ALPHALINER Liner Services - AXSMarine

ALPHALINER – Liner Services Guide –
The worldwide reference in liner shipping
know what can be done. In this example, they are niche operators that can organize the
transport thanks to connecting carrier agreements.
The reason why we do not track directly possible connections between ports such as
Funafuti and Qaqortok is that there are so numerous possibilities of transhipment that it can
be only assessed on a case by case basis (and it is also the way carriers do it if you try to
ask for such connections in their websites). The same applies for example to links such as
‘Helsinki-Ho Chi Min City’ or ‘Puerto Cabello-Tunis’. See also the Tips below.
DO NOT FORGET TO HIT THE "CLEAR" BUTTON BEFORE STARTING A NEW SEARCH
Ports groupings
For an efficient use of this port to port search driver, some ports have been linked to neighbouring ports :
- Los Angeles and Long Beach (look Los Angeles)
- San Francisco and Oakland (look San Francisco)
- Miami and Port Everglades (look Miami)
- UAE hubs : Khor Fakkan, Fujairah, Dubai (Port Rashid and Jebel Ali), Abu Dhabi (look UAE)
- Shenzhen area : Chiwan, Shekou, Yantian, Dachan Bay (look Shenzhen)
- Bangkok and Laem Chabang (look Bangkok)
- Marseille and Fos (look Marseille)
Tips to find the Service or Operator answering your needs
Large operators serve hundreds of ports. In this case, it leads to thousands of possible
combinations for a single operator. There are well over a million combinations for the 20
largest lines together.
To complicate the matter, a majority of pairs of ports are not linked by a single service.
There is often a combination of a main service and feeder or relay services. To achieve a
port-to-port efficient search, the system would have to display the succession of services
involved. Although nothing is technically impossible, it is not manageable given the large
number of possible combinations and the options that vary from one carrier to another, even
when they are tied in alliances and service agreements.
Should this be done, it would not solve all problems because the combination of services
physically used by a given operator can vary with the day of the week. This multiplies the
possible combinations for a port-to-port search. Furthermore, a number of regional carriers
offer a vast array of worldwide destinations from the local ports they serve, acting as
NVOCCs on intercontinental lines. Thus, tiny operators can offer port combinations by the
hundreds.
Taking all this into account, an efficient port-to-port search driver working on a worldwide
scale requires the compilation of so many combinations that it is not indeed manageable.
Even single operators offering on their website such drivers for their own lines have to make
compromises, hence the display of the following message : 'Please contact your nearest
agent'.
If you want to know the possibilities offered between two given ports, you have the choice
between two ways :
1 - The two ports are main ports served by main lines : you can select the name of both
ports. Thus, selecting 'Singapore' and 'Le Havre' will display all the services linking directly
these two ports (or by transhipment in some cases, if you tick this option). This method can
also be effective to know what services link two regional ports, such as Hamburg and
Helsinki for example.
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