ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE OF TRANSPORTED CONTAINERS IN THE ADRIATIC FEEDER SERVICE WITH A RETROSPECT ON THE PROPORTION AND EFFECT OF EMPTY CONTAINERS ON THE SERVICE

In performing the feeder service, shipowners are faced with the problem of transporting empty containers. Trends on the market often cause import and export disparity, due to which it is necessary to transport empty containers by joining them to the cargo, i.e. their emplacement is necessary. An empty container is a kind of ballast in a shipowner’s feeder business because it takes up the same space as a full one, and brings only half the freight. An analysis of the Adriatic feeder market in 2004 which included the ports of Rijeka and Ploče, and Lošinjska Plovidba as a shipowner, showed a highly unacceptable ratio of full containers to empty ones amounting to 70:30, which was almost double the proportion of empty containers on well-established feeder markets such as the North European feeder market. Key word: feeder service, ratio of full to empty containers 1