I’ve got a friend who works in refrigeration. He fixes containers when they have issues. Occasionally, he isn’t able to meet the deadline. When this happens he is told to “Chuck it onto the next ship”, and then he just places the container on the queue for the next available ship. He’s worked for years now, and this still blows his mind that he’s able to do this. Like, containers are not assigned to ships, but to something else? I’ve spoken to a few others and there appear to be some sort of shipping container cycles or circuits that allow this to happen, but when I google for “shipping container cycle/circuit” I don’t find what I intend to find. I’m not looking for the right keyword, clearly.
My question is: what guarantees that the container goes from A to B, and doesn’t just go from A to B to C to D to … back to A? What directs containers to their destination once they leave the starting port?
I’m a bit confused about the situation you’re describing. The shipping company promised to deliver the container at B, so they arrange for the proper routing. Any transfer port along the way has a contract with the shipping company and transfers the containers as directed by them.
Delivery is not guaranteed to happen on the exact predicted schedule though, which is what you might be talking about. For various reasons, containers often end up missing their connection and waiting for the next available ship (of the same service going to the same destination). It also happens occasionally that a ship has to alter its route (e.g. skipping a port due to congestion), which leads to additional unplanned transfers. All of this is ok, because the contract between shipping company and customer is on a “best effort” basis, i.e., it’s ok to deliver with a delay if it’s unavoidable.
If a reefer container has issues while on board a ship, it will be unloaded at the next possible port, because this makes it possible to save the cargo by moving it to another container in the event of total failure. But we want to avoid this (because it involves high costs and breaking the container seal) so we’ll try to repair the container while the cargo remains inside. If repaired successfully it can continue its journey on the next available ship.
I’ve got a friend who works in refrigeration. He fixes containers when they have issues. Occasionally, he isn’t able to meet the deadline. When this happens he is told to “Chuck it onto the next ship”, and then he just places the container on the queue for the next available ship. He’s worked for years now, and this still blows his mind that he’s able to do this. Like, containers are not assigned to ships, but to something else? I’ve spoken to a few others and there appear to be some sort of shipping container cycles or circuits that allow this to happen, but when I google for “shipping container cycle/circuit” I don’t find what I intend to find. I’m not looking for the right keyword, clearly.
My question is: what guarantees that the container goes from A to B, and doesn’t just go from A to B to C to D to … back to A? What directs containers to their destination once they leave the starting port?
I’m a bit confused about the situation you’re describing. The shipping company promised to deliver the container at B, so they arrange for the proper routing. Any transfer port along the way has a contract with the shipping company and transfers the containers as directed by them.
Delivery is not guaranteed to happen on the exact predicted schedule though, which is what you might be talking about. For various reasons, containers often end up missing their connection and waiting for the next available ship (of the same service going to the same destination). It also happens occasionally that a ship has to alter its route (e.g. skipping a port due to congestion), which leads to additional unplanned transfers. All of this is ok, because the contract between shipping company and customer is on a “best effort” basis, i.e., it’s ok to deliver with a delay if it’s unavoidable.
If a reefer container has issues while on board a ship, it will be unloaded at the next possible port, because this makes it possible to save the cargo by moving it to another container in the event of total failure. But we want to avoid this (because it involves high costs and breaking the container seal) so we’ll try to repair the container while the cargo remains inside. If repaired successfully it can continue its journey on the next available ship.
Hope that makes everything clear.