The terms ‘connecting service’ and ‘direct service’ used in air travel can lead to confusion in maritime transport. It is important to understand what these terms mean in maritime transport. For example, you are going to organize a transport from Istanbul Airport to Dubai Airport, and the party you received the quote from stated that the transport will be a direct service. The concept of direct here indicates that the flight will take place from Istanbul Airport to Dubai Airport on a single aircraft. This situation creates a wrong perception in maritime transport.

What Does Direct Service Mean in Maritime Transport?

Let's say you are going to receive a logistics service from an Indian port to a Turkish port. The company offering the quote told you that the service would be direct. Here, the ship does not go directly to the destination port. It stops at intermediate ports of call and picks up cargo from these ports. In maritime transport, the main element is not the ship but the container itself. If the container completes its voyage with the first ship it was loaded on and arrives at the port of destination, this is a direct service.

What Does Connecting Service Mean in the Maritime World?

The feeder ship is not the same size as the ship that goes on a direct voyage. It is smaller. It serves in certain waters, in a certain region, over short distances.

For example, the container was loaded onto the ship at the port in India. It was dropped off at the port of Hamburg. The main ship of the service you agreed with picked up the containers left at the port. This transport is called transshipment (connecting) transport. Transshipment can be in the form of a single transshipment or double transshipment.

There are approximately 4600 ports in the world. It is not possible to provide mutual partial service at ports. Ports with high cargo volume are used as transshipment ports. The most preferred ports as transshipment ports in maritime transport are as specified below.

• Singapore

• Port Klang

• Hong Kong

• Dubai

• Hamburg

• Rotterdam

• Antwerp

• Barcelona

• Genoa

• New York

• Miami

More shipments are carried out with the transshipments made at these ports.

If you want your cargo to be transported by sea, you can get an online quote from Navlungo, evaluate these offers, and choose the most suitable one.