uShip Glossary

Backhaul: A shipment taken on the return portion of a route after the primary delivery has been completed

Bill of lading: Document that details a shipment by outlining the delivery guidelines and a receipt of what is delivered

Bobtail: An informal term for a tractor truck lacking a trailer

Bogie: A frame of wheels supporting a long vehicle, such as a trolley or wagon

Bonded Warehouse: A storage facility where goods liable to duties are stored under bond

Broker: An agent that negotiates commerce between two or more parties for a fee

Bulk Cargo: Large quantities of unpackaged cargo

Carrier: A person or company charged with transporting goods or people for a fee

Canada Border Service Agency: A Canadian agency tasked with overseeing the flow and security of goods through the Canadian border

CBSA: Canada Border Service Agency

CDL: Commercial driver license

Commercial driver license: License required to operate a vehicle with a gross weight of 26,001 pounds or above in the United States

Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance: Organization whose plan is to promote safe practices amongst commercial vehicles

Commodity: A quantifiable substance that can be bought or sold; an article being shipped

Consignee: The person or entity to whom a shipment is sent

Consignor: The person or entity who delivers a shipment

Contract Carrier: A person or company that transports goods or people for payment

Cross-docking: An efficient system of logistics where materials are unloaded from an incoming carrier and loaded onto outbound carriers with minimal storage time

CVSA: Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance

Deadhead: A transport vehicle conducting a trip without any commodities

Double-drop

Department of Transportation: A cabinet-level department charged with overseeing transportation in the United States, including railroads, highways, aviation, and maritime transit

Dolly: A wheeled platform used to move heavy loads

Door-to-door: Transport that originates and ends as close to the customer as possible, opposed to terminal-to-terminal shipping

DOT: Department of Transportation

Double-drop RGN: A removable goose neck (RGN) double drop trailer has the ability to detach to allow for easier loading and unloading of heavy equipment that can be driven on to it, also known as a "detach"

Double-drop: A trailer with 2 levels of compartments for storing goods

Dry cargo: Most non-liquid cargo, or cargo that does not have special temperature control needs

Dunnage: Filling materials used when packaging a shipment to prevent damage

Extendable Flatbed Trailer: A flexible trailer that can be adjusted to accommodate loads of varying lengths

F

Flatbed

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: A part of the US Department of Transportation whose focus is setting and enforcing commercial driver licensing and safety standards

Fifth Wheel: Device attached at a rear of a vehicle that provides a connection to link trailers

Fixed Tandem: Assembly of two axles and suspension that is attached to the supporting frame of an object so it cannot be moved

Flatbed: An open trailer, with no sides, which can be used to carry objects that are above average in size or weight

FMCSA: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Freight bill: A document that describes the shipment, outlines any charges and taxes that the shipper must pay, and includes information for the delivery; these bills can be collect or pre-paid: a pre-paid bill is paid for by the shipper, whereas a collect bill is paid for by the recipient of the goods

Freight broker: An agent that matches shippers with transportation service providers for a fee, generally refers to agents who match LTL shipments with carriers

Freight class: One of 18 categories defined by the National Motor Freight Classification System

Freight forwarding: A service that helps companies make international imports and exports; while the freight forwarder does not actually transport the freight, it arranges and handles the logistics of transportation for its customers including the preparation of all necessary documents, permissions, and insurance in order to ready the freight for transport, and hire the company doing the transporting

Freight: Commercial shipments that exceed the size and weight limits for parcel shipping services

Fuel surcharge: An additional charge added to the price of shipping to account for changing fuel prices, and is a percentage based on the U.S. National Average Diesel Fuel Index.

