Peak season 2026: how we're holding space when everyone else is rolling cargo

Guaranteed-space contracts on the Asia–Europe corridor mean our clients ship on the sailing they booked, not the one after it.

SEC / 01 Overview

Introduction

Peak season is not won in October. It is won in the contracts signed in June, when nobody is panicking and space still has a price. We booked guaranteed allocations on the Asia–Europe corridor before the rate curve turned, and that decision is why our clients are sailing on the vessel they booked rather than the one after it.

What Rolling Actually Costs

A rolled container is rarely a one-week delay. It is a missed connection, a missed berth window, a missed retail set date, and a warehouse crew standing idle on overtime. The freight invoice barely moves; everything downstream does. That is the number we ask clients to price, not the per-container rate.

How The Allocation Works

We hold fixed weekly slots with three carriers out of Chattogram and Singapore rather than spreading thinly across ten. Fewer relationships, deeper commitments, and a named person on each desk who answers when a vessel omits a port. When space tightens, depth beats breadth every time.

Looking Ahead

Space on the corridor is already committed through the first quarter. Volumes above contract still move, but on spot terms and without the roll protection — so if your peak is fixed by a retail calendar, the conversation is worth having now rather than in week forty.

Peak season 2026: how we're holding space when everyone else is rolling cargo

2/5

days door-to-door

Transit

12:00 PM

Cut-off

120+

countries

Coverage

Guaranteed Space, In Writing

A guaranteed-space agreement is only as good as its remedy. Ours names the compensation if we fail to load, which is the clause that makes a carrier plan around you instead of past you.

A—02

Booked is booked

Every allocation carries a named remedy if we fail to load, which is what turns a booking confirmation into an actual commitment.

What's included

Guaranteed weekly slot allocation

Roll protection with named remedy

Priority re-booking on port omission

Fixed corridor rates through Q1

Named coordinator on every booking

Conclusion

Holding space costs money in a soft market and saves far more in a tight one. We take that position every year because our clients' production calendars do not flex, and neither should the sailing they were promised.