Frequency

Frequency, in liner shipping, is how often a service departs a given port on its fixed rotation. The norm in container trades is a weekly sailing, achieved by deploying enough vessels of matched size on the loop so one leaves each port every seven days; fortnightly and monthly frequencies appear on thinner routes. Frequency is a core service-design variable: it sets how many ships a carrier or alliance commits to a string, the schedule reliability customers can expect, and the capacity offered. Higher frequency cuts the shipper’s average wait for a sailing but needs more tonnage and raises the operator’s slot cost.