| Word | Description |
| Bottleneck | Any obstacle hindering the smooth running of freight transport operations, i.e. administrative, operational, legislative, local, national, Europe-wide or the like.[i] |
| Broker | A person who arranges for transportation of loads for a percentage of the revenue from the load. |
| Cargo exchange | When cargo is exchanged between modes or from carrier/shipper to customer. |
| Co-modality | Efficient use of transport modes on their own and in combination. |
| Container | A truck trailer body that can be detached from the chassis for loading into a vessel, a rail car or stacked in a container depot. Containers may be ventilated, insulated, refrigerated, flat rack, vehicle rack, open top, bulk liquid or equipped with interior devices. A container may be 20 feet, 40 feet, 45 feet, 48 feet or 53 feet in length, 8'0" or 8'6" in width, and 8'6" or 9'6" in height. |
| Door-to-door | Through transportation of a container and its contents from consignor to consignee. Also known as House to House. Not necessarily a through rate. |
| Freight Forwarder | A person whose business is to act as an agent on behalf of the shipper. A freight forwarder frequently makes the booking reservation. |
| Intermodality |
Intermodal transport is defined as “the movement of goods in one
loading unit, which uses successively several modes of transport
without handling of the goods themselves in transshipment between
the modes”. This entails that:
|
| Junction | Recognised by seamless modal interfaces between sea and land based transport modes, supported by simplified administrative procedures and harmonised laws and regulations for ensuring efficient inter- and co-modality. |
| Key Performance Indicator (KPI) | “a set of agreed indicators that describe and asses the performance of a carrier or an intermediary or an interchange point in terms of the quality of service offered to the customer ”[iii] |
| Logistics | The process of planning, implementing, and controlling the flow and storage of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from point of origin to point of consumption through various modes of transport for the purpose of meeting customer requirements.[iv] |
| Motorways of the Sea (MoS) | Motorways of the Sea, a seamless and sustainable interface between SSS and TEN-T. |
| Multipurpose Ship | Any ship capable of carrying different types of cargo which require different methods of handling. There are several types of ships falling into this category, for example, ships which can carry roll on/roll off cargo together with containers. |
| Port of Call | Port where a ship discharges or receives traffic. |
| Port of Entry | Port where cargo is unloaded and enters a country. |
| Port of Exit | Place where cargo is loaded and leaves a country. |
| Quality Criteria (QC) | “The characteristics of a product or service that determines whether it meets certain requirements” [v] |
| Ramp | Railroad terminal where containers are received or delivered and trains loaded or discharged. Originally, trailers moved onto the rearmost flatcar via a ramp and driven into position in a technique known as "circus loading." Most modern rail facilities use lifting equipment to position containers onto the flatcars. |
| Ro/Ro | A shortening of the term, "Roll On/Roll Off." A method of ocean cargo service using a vessel with ramps which allows wheeled vehicles to be loaded and discharged without cranes. |
| Seamless transport | A transport operation recognised by smooth operations and no bottlenecks. |
| Service Performance Indicator (SPI) | SPI is term used for performance indicators applied to logistics, used among others by Freight Transport Association and Europeans Shippers Council. The essence of the SPI is typically whether the cargo is delivered at the right place at the right time in the right condition (i.e. exposing customers’ perception of provided service). |
| Ship | Bulk Carriers All vessels designed to carry bulk cargo such as grain, fertilizers, ore, and oil. Combination Passenger and Cargo Ships Ships with a capacity for 13 or more passengers. Freighters Breakbulk vessels both refrigerated and unrefrigerated, containerships, partial containerships, roll-on/roll-off vessels, and barge carriers. Barge Carriers: Ships designed to carry barges; some are fitted to act as full containerships and can carry a varying number of barges and containers at the same time. At present this class includes two types of vessels LASH and Sea-Bee. General Cargo Carriers: Breakbulk freighters, car carriers, cattle carriers, pallet carriers and timber carriers. Full Containerships: Ships equipped with permanent container cells, with little or no space for other types of cargo. Partial Containerships: Multipurpose containerships where one or more but not all compartments are fitted with permanent container cells. Remaining compartments are used for other types of cargo. Roll-on/Roll-off vessels: Ships specially designed to carry wheeled containers or trailers using interior ramps. Tankers: Ships fitted with tanks to carry liquid cargo such as: crude petroleum and petroleum products; chemicals, Liquefied gasses (LNG and LPG), wine, molasses, and similar product tankers. |
| Shipment | The tender of one lot of cargo at one time from one shipper to one consignee on one bill of lading. |
| Shipper | The person or company who is usually the supplier or owner of commodities shipped. Also called Consignor. |
| Short Sea Shipping (SSS) | Short Sea Transport between two or more ports, including the terminal operations. Geographically confined to Europe. |
| Stevedore | Individual or firm that employs longshoremen and who contracts to load or unload the ship. |
| Stripping |
Removing cargo from a container (devanning). |
| Stuffing | Putting cargo into a container. |
| Super-junction | A junction for sea-2-sea interface supporting the consolidation of cargo. |
| Supply Chain | A logistical management system which integrates the sequence of activities from delivery of raw materials to the manufacturer through to delivery of the finished product to the customer into measurable components. "Just in Time" is a typical value-added example of supply chain management. |
| Tender | The offer of goods for transportation or the offer to place cars or containers for loading or unloading. |
| Terminal | An assigned area in which containers are prepared for loading into a vessel, train, truck, or airplane or are stacked immediately after discharge from the vessel, train, truck, or airplane. |
| Tranship | To transfer goods from one transportation line to another, or from one ship to another. |
| Transhipment port | Place where cargo is transferred to another carrier. |
| Transport Interface | To what degree interchanging transport modes affect each other’s performance, i.e. the interface can be seamless or recognised by bottlenecks of various degrees. |