This article reports the development and the assessment of a freight rate optimization approach based on mathematical mod-
eling and optimization. It exploits the functional interdependency between the price of a (service) product and the quantity
of the product using this price. Solving the proposed model enables a differentiated and shipper-specific rate determination
accompanied by the allocation of the transport capacity provided by the carrier to different shippers. This bilateral pricing
between carrier and shippers considers market-based reference rates typically available in the maritime container shipping
industry. Herewith, we integrate market-based pricing with demand-based pricing. We validate the proposed model in
computational experiments for an artificial pricing scenario. An analysis of the achieved results demonstrates that missing
overcapacities will lead to reduced revenues if spot market prices are too low.