream trades. Pennsylvania is the second largest natural gas producing state in the country, and the work sits in two separate places: the Marcellus and Utica wet gas counties in the southwest, meaning Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland, and the dry gas Northern Tier of Bradford, Susquehanna, Tioga, Lycoming and Sullivan. Pad crews, water haulers, compressor station operators and pipeline spreads all buy containers for tool cribs, spill kits, valves and fittings, because a pad is a long way from a shop and a laydown yard needs a lockable box on it., Warehousing and distribution along the Interstate 78 and Interstate 81 corridor. The stretch from the Lehigh Valley through Hazleton, Jonestown, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg and Carlisle is one of the largest industrial real estate markets in North America, because a truck can reach a third of the United States population inside a day's drive. Third party logistics operators, seasonal fulfillment sites and drayage carriers buy ground storage they control instead of paying per diem on a steamship line's box., Agriculture, and Lancaster County in particular. Lancaster is consistently one of the highest value non irrigated farm counties in the United States, built on dairy, poultry, produce and a network of produce auctions at places like Leola and New Holland. Add the Chester County mushroom houses around Kennett Square, which grow roughly half of the nation's crop, and the eastern half of the state is a steady buyer of feed, packing supply, equipment and cold season storage., Steel, specialty metals and heavy fabrication. The Monongahela Valley still runs coke and steel at Clairton, Braddock and West Mifflin, specialty alloy operations continue at Brackenridge and Latrobe, and the fabrication and machine shops that feed them are spread through Allegheny, Westmoreland, Beaver and Armstrong counties. Containers here hold stock, tooling, fixtures and finished goods staging where mill yard space ran out decades ago., Coal, in two entirely different forms. Bituminous and metallurgical coal comes out of the large underground longwall complexes in Greene and Washington counties, and anthracite still comes out of Schuylkill, Northumberland, Luzerne and Carbon counties at a much smaller scale. Both sides of the state keep parts, belting, bits and shop supplies in containers set at the pit, the prep plant or the equipment yard., Hardwood timber and wood products. Pennsylvania is the leading hardwood lumber producing state in the country, and the black cherry that comes off the Allegheny plateau around Kane, Ridgway, St. Marys and Galeton is sold worldwide. Sawmills, kiln operations, veneer buyers and logging contractors keep containers at landings, mill fence lines and equipment yards through a season that does not stop for winter., Powdered metal and precision manufacturing in Elk County. St. Marys calls itself the powdered metal capital of the world and means it, and the cluster of sintered parts plants around St. Marys, Ridgway and Johnsonburg supports a tooling and machining base far larger than the county's population would suggest. Those shops store dies, fixtures and raw powder drums where the plant floor cannot., Food and snack manufacturing. York and Adams counties around Hanover are genuinely the center of the American pretzel and potato chip trade, Hershey and Hummelstown run on chocolate, Lititz has been baking pretzels commercially since 1861, Pottsville has been brewing since 1829, and processors in Chambersburg, Middleburg and the Susquehanna Valley round it out. Seasonal packaging, pallets and promotional stock all need dry, lockable overflow space., Higher education. Penn State at University Park, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Temple, Drexel, Villanova, Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, West Chester, Slippery Rock and Indiana University of Pennsylvania together move an enormous amount of people and property twice a year. Facilities departments, athletic programs, fraternities, off campus landlords and moving contractors are reliable container buyers around every August and every May., Cement, aggregate and quarrying. The Lehigh Valley is where the American portland cement industry started, and plants and quarries still run at Nazareth, Whitehall, Coplay and Bath, with limestone and aggregate operations through the Great Valley, Berks County and the Cumberland Valley. Quarry operators store parts, screens and conveyor belting close to the pit rather than back at a central shop., Four season tourism and resorts. The Poconos, the Laurel Highlands and the Lake Erie shore all run on a calendar. Ski areas store snowmaking gear and lift parts through summer, campgrounds and marinas store docks and boats through winter, short term rental managers store linens and furniture between seasons, and the amusement parks at Hershey, West Mifflin, Elysburg, Allentown and Langhorne pack away an entire season's equipment every autumn., Residential construction and remodeling. Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Lancaster, Cumberland, Northampton, Butler and Washington counties carry most of the state's new housing, and the older housing stock everywhere else keeps a very large remodeling trade busy. Framers, roofers, masons, electricians and restoration contractors are the single most common container buyer in every county on this list, and a lockable job site box is usually the first one they order., alongside residential construction and the storage cycle that winter, meaning snow load, ice and the freeze and thaw cycle that moves unpaved ground drives.
The uses we see most often:
Three questions narrow the decision quickly:
Conex boxes are delivered on a tilt-bed (sometimes called a roll-off) truck. The driver tilts the bed up, and the container slides off onto your placement site. Most deliveries follow the same physical sequence:
Delivery timing is honest, not aspirational. Across Pennsylvania:
Permit rules depend on the municipality. Rural counties often have no requirement at all for a temporary storage container. Urban codes are stricter, and some HOAs prohibit container placement entirely. Before ordering, check with your local building or planning department, and verify HOA rules if they apply. Our local guide walks through the most common scenarios: container permits in Pennsylvania.
Pricing is ZIP-specific, because distance from the serving depot drives a meaningful part of the total. Pennsylvania delivered pricing: starting at $2,157 for a 20ft Wind and Water Tight container delivered in Philadelphia. Price always includes delivery. That figure is an anchor for the best-served part of the state, not a quote for every address, and it was captured live on 2026-08-06.
We do not publish statewide price tables on this page, because they are inaccurate the moment they are written. Tell us your ZIP and what you need, and we will send back an all-in number with delivery included. No haul fee surprises, no padded line items. If you would rather spread the cost, ask about rent-to-own when you call.
Tell us your Pennsylvania ZIP and what you need. We will send back an all-in price including delivery to your address.