Emphasis has been given to the reliability of a wide range of products in recent years. However, little has been studied so far in the field of reliability of refrigerated containers. The characteristics of the reliability of container refrigeration units used in marine transportation are described in this paper. Field censored data collected from 4318 self-owned and long-time leasing refrigerated containers of a shipping company with 4 years' operation time are analysed. Analysis techniques for censored lifetime data are presented and applied to obtain the parameter estimates for the entire population when only a portion of that population has failed. Reliability characteristics for four principal types of container refrigeration units, i.e. Daikin, Paul Klinge, Mitsubishi and Carrier, are observed and studied. The reliability probability density function for some main components, such as the evaporator, the expansion valve, and the compressor, is also presented and discussed.Ces demieres annees, la fiabilite de bon nombre de produits est devenue un critere important. Cependant, jusqu'a ce jour, peu de travaux ont ete realises sur la fiabilite des conteneurs frigorifiques. On decrit dans l'article les caracteristiques de la fiabilite de conteneurs frigorifiques utilises pour la transport maritime. On a analyse les donnees relevees sur le terrain, sur 4318 conteneurs frigorifiques d'une compagnie maritime (dont elle est proprietaire ou qu'elle a en leasing), sur une duree de 4 ans. On presente les techniques d'analyse de la duree de via, et on les utilise pour obtenir les estimations des parametres pour population entiere, lorsque seule une portion de cette population a montre des defaillances. On observe et on etudie les caracteristiques de fiabilite de quatre types principaux de conteneurs frigorifiques. Daikin, Paul Klinge, Mitsubishi et Carrier. On presente et on discute egalement la probabilite de fiabilite de queiques composants importants tels que l'evaporateur, le detendeur et le compresseur.