How Merchant Ships Operate

Merchant ships are designed to carry cargo. Some are also designed to carry passengers. Nowadays most merchant ships are built to carry cargo. A few still carry passengers. Merchant ships can operate in the following three basic ways.

They can operate as liners. Liners are employed on regular routes on a fixed timetable. A list of their arrivals and departures is published in advance. They sail whether they are full or not.

Merchant vessels can also operate as tramps. Tramps do not sail on regular routes. They do not keep to a fixed timetable. They are employed in all parts of the world where there is cargo for them to carry.

A large number of merchant ships operate as specialized vessels. These are designed to carry a particular type of cargo. There are several types of specialized vessels. The most common are oil tankers. They are owned by the major oil companies or by independent operators. Two other types of liquid bulk carrier of growing importance are chemical carriers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. Oil tankers are often very large, because huge quantities of oil need to be transported and one large vessel is more economical to operate than two smaller ones.