For a long-distance move within Canada you have two real choices: a moving company's truck, or a shipping container that travels by rail. The container option is less familiar, which is why people search for it as a "container moving service" without quite knowing what they are booking. It is straightforward: a 20ft container is delivered to your home (or you bring your goods to a warehouse), it is loaded and sealed, it rides a CN or CPKC train to the destination city, and a local truck delivers it to your new door. We run these moves out of Toronto every week, mostly to and from Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Halifax.
This guide covers how the service works, what it costs, and when it is the better choice. For the wider comparison of every option — truck, container, pods, do-it-yourself — see our long-distance moving containers in Canada guide.
How a container move works, door to door
- Quote and booking. You build an inventory (our moving quote calculator does this item by item) and we confirm whether it is a 20ft, a 40ft or two 20s. A 20ft holds a one- or two-bedroom home; see how much fits in a 20ft.
- Container delivery or warehouse drop. Either the empty container comes to your driveway on a chassis for a loading window, or — more common in the GTA, where many streets and condos cannot take a 40-foot truck — a moving crew brings your goods to our North York warehouse and loads the container at our dock.
- Loading and sealing. The load is built tight, braced, inventoried and photographed. A numbered seal goes on the doors and the number is on your paperwork. The container is not opened again until your new address.
- Drayage to the rail terminal. Our truck takes the container to CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan the same day.
- Rail. The container rides an intermodal train. Toronto to Vancouver is 5–7 days on the rail; Toronto to Calgary 4–6; Toronto to Halifax 2–4.
- Destination drayage and delivery. A partner carrier in the destination city pulls the container from the terminal and delivers it to your door for unloading, or to a local warehouse if your home is not ready. The empty goes back to the terminal.
Timelines from Toronto
| Lane | Rail transit | Door to door (typical) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto ↔ Vancouver | 5–7 days | 9–14 days | Longest lane; book 2–3 weeks ahead in summer |
| Toronto ↔ Calgary / Edmonton | 4–6 days | 8–12 days | Calgary has more frequent service than Edmonton |
| Toronto ↔ Winnipeg | 3–4 days | 6–9 days | |
| Toronto ↔ Montreal | 1–2 days | 3–5 days | Short enough that a truck is often simpler |
| Toronto ↔ Halifax / Moncton | 2–4 days | 5–8 days | Rail or over-the-road; we pick by availability |
"Door to door" includes the drayage legs and the terminal dwell at each end. Add time if the container has to wait in a warehouse for your possession date — storage is cheap, re-handling is not.
What it costs
A container move is priced in legs, which is useful because you can see what you are paying for. For a 20ft from Toronto in 2026, the structure looks like this:
- Container and rail: the biggest line. Toronto–Vancouver roughly $2,200–$3,200 for the rail leg alone; Toronto–Calgary $1,800–$2,600; Toronto–Halifax $1,300–$1,900.
- Origin drayage: $350–$650 to bring the container to your home or from our warehouse to the terminal.
- Destination drayage: similar, varying by city and by how far the delivery address is from the terminal.
- Loading and unloading labour: optional, but most families take it. A two-person crew for a 20ft is typically 3–4 hours each end.
- Packing materials and export wrapping: by the item; a two-bedroom home is usually $300–$600.
- Storage, if your dates do not line up: a monthly rate at our warehouse at origin or a partner's at destination.
Put together, a loaded-and-delivered 20ft from Toronto to Vancouver lands in the $4,500–$6,500 range and to Calgary in the $3,800–$5,500 range, before packing and storage. These are ranges, not quotes — fuel surcharges and seasonal rail capacity move them — and the calculator will give you a current number for your inventory. For the component costs on a commercial container see our container transport cost guide.
Container vs moving truck
| Container by rail | Moving company truck | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | 2+ provinces, flexible dates, Toronto ↔ West Coast | Short lanes, fixed dates, no storage needed |
| Handling | Loaded once, sealed, unloaded once | Often loaded, transferred at a depot, reloaded |
| Transit | 9–14 days Toronto–Vancouver | 5–10 days, depends on the carrier's consolidation |
| Price, 2-bedroom Toronto–Vancouver | ~$4,500–$6,500 | ~$5,000–$9,000 |
| Storage in between | Easy — the container just waits | Usually means unloading into storage and reloading |
| Access | Needs a street that can take a chassis, or a warehouse at each end | A straight truck can reach most homes |
| Damage risk | Low — one load, no transfers, sealed | Higher where goods are transferred between trucks |
When a container is the wrong choice
Be honest about the short lanes. Toronto to Ottawa or Montreal is a one-day truck; putting that in a container adds two drayage legs and a terminal dwell for no benefit. Likewise, if your volume is under about 12 m³ — a studio or a small one-bedroom — a container is mostly air and a shared truck will cost less. And if your new home has a possession date that cannot move and no storage buffer, a direct truck with a guaranteed delivery window may be worth its premium.
Where the container wins decisively is any move of 2,000 km or more, any move where the dates at the two ends do not line up, and any move where you want your things handled once and sealed. That is most Toronto-to-Alberta and Toronto-to-BC moves, and it is what this service exists for.
Moving across Canada?
Build your inventory in the calculator and a move coordinator confirms the container size, the lane and a current price.