Feeder vessel

A feeder vessel is a smaller container ship that carries boxes between regional ports and the major transhipment hubs where mainline ships call. It lets a port with too little volume for direct calls reach the world network. Feeders run at a few thousand TEU — Maersk's methanol-fuelled feeder is 2,100 TEU — against mainline ships many times larger.

How feeder services work

DP World defines a feeder as a smaller ship moving containers between regional ports and major transhipment hubs. Because feeders are smaller and more flexible, they serve ports that cannot handle the largest vessels or lack the volume for direct mainline calls. The container changes ship at the hub — what US rules call transshipment, cargo transferred from one carrier to another at an intermediate port.

In today's networks

Gemini, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd's cooperation from 2025, pairs its mainline services with dedicated shuttles centred on owned or controlled transhipment hubs: 14 shuttle services in Europe, 4 in the Middle East, 13 in Asia and 1 in the Gulf of Mexico. In the Mediterranean, DP World's feeder operator Unifeeder ran 20 ships averaging 1,186 TEU in January 2025. Hubs handle enormous volumes as a result: Singapore, its Maritime and Port Authority reports, handled 44.66 million TEU in 2025.

Worked example: mainline against feeder

The mistake people make

Ignoring the connection. DP World notes that feeder schedules are closely tied to mainline arrival and departure windows, making timing at the hub critical; a mainline ship that arrives late can mean the box misses its feeder and waits days at the hub. Ask for the transhipment port and the connection when booking to a smaller port.