Feeder vessels or feeder ships are medium-size freight

ships A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, ...

. In general, a feeder means a seagoing vessel with an average capacity of . Feeders collect shipping containers from different ports and transport them to central

container terminal A container port, container terminal, or intermodal terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land v ...

s where they are loaded to bigger vessels, or for further transport into the hub port's

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...

. In that way the smaller vessels feed the larger liners, which carry thousands of containers. Over the years, feeder lines have been established by organizations transporting containers over a predefined route on a regular basis. Feeder ships are often run by companies that also specialize in short sea shipping. These companies not only ship freight to and from major ports like

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

for further shipment, but also carry containers between smaller ports, for example, between terminals located on the north-west European seaboard and ports situated in the Baltic sea.

Feeder classification

Container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

s are distinguished into seven major size categories: small feeder, feeder, feedermax, panamax, post-Panamax, new Panamax and ultra-large (ULCV).MAN Diesel, 2009, p.6. Container ships under 3,000 TEU are generally called feeders.

Notes

References

* Ship types {{ship-type-stub