A queuing system for manipulating items sent between a plurality of application servers comprising a queue implemented in a table stored in a relational database system. Storing the table in a database allows recovery of the queue at any moment in time in case of a system malfunction. A queue handling system which manipulates queue items is provided. Also, a plurality of database queue handler servers are provided, each server monitoring the queue in order to determine when an item is ready to be dequeued. If a ripe item is found, the database queue handler server calls the queue handling system which in turn calls precompiled logic to dequeue the ripe items. Each database queue handler server subsequently forwards the dequeued items to the correct application server for processing. Logical partitions may be provided to prevent more than one database queue handler server from simultaneously accessing items in the queue. In addition, a system is provided which handles an application server's failure to process a queue item in which, after a predetermined number of failures, the item is moved to a special error table rather then returned to the original queue.