Transporting your freight by ship

Shipping means “transporting freight by ship” but it has also come to have a wider meaning because container shipping companies may well provide shipping services but are also going to be using road haulage and air shipping services to fulfil the service to the customer.
There are a number of types of ships used for moving freight around on the world’s oceans, and the differences between them depends on the types of cargo and the needs of the customers either private individuals or import and export companies with goods that differ in size, fragility and hazardous nature.
There are four different types of cargo ship:
• Container ships that have their cargo packed into standard sized metal containers of 20’ or 40’ that can stack together either below decks or on top of the deck. Containers are moved off the ship by specialised cranes and lifted onto trucks or rail wagons for onward transport. Container shipping services companies organise the logistics of moving the goods from client premises to destinations.
• Roll-on/Roll/off ships will carry both loaded road haulage Lorries and passenger vehicles.
• General cargo ships will carry packed cargo of different kinds.
• Bulk cargo carriers will carry loose commodities such as coal or iron ore or food in bulk such as wheat.
Merchant ships operate in two ways. There are liner ships with fixed rountes and itineraries with standard costs (these are usually the container ships and roll on roll off ships, and Charter (or tramp vessels0 that take goods on behalf of the customer for a charter fee.