Most arrival disputes on Egyptian produce are blamed on the fruit. A meaningful share of them start earlier, with the box itself. A reefer that cannot hold set point, has a blocked evaporator or arrives at the packhouse with a failed pre-trip inspection will damage a perfectly good load. The equipment is chosen days before stuffing, and both exporter and importer have a say in it.

What a pre-trip inspection actually covers

Pre-trip inspection, universally shortened to PTI, is the shipping line’s functional test of a refrigerated container before it is released for a booking. A full PTI runs the machinery through a cooling and heating cycle, checks refrigerant charge and pressures, tests the fans and defrost cycle, verifies the temperature probes against a reference, and confirms that the controller logs data correctly. The output is a pass or fail with a printed or electronic report.

Ask for the PTI report reference at the point of booking, not after loading. A PTI dated several weeks before your stuffing date, or one carried out at a different depot from the one releasing the box, is worth questioning. On long transits to India, West Africa or the Americas, we treat a recent PTI as a condition of acceptance rather than a nice-to-have.

Box age and machinery type

Container age matters less than maintenance history, but it is the only proxy most shippers can see quickly. The manufacture date is stamped on the CSC plate at the door. Units older than about twelve years are more likely to show weak airflow, corroded T-floor sections and drifting probes. Machinery type also matters. Modern units hold set point more tightly at low ambient and manage fresh air exchange more precisely, which is relevant for respiring cargo such as citrus, guava and green beans.

If the load is controlled atmosphere or requires cold treatment in transit, the specification narrows further. Cold treatment shipments need calibrated probes and a certified probe count as required by the destination protocol. Our overview of cold treatment and phytosanitary protocols covers which destinations impose that requirement.

The physical check at the packhouse

Before a single pallet goes in, the loading supervisor should walk the container. The checks that catch the most problems are simple. Look at the T-floor for crushed or blocked channels, since airflow depends on them. Check the door gaskets by closing the doors and looking for daylight. Inspect the interior for taint, residual odour, oil, mould or previous cargo debris. Confirm the drain holes are clear. Read the controller display and verify the unit reaches the required set point before stuffing rather than after.

Photograph the CSC plate, the controller screen showing set point and return air temperature, the empty interior and the seal number. Those four images resolve a large proportion of later arguments about whether the box or the fruit failed. They belong in the same file as the loading photographs described in our guide to reefer container loading and pallet configurations.

When refusing is the right call

Refusing a container costs a day. Loading a bad one costs the shipment. We refuse a box when the PTI has failed or cannot be produced, when the unit will not pull down to set point on empty running, when the floor or gaskets are visibly damaged, when there is persistent odour that could taint fruit, or when the machinery hours and general condition suggest the unit will not survive a twenty-five day transit. The line will normally swap the box without argument if the objection is documented with photographs.

Set point, humidity and ventilation targets by crop are a separate decision and are listed in our reference on reefer set points for Egyptian produce. Correct settings in a failing box will not save a load.

Working this into your contract

Importers with rolling programmes increasingly write equipment terms into the purchase order: recent PTI required, maximum box age, machinery type where controlled atmosphere applies, and pre-stuffing photographs supplied within twenty-four hours of loading. None of that is unusual to request and all of it is easier to agree before the season than during it.

PEI Trade loads from Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said and Sokhna and supplies pre-stuffing container photographs on every shipment, with SGS or Intertek attendance on request. To set equipment terms for your 2026/2027 programme, message our logistics desk on WhatsApp at +20 10 9911 1918.