Freight and trucking glossary

A

• ATP: The UN agreement on carrying perishable food across borders; refrigerated and insulated equipment must be tested and certified under it.

• ATP

B

• Backhaul: The load a truck carries on its way back toward its base after delivering the main load.
• Backload (return load): The European and UK term for a backhaul: a load that fills the empty leg home.
• Bill of lading (BOL): The shipping document issued for a load in the USA: receipt for the goods, description of the freight and evidence of the contract of carriage.
• BOC-3: The FMCSA filing that names a process agent in every state for a US carrier or broker.
• Box truck: A straight truck with an enclosed cargo box, used for local and regional freight in the USA.

• Backhaul
• Backload (return load)
• BOC-3
• Box truck

C

• Cabotage: Domestic transport — pickup and delivery in the same country — by a haulier from another country. The EU and the UK each limit it.
• CMR consignment note: The transport document for international road freight under the CMR Convention (1956); in the UK often called a CMR note.
• Community licence: The EU licence a haulier needs for international road transport for hire within the EU.

• Cabotage
• CMR consignment note

D

• Deadhead: Miles a truck drives without a load.
• Detention: Waiting time at a pickup or delivery beyond the free time agreed; often paid by the hour in the USA.
• Dispatcher: A person who finds loads and plans trips for carriers or owner-operators.
• Double brokering: Re-brokering a load to another carrier without the shipper’s or broker’s knowledge — a common fraud pattern.
• Drayage: Short truck moves of containers between ports, rail yards and warehouses.
• Dry van: An enclosed, non-refrigerated trailer — in the USA usually 53 ft.

• Deadhead
• Double brokering
• Drayage
• Dry van

E

• ELD: Electronic logging device: records a US driver’s hours of service.

• ELD

F

• Flatbed: An open trailer without sides or roof, for machinery, steel and building materials.
• Freight broker: A company that arranges transport between a shipper and a carrier without carrying the freight itself.
• Freight exchange (load board): An online marketplace where loads are posted and carriers find them.
• FTL: Full truckload: one shipment that uses the whole trailer.

• Flatbed
• Freight broker
• Freight exchange (load board)

G

• Groupage: Several smaller shipments combined in one trailer; in the USA, LTL.

H

• Hours of service (HOS): The US rules on how long a truck driver may drive and work.
• Hotshot: Smaller, often urgent loads carried with a pickup truck and a flatbed or gooseneck trailer.

• Hours of service (HOS)
• Hotshot

I

• Intermodal: Freight that moves in one container or trailer by more than one mode, such as rail and truck.

• Intermodal

L

• LTL: Less than truckload: a shipment that fills only part of a trailer.

M

• MC number: The docket number of a US carrier’s or broker’s FMCSA operating authority for interstate for-hire work.
• Mega trailer: A European semi-trailer with a lower deck that gives about 3 m of internal height for voluminous freight.

• MC number

O

• Owner-operator: A driver who owns and runs their own truck, under their own authority or leased to a carrier.

• Owner-operator

P

• Power only: A load where the carrier supplies only the tractor and pulls the shipper’s trailer.

• Power only

R

• Rate confirmation: The written confirmation between a US broker and a carrier of one load’s rate, pickup, delivery and terms.
• Reefer: A refrigerated trailer for temperature-controlled freight.
• Ro-Ro: Roll-on/roll-off shipping: trucks or trailers drive onto a ferry, for example Turkey to Trieste.

• Reefer
• Ro-Ro

S

• Surety bond (BMC-84): One of the two ways a US freight broker files the required $75,000 of financial security; the other is a trust fund (BMC-85).

• Surety bond (BMC-84)

T

• Tautliner (curtainsider): A trailer with curtain sides that open for side loading; the standard European trailer.
• TIR carnet: The customs transit document of the TIR Convention, letting sealed loads cross several countries under one guarantee.

• TIR carnet

U

• UCR: Unified Carrier Registration: the yearly registration US interstate carriers and brokers renew.
• USDOT number: The identifier FMCSA gives commercial vehicle operators in interstate commerce.

• UCR
• USDOT number