Reference

Freight & Parcel Shipping Glossary

51 terms shippers actually run into on invoices, bills of lading, rate confirmations and carrier contracts — defined in plain English, without the sales pitch.

Maintained by Xander Hassan · President & CEO, Hassan Transportation & LogisticsUpdated August 5, 2026

3

3PL (Third-Party Logistics): A 3PL is a company that runs part of another company's supply chain on its behalf. Depending on the engagement that can mean warehousing, fulfillment, parcel and freight transportation, returns, or all of it together. A 3PL differs from a pure freight broker because it usually touches the goods — storing, picking, packing, or delivering them — rather than only arranging transportation.

A

Accessorial Charge: An accessorial is any charge a carrier adds on top of the base linehaul rate for work outside a standard dock-to-dock move. Common examples are liftgate service, inside delivery, residential delivery, limited access, reweighs, and redelivery attempts. Accessorials are where invoices most often diverge from the quote, which is why audits review them line by line.
Address Correction Fee: A parcel carrier fee applied when the shipping label has an incomplete or invalid address that the carrier has to fix in transit. It is charged per package and is one of the most preventable parcel surcharges, since it usually traces back to unvalidated address data at order entry.

B

Bill of Lading (BOL): The bill of lading is the legal contract of carriage between a shipper and a carrier, and it also serves as the receipt for the freight. It lists the shipper, consignee, pieces, weight, freight description, and any special instructions. Whoever signs it at delivery is acknowledging that the freight arrived in the condition noted on the document.
Blind Shipment: A shipment arranged so that the shipper and the receiver do not see each other's identity on the paperwork. It is common in drop-ship and wholesale arrangements where a distributor does not want its customer to learn who the manufacturer is. It requires two sets of documents coordinated by the broker or 3PL.

C

Cargo Insurance: Coverage for the value of goods while they are in transit. It is separate from carrier liability, which is limited by law and by freight class and rarely covers the full replacement value of the goods. Shippers moving high-value freight typically buy cargo insurance to close that gap.
Carrier Liability: The maximum amount a carrier is legally responsible for if freight is lost or damaged. For LTL freight it is usually capped per pound and varies by commodity and freight class, so it can be far less than what the goods are worth. Reading the liability limit before shipping is what tells you whether you need cargo insurance.
Chargeback: In shipping, a chargeback is a fee a customer — often a large retailer — deducts from a supplier's payment for failing to meet routing, labeling, or delivery-window requirements. In payments, it refers to a reversed card transaction. In both cases the money comes out of the supplier's revenue after the fact, so chargebacks are tracked as a cost of doing business rather than a shipping charge.
Consignee: The party receiving the freight — the delivery address on the bill of lading. The consignee is the one who signs the proof of delivery and notes any visible damage or shortage at the time of receipt.
Cross-Docking: Cross-docking is moving freight directly from an inbound trailer to an outbound trailer with little or no storage in between. It is used to consolidate LTL into truckloads, break bulk shipments into regional loads, or speed up time-sensitive goods. Less time in storage means lower holding costs but tighter scheduling.

D

Deadhead: Miles a truck drives empty, usually between a delivery and the next pickup. Deadhead miles cost the carrier fuel and hours without generating revenue, so they get priced into the rate for lanes with weak outbound freight.
Delivery Area Surcharge (DAS): A parcel surcharge applied to deliveries in ZIP codes the carrier considers costly to serve, typically rural or low-density areas. Carriers publish DAS and Extended DAS ZIP code lists and update them periodically. Because the lists change, a shipper's DAS exposure can rise without any change to where the shipper is shipping.
Demurrage: A charge assessed by an ocean carrier or terminal when a container sits at the port beyond its allotted free time. It accrues daily and adds up quickly during port congestion. Demurrage is distinct from per-diem or detention charges, which apply to the container once it has left the terminal.
Detention: Detention is what a carrier charges when its driver and equipment are held at a facility longer than the free loading or unloading window, usually one to two hours. It is billed hourly after that window closes. Chronic detention at a specific location tends to push future rates for that lane upward.
Dimensional Weight (DIM Weight): Dimensional weight prices a package by the space it occupies instead of what it weighs. For domestic parcel it is commonly calculated as (length x width x height) / 139, and carriers bill the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight. That means an oversized box holding a light product is billed as if it were heavy — which is why box right-sizing often cuts parcel cost faster than rate negotiation does.
DOT Number: A unique identifier issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation to companies operating commercial vehicles in interstate commerce. It is used to track a carrier's safety record, inspections, and crash history. Every legitimate motor carrier has one, and it can be looked up in public federal databases.
Drayage: Drayage is the short-haul trucking move that connects an ocean port or rail ramp to a nearby warehouse, yard, or transload facility. The distances are short but the work is schedule-driven: appointments, chassis availability, and terminal free time all govern cost. Drayage delays are the most common cause of demurrage and per-diem charges.
Dry Van: The standard enclosed trailer used for most general freight, typically 53 feet long for domestic truckload. It protects freight from weather but offers no temperature control. Dry van is the default equipment type unless the freight requires refrigeration, open-deck loading, or specialized handling.

