Glossary
Logistics glossary: terms in plain English
The definitions first, then what the term means for the work: warehouse, dock and freight vocabulary, one page each.
3
- 3PL A 3PL, third-party logistics provider, is an outside company that runs part of a shipper's logistics under contract: transportation, warehousing, fulfillment, or a combination.
A
- Accessorial charges Accessorial charges are the fees for services beyond the base move: waiting time, extra stops, liftgate, inside delivery, appointments, lumper fees, reschedules, TONU.
- ASN An ASN, advance ship notice, is a message sent before a shipment arrives that lists exactly what is coming: items, quantities, pack structure, carton identifiers and usually the expected delivery time.
B
- Backorder A backorder is an order line (or part of one) that could not be filled because the stock was not there, and is now waiting to be filled when it arrives.
- Batch picking Batch picking puts many orders into one pick run: instead of walking the warehouse for each order, the picker collects the combined quantity for a group and the orders are separated afterward (at a sort station, by cart, or by scan).
- BOL A bill of lading is the document that goes with freight and does three jobs at once: it receipts the carrier for the goods it received, it records the terms under which they are being carried, and in its negotiable form it represents ownership of the goods.
C
- Chassis A chassis is the wheeled steel frame, with its own axles, brakes and lights, that carries a shipping container over the road between port, rail ramp and warehouse.
- Cross-docking Cross-docking moves freight from the inbound door to the outbound door with little or no storage in between: what arrives on one truck is sorted and leaves on another, often within a day.
- Cycle count A cycle count counts part of the warehouse on a continuing schedule (today this aisle, tomorrow that class) so that every location is counted within the year without closing the building.
D
- Demurrage Demurrage is the daily charge for leaving a container inside a port, terminal or rail ramp beyond its free time.
- Detention Detention is the charge for keeping a carrier's equipment (a truck at your dock, a trailer on your lot) beyond the free time the rate or contract allows.
- Directed putaway Directed putaway is where the system, not the driver, chooses the exact storage location for each receipt: the pallet arrives, the system names a destination (by rules, capacity, velocity and what is already there), and the task is executed and confirmed.
- Dock-to-stock Dock-to-stock time measures how long a receipt takes to become sellable stock: from the truck at the door to the goods in a location where a picker can take them.
- Drayage Drayage is the short-haul move of a container or trailer between a port or rail ramp and a nearby warehouse, distribution center or cross-dock.
- DVIR A DVIR, driver vehicle inspection report, is the written report a commercial driver makes at the end of the day's work on a vehicle, covering the parts federal rules list (brakes, steering, lights, tires, horn, wipers, mirrors, coupling devices, wheels and rims, emergency equipment) and any defect found.
E
- EDI EDI, electronic data interchange, is the standard way trading partners exchange business documents as structured files instead of email and re-keying: an order goes in as one message, the tender comes back as another, the status update and the invoice follow the same pattern.
F
- FEFO First expired, first out (FEFO) ships the stock with the nearest expiry first, regardless of when it arrived.
- FIFO First in, first out (FIFO) means the stock that arrived first is shipped first.
- Freight class Freight class is the standardized rating used in LTL pricing: a class number (from the NMFC system, 50 to 500 in practice) that describes how a shipment behaves (density, handling difficulty, stowability, value) and sets the base rate per hundredweight.
- FTL FTL, full truckload, puts one shipper's freight in a dedicated trailer: no terminals, no handling between origin and destination, and a transit time the carrier commits to as a direct move.
I
- IFTA IFTA, the International Fuel Tax Agreement, is the arrangement between the 48 contiguous US states and the 10 Canadian provinces that lets a motor carrier file one quarterly fuel tax return with its base jurisdiction instead of separate returns in every jurisdiction it drives in.
- Intermodal Intermodal shipping moves freight in a single container over at least two modes (truck, rail, ocean) without the goods themselves being touched between them: the container is lifted, the freight inside stays sealed.
L
- LFD The last free day, LFD, is the final day a container or piece of equipment may stay at a port, terminal or rail ramp before demurrage charges begin.
- LTL LTL, less than truckload, moves freight that does not need a whole trailer: your shipment shares the truck with others, paying for the space and weight it occupies across a carrier's terminal network.
- Lumper fee A lumper fee is a charge for loading or unloading a truck by a third party: a warehouse crew or a specialized lumping company that does the physical work at the dock instead of the carrier's driver or the shipper's own staff.
O
- OS&D OS&D, over, short and damaged, is the handling of freight that does not match its paperwork: more arrived than expected (over), less (short), or it arrived broken or wet (damaged).
- OTIF OTIF, on time in full, is the share of orders delivered on the promised date and in the complete quantity: a delivery that arrives late, short or (for most retail programs) early does not count, unless the agreement excludes the cause.
P
- Pallet A pallet is the flat platform that lets goods be moved, stored and counted as one unit: forklift tines go in, the goods stay put, and the warehouse counts positions rather than pieces.
- Per diem A per diem charge is a daily fee for keeping equipment beyond its free days: most often a chassis or a container that has left the terminal but has not come back.
- POD Proof of delivery, POD, is the evidence that goods reached their destination: typically the signed delivery receipt, with the date, time, location and name of who signed, plus any exceptions noted at the door.
- Putaway Putaway is moving stock from the receiving dock into its storage location.
R
- Reorder point The reorder point is the stock level at which replenishment should be triggered: at or below it, order; above it, wait.
- RFQ An RFQ, request for quote, asks suppliers to price a specific, defined scope: you know what you want (a SKU, a lane, a build with clear requirements) and you want their numbers.
S
- Safety stock Safety stock is inventory held deliberately above expected demand to absorb variability: a late supplier, an order spike, a count that turned out to be wrong.
- SKU A SKU, stock keeping unit, is the code a business gives each distinct item it stocks: the unit inventory is counted, picked and reordered by.
T
- TONU TONU, truck ordered not used, is the charge raised when a carrier positions a truck for a load that the shipper then does not use: the appointment is canceled too late, the order is pulled, or the dock says no after the driver has arrived or been dispatched.
- Transload Transloading is moving freight from one container, trailer or mode into another at an intermediate point: ocean container to dry van at the port, rail boxcar to truck at the ramp, pallets from a long-haul trailer into local delivery vehicles.
W
- Wave picking Wave picking releases a group of orders to the floor at once, on a schedule: a wave is defined by something operational (a carrier cutoff, a route, a customer group, a time of day) and the pickers work that group together before the next one opens.
Y
- YMS A YMS, yard management system, tracks what happens between the gate and the dock: which trailers are on the property, where each one is parked, which door it is assigned to, who moved it and when.
Z
- Zone picking Zone picking divides the warehouse into areas and keeps each picker inside one: an order that needs items from three zones travels through three pickers (or is consolidated at a hand-off point) instead of sending one person across the whole building.
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