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Glossary of freight terms
Plain-English definitions for the shipping and logistics terms you'll run into as a shipper.
- Accessorial charge
- A fee for services beyond standard dock-to-dock pickup or delivery, such as liftgate, residential delivery, or inside delivery.
- Bill of Lading (BOL)
- The legal shipping document that travels with freight, serving as a contract between shipper and carrier, a receipt of goods, and delivery instructions.
- Class (freight class)
- A standardized NMFC rating from 50–500 used to price LTL freight, based primarily on density along with stowability, handling, and liability.
- Consignee
- The person or business receiving the shipment.
- Cross-docking
- Transferring freight directly from an inbound trailer to an outbound trailer with little or no storage in between.
- Density
- A shipment's weight divided by its cubic feet, expressed in pounds per cubic foot. The primary factor in determining freight class.
- Detention
- A fee charged when a driver is held at a pickup or delivery location beyond the carrier's free time allowance for loading or unloading.
- Drayage
- Short-distance freight movement, typically moving containers between a port or rail ramp and a nearby warehouse.
- Dry van
- A fully enclosed trailer, the most common equipment type for general freight.
- Expedited shipping
- Time-critical freight service using dedicated equipment to move faster than standard transit times allow.
- Flatbed
- An open trailer with no sides or roof, used for oversized, irregular, or heavy freight like machinery and building materials.
- FTL (Full Truckload)
- Shipping mode where a shipment fills — or is priced as if it fills — an entire trailer, with no other shippers' freight on board.
- Fuel surcharge
- An additional charge on top of the base freight rate that adjusts with diesel fuel prices, published weekly by the carrier or based on the DOE's national average.
- Hazmat
- Hazardous materials — freight that requires special handling, labeling, and documentation under DOT regulations.
- Hours of Service (HOS)
- Federal regulations limiting how many hours a truck driver can drive and work before requiring rest, which affects realistic transit times.
- Intermodal
- Shipping that combines rail for the long-haul portion with truck for the first and final miles, often reducing cost on longer lanes.
- Lane
- The origin-to-destination route a shipment travels, e.g. Salt Lake City to Dallas.
- Liftgate
- A hydraulic platform on the back of a truck that lowers freight to ground level at locations without a loading dock.
- Limited access
- A pickup or delivery location that is harder for a standard truck to service, such as a school, construction site, or military base — often triggers an accessorial fee.
- Linear feet
- The length of trailer space a shipment occupies. Shipments over a carrier's linear-foot threshold are often priced as partial or full truckload instead of LTL.
- LTL (Less Than Truckload)
- Shipping mode where freight shares trailer space with other shippers' freight, and the shipper pays only for the space and weight used.
- MC number
- A motor carrier number issued by the FMCSA that identifies a carrier or broker's operating authority.
- NMFC (National Motor Freight Classification)
- The standardized classification system that assigns freight classes to commodities, maintained by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association.
- OS&D (Over, Short, and Damaged)
- A report filed when a shipment arrives with extra pieces, missing pieces, or damage compared to what was on the Bill of Lading.
- Partial truckload
- A shipping mode between LTL and full truckload for mid-size shipments that are too big for economical LTL but do not need a full trailer.
- POD (Proof of Delivery)
- A signed document confirming a shipment was received, including date, time, and condition.
- PRO number
- A tracking number assigned by an LTL carrier at pickup, used to track the shipment through the carrier's network.
- Reclassification
- When a carrier inspects a shipment and determines the freight class differs from what was quoted, resulting in an adjusted invoice.
- Reefer
- A refrigerated trailer used for temperature-controlled freight like food and pharmaceuticals.
- Residential delivery
- Delivery to a home or residentially classified address, which typically triggers an additional fee since most residential locations lack a loading dock.
- Shipper
- The person or business sending the freight.
- Spot rate
- A one-time rate quoted for a specific shipment based on current market capacity, as opposed to a long-term contract rate.
- Step deck
- A flatbed trailer with two deck levels, allowing taller freight to be hauled while staying within legal height limits.
- Stowability
- How easily freight can be loaded and packed with other shipments, one of the factors (along with density) used to determine freight class.
- Tariff
- A carrier's published pricing rules and rates, or in international shipping, a government-imposed duty on imported goods.
- 3PL (Third-Party Logistics)
- A provider that manages some or all of a company's supply chain, which can include transportation, warehousing, fulfillment, and inventory management.
- Transit time
- The number of business days it takes a shipment to travel from origin to destination.
- Volume LTL (VLTL)
- A shipment large enough (often 6+ pallets or several thousand pounds) that it is quoted at a flat volume rate rather than standard per-class LTL pricing.
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