A feeder vessel is a smaller containership that shuttles boxes between a regional port and a major hub, where cargo connects to long-haul mainline services. Feeders extend carrier networks to ports too small or shallow for large vessels, typically carrying hundreds to a few thousand TEU.
Feeders are the spokes of hub-and-spoke shipping: mainline ships concentrate on a few deep-water hubs, and feeders distribute cargo to the surrounding coastline. They are run by the carriers themselves or by independent feeder operators selling capacity to many lines at once.
For scheduling, the feeder leg behaves like a connecting flight: its own timetable, its own cut-offs, and a transshipment wait at the hub in each direction. Small-port pairs can therefore have longer and more variable transits than the mainline distance suggests.
In a tracked journey the feeder appears as the first or last vessel: a short leg from a regional port, a hub discharge, then the mainline load, or the mirror at destination. TrackingMCP follows the box across the vessel change in tracking; if the mainline sails before the feeder arrives, the growing hub dwell is your early warning, visible against ports like Port Klang.
A feeder vessel is a smaller containership that shuttles boxes between a regional port and a major hub, where cargo connects to long-haul mainline services. Feeders extend carrier networks to ports too small or shallow for large vessels, typically carrying hundreds to a few thousand TEU.
Your port pair lacks a direct service, or the carrier’s network routes it via a hub for utilisation. Routing is a network decision; the bill of lading covers the whole journey either way.
Feeders queue behind mainline ships at busy hubs and inherit their delays, so their schedules flex more. Building slack into promises for feeder-served ports is prudent.
Track multi-leg journeys →
Hub and regional port pages →
More in Vessels, voyages & schedules: Blank sailing · Port omission · Transshipment · Voyage number · ETA, ETD, ATA & ATD · Vessel schedule reliability · Slow steaming · AIS (Automatic Identification System) · Draft (draught) · Carrier alliances · Vessel sharing agreement (VSA) · Browse all 106 terms →