F

Factoring: Factoring is when a carrier sells its unpaid freight invoices to a third party at a discount in order to get paid immediately instead of waiting 30 to 60 days. It is a cash-flow tool used widely by small carriers and owner-operators. Shippers see it in practice as a request to remit payment to the factoring company rather than the carrier.
Final Mile: Final mile is the last leg of a shipment, from a local facility to the end recipient's door. It is the most expensive leg per mile because stops are numerous, addresses are dispersed, and many deliveries are residential. For larger goods it often includes scheduling, threshold or room-of-choice placement, and assembly or debris removal.
Flatbed: An open trailer with no walls or roof, used for freight that has to be loaded by crane or forklift from the side or top, or that exceeds the dimensions of a dry van. Common flatbed freight includes steel, lumber, machinery, and building materials. Loads must be secured and usually tarped by the driver.
Freight Broker: A freight broker is a licensed intermediary that arranges transportation between shippers and motor carriers without owning the trucks. Brokers are licensed by the FMCSA, carry a surety bond, and are paid out of the difference between what the shipper pays and what the carrier is paid. Their value is capacity access and lane pricing, especially in volatile markets.
Freight Class (NMFC): Freight class is the LTL pricing category assigned to a commodity under the National Motor Freight Classification, running from class 50 to class 500. It is based on density, stowability, handling, and liability — dense, easily stacked freight gets a lower class and a lower rate. Misclassifying freight is a leading cause of LTL invoice reclassification and unexpected charges.
Fuel Surcharge (FSC): A variable charge that adjusts the price of a shipment as diesel prices move, so fuel cost is passed through rather than baked into the base rate. Truckload and LTL surcharges are typically indexed to published national or regional retail diesel averages; parcel carriers publish their own percentage tables that reset weekly. Because the index moves, the same shipment can cost different amounts week to week with no rate change at all.
Full Truckload (FTL): FTL means one shipper's freight occupies the entire trailer and moves directly from origin to destination with no terminal handling. It is the right call when volume fills a trailer, when freight is fragile enough that handling is a risk, or when transit time matters. The practical crossover from LTL usually falls somewhere in the six-to-twelve-pallet range, which is why both should be quoted in that band.

G

General Rate Increase (GRI): A GRI is a carrier's across-the-board published rate increase, announced annually by parcel carriers and periodically by LTL carriers. The headline percentage rarely matches what a given shipper actually experiences, because surcharge changes and zone or weight-break shifts hit different shipping profiles differently. Recalculating your own effective increase against your actual volume is the only way to know your real number.

H

Hazmat: Freight regulated as hazardous under U.S. DOT rules, including flammables, corrosives, compressed gases, and lithium batteries. Hazmat requires specific packaging, labeling, documentation, and driver certification, and not all carriers accept it. Undeclared hazmat is a serious compliance violation, not just a billing issue.
Hours of Service (HOS): Federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and work before taking mandatory rest, enforced through electronic logging devices. HOS rules determine how far a truck can realistically travel in a day, which is why transit times are quoted in driving days rather than straight mileage. Detention at a dock consumes hours the driver cannot get back.

I

Interline: An interline move is one where two or more carriers each handle part of a single shipment, common in LTL when the destination falls outside the origin carrier's direct coverage area. Each handoff adds handling and a potential point of delay or damage. More interline legs generally means longer, less predictable transit.
Intermodal: Intermodal moves freight in the same container or trailer across more than one mode — usually truck to rail and back to truck. It is typically cheaper than long-haul truckload and burns less fuel, at the cost of longer and somewhat less predictable transit. It works best on long lanes with flexible delivery windows.

L

Less Than Truckload (LTL): LTL is freight that occupies part of a trailer and shares space with other shippers' shipments, typically one to six pallets. Pricing depends on freight class, density, distance, and accessorials, and shipments move through terminals rather than direct. It is cheaper than buying a whole truck but involves more handling and longer transit.
Linehaul: The base transportation charge for moving freight between two points, before fuel surcharges and accessorials. It is the part of the rate most people mean when they say 'the rate.' Comparing carriers on linehaul alone is misleading, since surcharges can account for a large share of the final invoice.
Lumper: A lumper is a third-party laborer who loads or unloads a trailer at a warehouse, common in grocery and food distribution. The driver typically pays the lumper fee on site and it gets reimbursed through the freight invoice with a receipt. It is a legitimate pass-through cost, but one worth checking against the receipt.

