A packet-based traffic forwarding system with a plurality of contending queues. Each queue has an allocated bandwidth and an associated borrow vector. When a first queue does not consume all of its allocated bandwidth, the borrow vector associated with a second queue is checked to determine whether the second queue is permitted to use the unconsumed allocated bandwidth of the first queue. If the second queue has packets to forward, the second queue forwards the packets using the unconsumed allocated bandwidth of the first queue.