Why We Exist
One container in three ships empty. We are building the marketplace that ends the empty round trip.
One Container In Three Ships Empty
The industry moves millions of empty boxes every year. We think that is a bug, not a feature.
Right now, 41% of container moves worldwide are empty repositioning legs — up from 31% in 2019. Carriers pay to move air while other carriers, sometimes a few kilometres away, are searching for exactly the same boxes. The industry burns $15–20 billion a year repositioning empties, and a container stuck at a terminal can cost up to $300 a day in demurrage.
PortChief exists to end that round trip. We connect carriers, terminals and shippers at the same port, so an import box that just emptied becomes someone else’s export box — the swap the industry calls a street turn. Move boxes, not money.
How It Works
Three steps to turn an empty return leg into someone else’s export.
Post your offer or need
List the containers you have or the boxes you are looking for — type, port, dates. It takes minutes and the first listing is free.
Get matched at your port
PortChief surfaces counterparts in the same port city — terminal, depot or yard — so the swap works on the ground.
Swap and skip the fees
Hand over the box, cancel the empty return leg and stop the demurrage clock — industry estimates put the saving at up to $400 per swap.
Ready to stop moving air?
Post your first listing — it’s free.
What We Believe
Three principles behind the marketplace.
Move boxes, not money
A swap beats an invoice. Every matched container is demurrage avoided, an empty return leg cancelled, and revenue kept on the road.
The port is the marketplace
Matches only make sense on the ground. PortChief works city by city — Marseille-Fos, Dunkerque, Montréal, Vancouver, Abidjan and Cotonou — across three continents.
Every empty kilometre is waste
Empty repositioning emits 80–100 million tonnes of CO₂ a year. Each swap removes a truck trip and its emissions.
Testimonials
Illustrative scenarios from the carriers and terminals PortChief is built for.
Finding a reefer at the right port used to take a day of WhatsApp messages. On PortChief it took under a minute.
Freight Forwarder
West Africa corridor
Repositioning used to eat our margins. Now I can see who needs my empties across 13 ports and settle the swap in minutes.
Equipment Manager
EU shipping line
We turned three empty return legs into paid swaps in our first month. PortChief matched us with carriers heading the opposite way — no more calling around.
Carrier Operations Manager
Container carrier · Marseille-Fos
Moderated listings · Verified members · GDPR-ready, EU-hosted · Free plan available