Logis­tics, Freight For­ward­ing & Sup­ply Chain Glossary

A

Acces­so­r­ial Charges:
A carrier’s charges for addi­tional ser­vices such as load­ing, unload­ing, pickup, and deliv­ery.
Syn­onym: Acces­so­r­ial Fees

Accred­i­ta­tion:
Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that estab­lishes the com­pe­tency, author­ity, or cred­i­bil­ity of an orga­ni­za­tion or individual.

ACH (Auto­mated Clear­ing­house):
A nation­wide elec­tronic pay­ment sys­tem used by finan­cial insti­tu­tions for pro­cess­ing trans­ac­tions efficiently.

Acknowl­edg­ment:
Con­fir­ma­tion of an order’s receipt, pro­vided either elec­tron­i­cally or in phys­i­cal form.

Active Inven­tory:
Mate­ri­als stored for imme­di­ate use in man­u­fac­tur­ing or sale within a des­ig­nated period.

Advanced Ship­ping Notice (ASN):
Detailed ship­ment infor­ma­tion shared with a cus­tomer before deliv­ery, often used in EDI sys­tems (e.g., 856 transactions).

B

Bill of Lad­ing (BOL):
A legal trans­porta­tion doc­u­ment that acts as a receipt, con­tract, and title of goods between the ship­per and carrier.

Batch Pro­cess­ing:
Pro­cess­ing accu­mu­lated data in groups or batches instead of in real-​time.

Break-​Bulk:
Divid­ing con­sol­i­dated ship­ments into smaller lots for deliv­ery to consignees.

Bro­ker:
An inter­me­di­ary arrang­ing trans­porta­tion ser­vices between ship­pers and carriers.

C

Car­rier:
A com­pany that trans­ports goods or pas­sen­gers via land, sea, or air.

Cargo:
The goods being transported.

Cost, Insur­ance, Freight (CIF):
A ship­ping term where the seller cov­ers the cost of goods, insur­ance, and freight to a named destination.

Cross-​Docking:
A logis­tics process where goods are directly trans­ferred from inbound to out­bound trans­porta­tion with­out storage.

D

Demur­rage:
Charges incurred when freight remains in a carrier’s pos­ses­sion beyond the allot­ted free time.

Duty-​Free Zone (DFZ):
Areas where goods can be stored with­out pay­ing cus­toms duties.

F

FOB (Free on Board):
A ship­ping term deter­min­ing the point where respon­si­bil­ity and own­er­ship trans­fer from seller to buyer.

Freight For­warder:
An inter­me­di­ary spe­cial­iz­ing in arrang­ing the move­ment of goods, espe­cially for inter­na­tional shipments.

G

Gen­eral Aver­age:
A shared loss prin­ci­ple in mar­itime law, where all par­ties involved in a voy­age share the costs incurred from a vol­un­tary sac­ri­fice to save the voyage.

Goods Received Note (GRN):
Doc­u­men­ta­tion con­firm­ing receipt of mate­ri­als or products.

H

Haz­ardous Mate­r­ial (Haz­Mat):
Mate­ri­als requir­ing spe­cial han­dling due to risks posed to health, safety, or the environment.

I

INCOTERMS:
Inter­na­tional trade terms defin­ing the respon­si­bil­i­ties of buy­ers and sell­ers in global trade.

Inter­modal Trans­porta­tion:
Using mul­ti­ple modes of trans­port (e.g., truck, rail, ship) for a sin­gle shipment.

J

Just-​In-​Time (JIT):
An inven­tory man­age­ment strat­egy where mate­ri­als arrive pre­cisely when needed in production.

K

Key Per­for­mance Indi­ca­tor (KPI):
A mea­sur­able value that reflects the effec­tive­ness of an orga­ni­za­tion in achiev­ing objectives.

L

Logis­tics:
The plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of trans­porta­tion, stor­age, and deliv­ery of goods through­out the sup­ply chain.

Less-​Than-​Truckload (LTL):
Freight ship­ments weigh­ing less than 10,000 pounds, con­sol­i­dated with oth­ers to opti­mize costs.

M

Man­i­fest:
A detailed list of cargo or goods within a shipment.

Merge-​in-​Transit:
Com­bin­ing ship­ments from mul­ti­ple sup­pli­ers into one deliv­ery, bypass­ing tra­di­tional dis­tri­b­u­tion channels.

N

Node:
A fixed loca­tion in a logis­tics net­work where goods are stored or processed.

Non-​Vessel Oper­at­ing Com­mon Car­rier (NVOCC):
A firm act­ing as a car­rier with­out own­ing or oper­at­ing ships, often con­sol­i­dat­ing shipments.

O

Order Ful­fill­ment:
The process of com­plet­ing a customer’s order from receipt to delivery.

P

Pro­cure­ment:
The process of acquir­ing goods and ser­vices, encom­pass­ing plan­ning, sourc­ing, and purchasing.

Pal­let:
A portable plat­form for stack­ing, stor­ing, and trans­port­ing goods.

R

Reverse Logis­tics:
The process of man­ag­ing the return of goods, includ­ing repairs, recy­cling, and proper disposal.

Radio Fre­quency Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (RFID):
Tech­nol­ogy using elec­tro­mag­netic fields for iden­ti­fy­ing and track­ing objects, pro­vid­ing advan­tages over barcodes.

S

Stock Keep­ing Unit (SKU):
A unique iden­ti­fier for indi­vid­ual prod­ucts based on attrib­utes like size, color, or configuration.

Sup­ply Chain:
The inter­con­nected net­work of busi­nesses involved in the pro­duc­tion and deliv­ery of a prod­uct to the end customer.

T

Third-​Party Logis­tics (3PL):
Out­sourc­ing logis­tics oper­a­tions such as ware­hous­ing, trans­porta­tion, and dis­tri­b­u­tion to a spe­cial­ized provider.

Twenty-​foot Equiv­a­lent Unit (TEU):
A stan­dard mea­sure­ment for ship­ping con­tain­ers, based on a 20-​foot-​long container.

V

Vis­i­bil­ity:
The abil­ity to track and access real-​time infor­ma­tion about goods in tran­sit or inven­tory levels.