Abstract: Method and apparatus (6) for conveying relatively voluminous packing units (4), such as containers, particularly containers in shipping ports, from a put-on location (10, 11) to a takeoff location (19), via conveying means (7, 8, 9) that are separately drivable and fixedly disposed and can displace a packing unit independently of further packing units. By a first conveying means, a displacement is imposed on a packing unit in a direction towards a connecting second conveying means, and the packing unit is thus transferred to the second conveying means, which maintains or changes the direction of the displacement during the transfer of the packing unit to a connecting third conveying means, depending on the pattern (10-18) in which the interconnecting conveying means that are present are arranged and the desired track over those conveying means between the put-on location and the takeoff location.