Full service moving: Household moving service where the moving company loads, moves, and unloads the belongings of the homeowner

Gross Vehicle Weight: The total weight of a vehicle, including the weight of the truck, the trailer, and any freight it is carrying

Groupage: Consolidating several smaller shipments into one full load in order to share the costs of transportation with other shippers

GVW: Gross Vehicle Weight

Highway User Fee: A monetary charge collected on persons or organizations dependent on the use of public roads

Hotshot Transport: Transport in pickup trucks that generally involve a more rapid time frame than traditional transport

Hours of Service: Rules applied by FMCSA to help regulate interstate commerce by establishing working hours for transportation service providers

ICC: Interstate Commerce Commission

Intermodal: Intermodal refers to freight that is moved using more than one method of transportation, such as rail and truck, or truck and ship

Interstate Commerce Commission: Federal agency that oversaw the rules and regulations of the railroad industry; dissolved in 1995 with the Surface Transportation Board taking over most of its responsibilities

LCL: Less than Container Load

Less than Container Load: A shipment that does not make use of a full standard cargo container

Less than Truckload: A shipment that is too large to be shipped as a parcel and too small to fill an entire truckload, usually combined with other LTL shipments to fill a truckload

Logistics: The management of information of an operation (from point of origin to point of destination)

Lowboy: A type of trailer for transporting construction equipment that rides low to the ground to facilitate loading and unloading

LTL: Less than truckload

Lumper: A worker charged with loading and unloading freight

MC: Motor carrier number that is issued to for-hire carriers when granted authority to engage in transport

Milk Run: A short, local trip with many stops

Multi-Axle combination trailers: Trailers that have at least 3 axels

National Motor Freight Classification System: a rating scale used to categorize freight into one of 18 classes depending on its density, stowability, handling and liability which together compose its transportability; the 18 classes range from a low of Class 50 to a high of Class 500 and exist to set minimal standards for packaging loads and facilitates rate negotiations by giving carriers and shippers a standard from which to begin discussion

P

Pallet

Pallet: Flat structure that is used to help transport goods by strapping them onto it, usually made out of wood

PAPS: Pre-Arrival Processing System

PARS: Pre-Arrival Review Sticker

PC*Miler: Transportation industry's leading software that holds all the highway maps of North America, Greenland, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, and calculates routing and mileage with precision

Port of call: An intermediate stop on a route for necessary actions such as refueling

Port of entry: The location where a carrier enters a country with cargo

Port of exit: The location where a carrier leaves a country with cargo

Pre-Arrival Processing System: A bar code sticker that is scanned by customs to receive information about the shipment and transportation company in order to enter the United States from Canada

Pre-Arrival Review Sticker: A bar code sticker that is scanned by customs to receive information about the shipment and transportation company in order to enter Canada from the United States

Pup Trailer: A short semi-truck trailer, between 26 and 36 feet long, with one axle

Reefer: A refrigerator-like container used to transport goods that need to be kept frozen

Registrar of Imported Vehicles: A program put into place to make sure Canadian safety standards are met by automobiles entering the country from the United States

RIV: Registrar of Imported Vehicles

Self service moving: A household moving option where the homeowner packs, loads, and unpacks all belongings but the moving company drives to the destination

Step deck: A trailer with different levels of flatbeds to help transport goods that might go over the height limit of 13'6" of a regular flatbed

Supply chain: An organization of people, resources, processes and information that works to get a product from the producer to the recipient

Surface Transportation Board: Agency created by Congress in 1995 to resolve disputes and generally regulate the railroad industry

Tare weight: The weight of a container minus the weight of its contents

Terminal: Either end of a route that includes handling facilities, generally refers to facilities that are the terminal for a region

Terminal-to-terminal: A shipment that begins and ends at a terminal, opposed to door-to-door shipping which begins and ends as close to the customer as possible

TL: Truckload

Ton-mile: A measurement system unit used to describe the equivalent of moving a ton of freight one mile

Tri-axle: A trailer with three axles in close proximity at the back

Truckload: Shipment that can fill an entire truckload and will ship directly to destination

Turnpike Double: A vehicle consisting of a cab pulling two 48ft trailers with a maximum weight of 147,000 pounds

Waybill: A document that outlines a shipment's contents, origin and destination