What is a dropped container?
“Dropped container” is a common term in foreign trade, freight forwarding, logistics and other industries. “Container” means container, that is, container, mainly refers to shipping containers, including dropped containers of full container and dropped containers of LCL. As the name suggests, “dropped container” means that the shipping company will not load your container, and will leave these containers until the next voyage or several voyages because they are full.
Generally speaking, dropped containers of LCL are relatively rare, because LCL freight forwarding companies are generally stronger and have better relations with shipping companies, and LCL involves multiple customers and multiple shipments, which has a greater impact, so LCL freight forwarders will try every means to avoid dropped containers, unless they catch up with customs inspection and really can’t catch up with the ship, then they can only postpone the next voyage.
In fact, delaying a ship (taking a class) does not mean abandoning a container. Abandoning a container means that you have no problems in all aspects and can catch the ship, but due to unilateral reasons of the shipping company (the number of cabins released is more than the actual number of cabins), there is no space left, so your container is directly abandoned. Delaying a ship is generally due to the freight forwarder or the shipper, who can’t catch up, so they have to postpone it to the next voyage.
Why are they abandoned?
During the peak season of freight, the volume of cargo is large, the shipping company’s cabins are limited, and it is easy to have cabins full (especially on popular routes), and it is inevitable that some containers are abandoned.
In order to ensure full load and not waste any cabin, the shipping company often releases more cabins than the actual number of cabins. For example: there were only 100 spaces allocated to this port, but the shipping company has allocated 110 spaces to the freight forwarder or the cargo owner. At that time, the 10 extra spaces will definitely not be able to be loaded and can only be dumped and postponed to the next ship. In the end, there may be less than 10 spaces to be dumped, because among the 110 spaces placed in advance, there may be some that have been withdrawn, some that cannot catch up with the ship, some that cannot leave due to customs clearance problems, or other reasons, so there may be five or six that will be dumped in the end. Of course, it is possible that less than 100 can leave in the end – more than 10 will be withdrawn or unable to catch up.
Who will be dumped?
The shipping company generally has a choice of which containers to dump, not in the order of first come first served, but will dump the containers with lower freight, general relationship with the shipping company, or that the shipping company considers unimportant first.
So, if you have a small volume of cargo, you have no relationship with the shipping company, and your freight forwarder is not strong, then the chances of your container being dumped will be higher.