Victor Survey
A wall of stacked container doors, seals and markings visible.
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Container survey

Unit condition, seal integrity, CSC plate and suitability, before and after stuffing. Service 06 — While it moves.

Houaito Affo Daniel, CC BY-SA 4.0 · placeholder

When you instruct one.

  • A unit is to be stuffed and you want it seen before the cargo goes in.
  • Cargo arrived wet, tainted or contaminated and the box itself is suspect.
  • Seals do not match the documents, or one was found broken.
  • A reefer alarmed in transit and the unit's own record needs reading.

What we do.

  • 01Check the unit's identity and papers. Prefix, number, CSC plate validity, and whether the unit is what the documents say it is.
  • 02Inspect the structure. Roof, floor, walls, corner posts, door gear and gaskets — inside and out, in daylight where possible.
  • 03Test for light and water ingress. The simplest test there is, and the one most often skipped.
  • 04Verify the seals. Numbers against the documents, type, and whether a seal has been tampered with rather than merely broken.
  • 05Read the reefer record. Set point, return and supply air, alarms and the download, where the unit is temperature controlled.

What you receive.

  • A container survey report with unit identity, condition and seal position.
  • Photographic record inside and out, including the CSC plate.
  • A view on whether the unit was fit for the cargo it carried.
  • The reefer data download and its interpretation, where applicable.

What we need from you

  • Container numbers and seal numbers as documented
  • Bill of lading and packing list
  • Depot or terminal, and who authorises access
  • For reefers: the required set point and the cargo's tolerance

What we hold ourselves to

  • 2–24hA surveyor instructed from the network nearest the cargo.
  • 24–48hYour update on the appraisal, with photographs and the key information.
  • 72hThe detailed preliminary report, after the survey assessment.
  • 45 daysExpected turnover per mission. The final report follows the loss mitigation or destruction operation.

Attendance on site depends on distance to the port and on terminal and customs access, so that is confirmed on your file rather than promised as one number for every port on the continent.

Instruct this survey

They trust us already

Insurers · brokers · traders · logistics providers

26 marks, as listed in the Victor Surveys company profile. They are shown in black and white and return to colour on hover. Written consent to display a client’s mark is worth confirming before launch — several of these houses require it.

Instruct a container survey.

Fill this in and it sends a complete instruction, already set to this service, straight to the claims desk.

Anything urgent, call instead. Johannesburg on +27 10 140 5760, Douala on +237 233 47 25 96.
Send what you have. Partial is fine — we will tell you what is missing.
Leave the cargo as landed where you can, until we attend.
Choose a location, or “Elsewhere in Africa”.
Tell us roughly what the cargo is.
Pick one, or “Not sure — please advise”.
Attendance
We need a working email address to reply to.
Two or three lines is enough to get a surveyor moving.

Goes straight to the claims desk, and a copy stays on your screen.