As the competition in the liner shipping industry is becoming fiercer, the shipping company is trying to find the way to keep the best competitive position by reducing the cost level as low as possible and offering the best quality of service to their customer. In order to achieve this goal, the selection of port and terminal that have the best quality of service and cost effective structure is essential for the shipping line, where they can only have a chance to save the money. In this context, the paper compares three European container terminals in order to understand the factors that have to be considered in the decision making process for the selection of terminal. And its advantages and disadvantages of each type of container terminal operation system were analyzed from the liner shipping company's point of view in terms of cost, time, flexibility, stability, hinterland connection, geographical position and terminal productivity. It is obvious that the cost factors are very important for liner shipping company to select their terminal. However, there might be even more important factors than the cost factors, such as quality of port and terminal service, mutual trust, and possibility of future development.