The pandemic process we are in has highly affected every sector. One of the sectors most affected by this process has been the logistics sector. With the increase of the epidemic, many changes have also occurred in maritime transport.

Examples of these include:

u2022 Loss of cargo experienced by services

u2022 Insufficient volume

u2022 Closure of buyers' and shippers' facilities

u2022 Insufficiency of the number of vessels for the current cycle.

This situation has brought about "Blank Sailing" (Void or cancelled), which is a situation we do not encounter very often and can even call extraordinary.

What is Blank Sailing?

Blank Sailing is when a shipping line cancels operations at a certain port or region due to various reasons (strike, epidemic, force majeure). In these cases, the port is declared a blank sailing for the entire route. Thus, there will be no vessel discharging or loading in that area for that week, two weeks, or month. This is a situation that no shipowner would want to encounter.

Example of Blank Sailing

Let's consider the situation where China closed itself to foreign trade after the first case emerged and the number of cases increased. When China closes itself, with the volume of cargo rapidly declining, a ship transitions to taking much less cargo than its available capacity.

As many of the ships become idle this way, the 'Blank Sailing' situation arises, as we mentioned. In this case, the ship serving the existing region is completely removed from service during that period (week or month).

Let's imagine a ship that will visit five different ports from its starting point. We are faced with a situation where the capacities of the ships are not fully filled. In this case, the shipowner removes their ship in that region from service for that period (week or month). They postpone it to another date.

Along with this, if your cargo happens to be at one of the ports the ship will visit, the delivery time of your shipment will be disrupted. If there is a port among the five ports to be visited that is a main transshipment port, delays will also occur in shipments at that port.

In other words, the withdrawal of a ship from service causes many disruptions. In this case, shipowners also announce the next blank sailing date. Therefore, you should make your loading plans according to the announced dates so that you do not encounter an unexpected situation.

Also, while sending your cargo, unlike blank sailing, it is possible to encounter the Omit situation. Blank sailing is the case where a ship with five different ports of call is completely removed from service.

If you ask what Omit means here, it is reducing the route from five different ports to fewer, i.e., planning it to go to three different ports. Shipowners may prefer this situation in cases where blank sailing would cause too many undesirable outcomes.