Liner Service
As a shipper speaks to their trusted freight forwarder about booking their freight shipment, the big determination will be for when to schedule it. Thankfully, the international freight shipping i*ndustry operates with a liner service. Essentially, a liner service is an *ocean freight vessel with a pre-determined schedule of shipping. Long before you a book your freight for transit, the liner service will publish their dates of shipping at all of their ports around the World. The schedule features a ship that could be making the same trips each week or month to the same ports or shipping lanes. An example of this might be vessels that always ship cargo across the Pacific Ocean, also known as Trans-Pacific, or across the Atlantic Ocean, also known as Trans-Atlantic.
A liner service makes shipping easier. They have a set schedule so that shippers can book their container shipment with the knowledge that their cargo will leave and arrive at certain times. Usually, a liner service also has a set bill of lading for each shipper. A liner service vessel can ship containers, including some as refrigerated, and there also roll-on/roll-off ships. Sometimes they are called cargo liners and carry passengers.
A liner service is vastly different than a tramp service. Under a ship with a tramp service, there is no set schedule, and they often move around the globe on an as-needed basis only. Both are very important to the shipping process.