Common Freight Shipping Terms You Should Know

Understanding some of the most common freight shipping acronyms related to logistics and transportation will assist you in tackling quotes and shipping contracts with confidence. We have collated some of the most common freight terms that you will see here on Truckit.net when discussing your freight listing with one of our Transport Providers & Customer Support Staff.

Owner Operator

• An owner-operator transport provider is someone who owns their own transport business and also drivers or manages a small team of drivers. Owning a trucking company includes owning or leasing one or more vehicles and finding freight to haul (on marketplaces like Truckit.net), as well as handling the day-to-day responsibilities that come with owning a business.

Freight Broker/Agent

A Freight broker is an agent between shippers and carriers. Instead of taking possession of the freight, the broker facilitates communication between the shipper and the carrier. They’re the ones making sure the handoff goes smoothly between carriers and shippers, and that freight arrives safely & on time.

Some shippers like working with freight brokers because they have a single point of contact from point A to point B while their freight moves to its destination. Working with a broker can eliminate the need to negotiate with a carrier, planning routes, and tracking freight. Some carriers also like working with freight brokers to optimise their routes and minimise dead kilometers, boosting their earnings in less time.

Cubic Weight

Also known as Volumetric Weight, and is a pricing technique for commercial freight transport which assigns a weight based on the volume of an item. For example, many pallet carriers use the cubic weight conversion of 1m3 = 333kg. Even though an item may only weigh 4kg, due to its size, it may be 15kg of cubic weight. For example, a large blanket might be relatively light, but large in size.

Door to Door / Depot to Depot

• Door-to-door is a shipping arrangement where goods are delivered direct between the sender and the receiver’s addresses. This is also known as a “house-to-house” service.
• Depot-to-depot is a shipping arrangement where goods are dropped off to a depot (often a large warehouse operated by a transport company) and is delivered to another depot.

Single Transit Insurance

• Single transit insurance is a type of insurance policy that covers business goods or personal belongings while they’re being moved from one place to another.

Consignee/Consignor

• The consignee is the party that receives the goods, also known as the receiver. 
• The Consignor is the shipper; this is the party that ships the goods.

Consignment Note

• A consignment note is a document sent with goods that are being delivered, which acts as receipt for the goods and also shows the agreement with the company delivering the goods.

Flatbed

A flatbed trailer is a typical open deck trailer that has no roof nor sides. It is mainly used for transporting heavy, oversized, wide and indelicate goods such as machinery, building supplies or equipment. The flatly shaped body makes it much easier to load and unload goods using ramps or lifting equipment.

Surcharges

A surcharge is an extra fee charged by a company to cover costs of one form or another. One example is a payment surcharge which may be charged by some merchants when a customer elects to pay by cheque, credit card, charge card or debit card. This covers the merchant’s costs (usually bank costs) of accepting this payment. 

Other types of charges:

• Tailgate fees
  • Some carriers will apply a tailgate fee when an item exceeds a predefined weight (often 25-30kg) and there is no  forklift / assistance available at the collection / delivery point. Due to OH&S laws drivers can only lift 30kg* unassisted. For goods 30kg*-50kg assistance is required. If no assistance is available any item over 30kg* requires a tailgate which is at an additional cost.
• Residential fees
  • A transport provider may charge more for picking up from or delivering to a residential area. This will be included in the quote terms. 
• Fuel surcharges
  • A fuel surcharge is a fee assessed by a carrier to account for regional / seasonal variations in fuel costs. A fuel surcharge is most often seen in trucking, but an ocean or air carrier may also assess a fuel surcharge. A fuel surcharge helps protect the carrier from the volatility of fuel prices. 

Dangerous Goods

• Dangerous goods have many different classes, divisions and packing groups. To find the one you’re looking for, please look here for QLD’s: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/transport/dangerous-goods/defined. Please make sure you look at your own state guidelines as not every state is the same.

CAR SPECIFIC:

Auction House

• An auction house is a company that facilitates the buying and selling of second hand assets, such as vehicles, works of art and collectibles. An auction house may sometimes refer to the facility that an auction is taking place in, most commonly referring to the company running the auction.

Salvage Yard

• A salvage yard is similar to an auction house however they also deal in cars that are written-off or non registerable. For insurance reasons, some carriers will not pick up vehicles from a salvage yard, but there are also plenty who will.

Drivable

• Capable of being driven safely or successfully (on a road or other surface) with working brakes. 

Goods in Car

• Anything in your vehicle that is classed as a personal item. This does not include baby seats, factory tyres or manufacturing tools. To read more about the regulations surrounding transporting personal goods within your car, please read this article.

Driven Service

• Where someone will drive your car or motorhome from points A to point B.