Freight & logistics glossary

An accessorial charge is any fee for work beyond the basic pickup-to-delivery transportation of a load — detention, layover, lumpers, extra stops, tarping, liftgate service, redelivery, and similar.

A backhaul is a load a carrier books for the return leg of a trip, moving freight back toward its home base or its next planned pickup instead of running empty.

Cross-docking is moving freight directly from an inbound truck to an outbound truck at a dock, with little or no storage in between — used to consolidate, deconsolidate, or re-sort shipments in transit.

Deadhead is the distance a commercial truck drives with an empty trailer, usually between dropping one load and picking up the next.

Detention is a charge a carrier bills when a driver is held at a shipper or receiver longer than the free time allowed in the load agreement, compensating for the lost time and equipment use.

Drayage is the short-distance trucking of an ocean or rail container between a port or intermodal terminal and a nearby warehouse, rail yard, or customer.

A dry van is a fully enclosed box trailer — the standard 53-foot trailer used for palletized and packaged freight that does not need temperature control or open-deck loading.

Dwell time is how long a truck, trailer, or container sits idle at a facility — waiting to be loaded or unloaded, or parked after arrival before it is worked.

A flatbed is an open trailer with no walls or roof, used for freight that is loaded from the side or top by crane or forklift — building materials, steel, machinery, lumber, and oversized items.

Full truckload (FTL) shipping dedicates an entire trailer to one shipper’s freight, which moves directly from pickup to delivery without terminal sorting or other shippers’ goods on board.

Intermodal freight moves in the same container across more than one mode — typically truck to rail and back to truck — without the goods being handled between modes.

A layover charge compensates a carrier when a driver and truck are forced to wait overnight — or a full additional day — because a facility cannot load or unload on the scheduled day.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping moves freight that does not fill a full trailer by combining multiple shippers’ shipments on one truck, with each shipper paying for the space and weight it uses.

Linehaul is the core transportation charge for moving a load from origin to destination — the rate before fuel surcharge and accessorials are added.

A load board is an online marketplace where brokers and shippers post available freight and carriers search for loads to haul, filtered by origin, destination, equipment type, and date.

A lumper fee is the charge for third-party labor that loads or unloads a trailer at a facility — common at grocery and food-service distribution centers where the receiver requires its contracted crew to handle the freight.

Partial truckload is freight too large for economical LTL but too small to fill a trailer — moved with one or two other shipments, usually without terminal handling.

A reefer is a refrigerated trailer with an insulated body and a diesel-powered cooling unit, used to move temperature-controlled freight such as produce, meat, dairy, frozen goods, and some pharmaceuticals.

A chargeback is an amount a broker, shipper, or factor subtracts from what it owes a carrier — for a claim, a service failure, an overpayment, an advance, or a compliance fine — instead of paying it and invoicing separately.

A contract rate is a pre-agreed price for a lane over a set period — often a year — that a shipper and carrier commit to regardless of short-term swings in the spot market.

Cost per mile is a carrier’s total operating cost over a period divided by the miles run in that period — the number every mile has to earn before the operation makes a profit.

Days sales outstanding is the average number of days it takes a carrier to collect payment after invoicing — a measure of how fast freight revenue turns into cash.

Freight factoring is selling a load’s invoice to a factoring company for most of its value immediately, so the carrier gets paid in days instead of waiting the 30 to 45 days a broker or shipper typically takes.

A fuel surcharge is a separate, variable charge added to the linehaul rate to pass through the cost of diesel above a baseline price, so the base rate does not have to be renegotiated every time fuel moves.

Operating ratio is operating expenses divided by operating revenue, expressed as a percentage — a measure of how efficiently a carrier turns freight revenue into operating profit, where lower is better.

Quick pay is an option some brokers and shippers offer to pay a carrier’s invoice early — often within one to three days — in exchange for a small percentage discount off the invoice.

With recourse factoring, the carrier must buy back an invoice the factor cannot collect; with non-recourse factoring, the factor absorbs the loss if the debtor fails to pay for approved credit reasons — usually for a higher fee.

Revenue per mile is total freight revenue over a period divided by the miles run — the average a carrier actually earned per mile once deadhead and low-rate loads are blended in.

A settlement is the pay statement that reconciles what a driver or owner-operator earned against what is deducted — showing load pay, accessorials, fuel advances, insurance, escrow, and other items to arrive at the net amount paid.

A spot rate is the price for a single load booked on the open market for near-term pickup, set by supply and demand on that lane at that moment rather than by a standing contract.

A bill of lading is the document issued at pickup that serves three roles at once: a receipt for the goods, a statement of the contract of carriage, and — in its negotiable form — a document of title to the freight.

A proof of delivery is the document — usually a signed delivery receipt or bill of lading — showing that the consignee received the freight, in what condition, and at what time. It is the document that lets a carrier invoice a load and defend it against a claim.

A rate confirmation is the document a broker or shipper sends a carrier to confirm a booked load — the agreed rate, the pickup and delivery details, the equipment, and the terms for accessorials like detention and layover.

A SCAC (Standard Carrier Alpha Code) is a two-to-four-letter code that uniquely identifies a transportation company on shipping documents, EDI messages, and shipper routing guides.

A weight ticket is a certified scale record showing a truck’s axle and gross weights, used to prove the load is legal, to settle weight-based freight charges, and to resolve overweight disputes.