M

MC Number: An operating authority number issued by the FMCSA to carriers and brokers transporting regulated commodities in interstate commerce. It is separate from a DOT number, which identifies the safety record. Verifying that a carrier's or broker's authority is active is a basic step before tendering freight.
Multi-Carrier Strategy: Shipping through more than one carrier and routing each package to whichever one is cheapest or fastest for that destination and service level. It creates pricing leverage and a fallback when one carrier's service degrades. In practice it requires rate data for every carrier at the moment the label is created.

O

OS&D (Over, Short & Damaged): OS&D is the exception process for freight that arrives with more pieces than expected, fewer pieces than expected, or visible damage. It starts with notations on the delivery receipt at the time of delivery, which is what makes a later claim provable. Signing a clean receipt for damaged freight severely weakens the claim.

P

Parcel Level Detail (PLD): A PLD file is a carrier-generated export of a shipper's parcel activity at the individual shipment level — tracking number, date, service, origin and destination, billed weight, dimensions, zone, base rate, and every surcharge. It is the underlying data behind a parcel invoice rather than a summary of it. Because it exposes each charge on each package, a PLD is what makes a real line-level parcel audit possible.
Peak Season Surcharge: A temporary parcel or freight surcharge applied during high-volume periods, most commonly the weeks around the winter holidays. Parcel carriers publish peak surcharges by service, package characteristic, and sometimes by a shipper's volume relative to a baseline period. Volume-based peak surcharges are easy to miss because they depend on your own shipping history.
Per Diem (Container): A daily charge from an ocean carrier for keeping a container beyond the allowed free days after it leaves the terminal. It is what accrues while a loaded or empty container sits at a warehouse or yard. Fast turn times on drayage and unloading are what keep per-diem exposure down.
Proof of Delivery (POD): The signed document or electronic record confirming that a shipment was delivered, including date, time, and who received it. It is the evidence used to settle disputes, release payment, and support or defeat freight claims. Notations made on the POD at delivery carry far more weight than complaints raised days later.

R

Rate Confirmation: A rate confirmation is the written agreement between a broker and a carrier for a specific load, listing the agreed rate, pickup and delivery appointments, equipment, and any accessorial terms. It is signed before the truck moves and governs what the carrier can bill afterward. Charges outside the rate confirmation need documentation to be payable.
Reconsignment: Changing a shipment's delivery address or consignee after it is already in transit. Carriers charge for reconsignment because it disrupts planned routing, and the new destination may reprice the move entirely. It is distinct from a simple address correction, which fixes an incomplete address without changing the destination.
Reefer: A reefer is a temperature-controlled trailer or container with its own refrigeration unit, used for food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and other products with a required temperature range. Loads are set to a specific temperature and, increasingly, monitored continuously in transit. Reefer capacity is tighter and more seasonal than dry van, and rates reflect that.
Residential Surcharge: An additional parcel or freight charge for delivering to a home rather than a commercial address, reflecting the lower stop density and lack of a loading dock. Carriers determine residential status from their own address databases, which sometimes classify home-based businesses as residential. It is one of the largest recurring surcharges for e-commerce shippers.
Reweigh: A reweigh happens when a carrier weighs or measures a package or pallet and finds it heavier or larger than what was declared, then rebills at the corrected figure. Parcel carriers do this automatically on their dimensioning equipment. Persistent reweigh adjustments usually point to bad master data on packaging rather than one-off mistakes.

S

Spot Rate: A one-time market price for moving a specific load right now, as opposed to a contracted rate held over a period. Spot rates rise and fall with capacity and demand, sometimes sharply and by lane. Most shippers use a blend: contracts for predictable volume, spot for overflow and irregular lanes.

T

TONU (Truck Ordered Not Used): TONU is a flat fee paid to a carrier when a truck arrives for a scheduled pickup and there is no load to take. It compensates the carrier for the dispatched miles and lost hours. Repeated TONU charges typically trace back to order timing or dock readiness rather than the carrier.
Transload: Transloading is transferring freight from one piece of equipment to another — most often ocean container to domestic trailer — near the port. It lets a shipper consolidate multiple containers into fewer domestic loads and avoid holding container equipment. The tradeoff is added handling and a handling fee.

V

Volume LTL: Volume LTL covers shipments too large for standard LTL pricing but not big enough to justify a full truckload, roughly six to eighteen pallets. It is quoted case by case rather than off a standard class-based tariff. Shipments in this range should always be priced as volume LTL and truckload side by side.

Y

Yard Management: The process of tracking and sequencing trailers and containers in a facility's yard — what is parked where, what is loaded, and what moves to which door next. Poor yard visibility shows up as detention charges and missed appointments. It matters most at high-throughput distribution centers and drayage yards.

Z

Zone (Parcel Zone): A parcel zone is the distance band between origin and destination that a carrier uses to price a package, with higher zone numbers meaning longer distances and higher rates. The same package can move a wildly different price depending on which facility it ships from. Distributing inventory closer to demand lowers average zone, and therefore average cost, without any rate change.

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