Freight Dictionary

Tailgate: Tailgating occurs when a driver is required to bring cargo to the back of the trailer, often necessary when the receiver lacks a loading dock or forklift.

Team Driver: Team drivers are pairs or groups of two or more drivers who share driving duties and operate the same truck in shifts, enabling continuous movement of the vehicle, often used for time-sensitive freight.

Temperature-controlled logistics involves managing shipping and storage conditions to maintain a regulated temperature through built-in systems or external appliances.

This process encompasses the monitoring and adjusting of heat energy entering or leaving a product or environment to sustain a specific temperature range.

In logistics, temperature control ensures that goods such as perishable food, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals are transported optimally to preserve quality and integrity.

This system relies on sophisticated technology to constantly measure and adjust temperatures throughout the transportation and storage phases, ensuring that products remain within safe temperature thresholds from origin to destination.

Terminal: A terminal is a facility or dock where freight is sorted and redistributed onto different trucks, serving as a crucial hub in the transportation network.

NMFTA: The National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA) provides expertise in freight classification, packaging standards, and transportation codes, contributing to industry standardization.

A 3PL, or third-party logistics provider, controls a company’s supply chain functions.

This service includes storing goods in warehouses, picking and packing products, and shipping customer orders.

Companies outsource these tasks to focus more on their core business operations while leaving logistics complexities to experts.

The process starts when a business hands over its inventory management and product delivery duties to a 3PL provider.

Tote: A tote is a container commonly used for packaging chemicals and other substances during transportation.

Trans-loading: Trans-loading is the process of transferring cargo from one mode of transportation to another, enabling seamless movement across various transportation methods.

Transit Time: Transit time represents the total duration from the pick-up of a shipment to its delivery, excluding the day of pick-up, weekends, and holidays.

A truckload refers to the quantity of freight sufficient to fill an entire truck.

Alternatively, it can describe a shipment that takes up nearly all the space in a truck.

This term differentiates the shipping and logistics industry from less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping, where smaller shipments from multiple customers are consolidated into a single truck.

Truckload shipping is typically used for larger shipments that must be transported directly from the sender to the receiver without intermediate stops or handling.