There are heap of freight options, the budget ones will usually be small outfits, filling a sea container or back of a car some place and they will buy a part container load (PCL) which is then turned into a full container by sharing the space with other people.....it takes a while to consolidate a container to your destination.
A bigger company like LinFox, MainFreight etc will have a bunch of local partners and 3PL who help to fill the container and it is much faster but costs a bit more as you need full insurance, security etc etc etc.
Finally a third party logistics company (3PL) like Panalpina has its own containers on regular routes and dispatches regardless of whether it is full or not and will use air and sea to maintain delivery schedules, and it costs accordingly.
The evil part is that container shipping rates are at about 2003 levels despite 10x increase in bunker fuel costs etc.... so the shipping company isn't getting rich off his 200 million investment. The real cost is insurance, security checks, bio security, port clearances and the massive bureaucracy Governments have placed around shipping.
