Shipping carriers can offer several types of services. 

To start, carriers can deal with transporting dry cargo. This is the most common service and includes different types like regular cargo, hazardous cargo, food-grade cargo, rare cargo. 

Carriers can also deal with reefer cargo – another term for refrigerated cargo. This type of cargo requires special attention because the containers are of a different nature and the logistical teams must be trained differently to transport this nature of cargo.

And some carriers offer out-of-gauge and breakbulk services. These are mechanisms for transporting oversized cargo either by storing them outside of the 40 foot containers, or by splitting up the cargo so that they can be stored on numerous flat racks.

Outside of pure cargo transportation, services such as intermodal transportation (combining several types of transportation), warehouse storage solutions, customs clearance, and trailers are also offered.