Difference between a Liner shipping service and Tramp service

Some of you might have heard the terminology Tramp service or Tramper or Tramp vessel and also the terminology Liner Service.. What is the difference between the two..??

Liner Service – is a service that operates within a schedule and has a fixed port rotation with published dates of calls at the advertised ports.. A liner service generally fulfills the schedule unless in cases where a call at one of the ports has been unduly delayed due to natural or man-mad causes..

Example : The UK/NWC continent service of MSC which has a fixed weekly schedule calling the South African ports of Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and carrying cargo to the UK/NWC ports of Felixstowe, Antwerp, Hamburg, Le Havre and Rotterdam..

A Tramp Service or tramper on the other hand is a ship that has no fixed routing or itinerary or schedule and is available at short notice (or fixture) to load any cargo from any port to any port..

Example : A ship that arrives at Durban from Korea to discharge cargo might carry some other cargo from Durban to the Oakland in the West Coast of USA which in an entirely different direction.. From Oakland say for example it could carry some cargo and go to Bremerhaven..

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35 thoughts on “Difference between a Liner shipping service and Tramp service

  1. Pingback: My 1st Million in shipping and freight | Shipping and Freight Resource

  2. i was able to learn the facts i wanted on liner and tramp services and i highly appreciate.ics student.

  3. Oscar, it not always easy to identify the issuer of a bill of lading based on bill of lading number.. There are some big lines like MSC, Hapag Lloyd etc that issue bills with a bill of lading prefix like MSCU, HLCU etc which helps to identify the shipping line..

    But not all lines do this.. Especially if the bill of lading is issued by an NVOCC, not many people know those prefixes..

    This prefix you have provided is new to me and the only way you can tracking your cargo is by going to the website of the shipping line/nvocc or forwarder that issued the bill of lading, providing of course the site offers a tracking facility..

  4. how do I track my cargo using a bill of landing that start with six letters?
    example being: LSSZEL12060075

  5. I think occean liners carry more goods than tramp liners because there is always a particular time schedule for occean liner to carry goods…Thanks

  6. Hi Clarence, even though it is called tramp services, they provide the same first class shipping service that most liner services provide albeit at different intervals depending on the contract.. For this reason, tramps can be a competition to the liner service.. However, the advantage that the liner has is the frequency of sailings and the regular ports of call..

thanks for visiting, please let everyone know that you were here and what you think of this article.. :)

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