The freight terms, in plain language

A company you outsource part or all of your logistics to — brokerage, warehousing, transportation, and the coordination between them. RS Group is a 3PL: we move your freight and manage the moving parts so you don’t have to staff for it.

An extra service beyond the basic pickup-and-delivery line haul — liftgate, residential delivery, inside delivery, detention, reclassification. Accessorials carry their own charges, so naming the ones you need up front keeps a quote accurate.

The legal document that travels with a shipment. It’s the contract of carriage, the receipt for the goods, and the record of what’s moving — describing the freight, its class and weight, the shipper, and the consignee. Sign it carefully; it governs the move.

The company that actually hauls the freight — the trucking line, the LTL carrier, the drayage operator. A broker like RS Group doesn’t own the trucks; we match your load to the right carrier from a network of 34,000+.

The party receiving the shipment — the “ship to” on the bill of lading. The consignee is who the freight is delivered to and, depending on terms, who may be responsible for charges at delivery.

Combining multiple smaller shipments into one larger move to cut cost. Several LTL loads heading the same direction can be consolidated onto one trailer, so each shipper pays less than it would shipping alone.

Moving freight straight from an inbound truck to an outbound truck with little or no storage in between. Product is sorted on the dock and reloaded for its next leg, so it keeps moving instead of sitting on a rack.

Clearing freight through customs when it crosses a border — preparing entries, paying duties, and meeting the regulatory paperwork. International freight that doesn’t clear correctly gets held, so brokerage matters as much as the truck.

A charge for keeping equipment — typically an ocean container or rail car — at a port or terminal longer than the free time allowed. The clock starts fast at busy ports, which is why drayage timing is about money, not just movement.

A charge for holding a driver and truck at a loading or unloading dock beyond the agreed free time. If your dock is slow, detention adds up — and a good broker tells you about it before it surprises you on an invoice.

A short-haul move of a shipping container — usually between a port or rail ramp and a nearby warehouse. Drayage is the first or last mile of an intermodal move, and getting it done quickly avoids demurrage and per-diem charges.

The most common enclosed trailer — a standard box trailer for general, non-temperature-sensitive palletized or boxed freight. If your freight doesn’t need refrigeration, open sides, or special handling, it likely moves in a dry van.

A shipment that fills, or is dedicated to, an entire trailer. With FTL the freight rides alone from pickup to delivery with no transfers — faster and lower-risk for large loads, and often the right call above roughly 15,000 lbs.

A standardized NMFC classification (50 through 500) that LTL carriers use to price freight, based mainly on density plus handling, stowability, and liability. The right class is central to an accurate LTL quote; the wrong one triggers a reweigh and a corrected bill.

A shipment’s weight divided by its volume, in pounds per cubic foot. Density is the biggest driver of LTL freight class — denser freight generally classes lower and costs less to ship — so it’s worth calculating before you book.

Moving freight in a single container across more than one mode — typically truck and rail. Rail covers the long middle leg efficiently, with drayage handling the truck legs at each end. It can cut cost and emissions on the right lanes.

A specific origin-to-destination pairing for freight — say, Atlanta to Dallas. Carriers price and prefer certain lanes, so a broker who knows the lanes can find better capacity and rates than a one-off search.

A hydraulic platform on the back of a truck that raises and lowers freight between the trailer and the ground. It’s an accessorial you’ll need wherever there’s no dock — most residential and many commercial deliveries.

Shipping freight that doesn’t fill a whole trailer, sharing space (and cost) with other shippers’ loads. LTL is the economical choice for palletized freight roughly between 150 and 15,000 lbs, priced by weight, class, and distance.

The National Motor Freight Classification — the standard system that assigns commodities a freight class and item number for LTL pricing. Your product’s NMFC code determines how carriers rate it, so it’s the backbone of an LTL quote.

A middle ground between LTL and FTL — your freight rides with one or two other shipments but isn’t broken down and reclassified like LTL. PTL suits larger, denser loads (often 5,000–25,000 lbs) that don’t need a whole truck.

A temperature-controlled trailer — and the freight that needs it. Reefers keep food, pharmaceuticals, and other sensitive product within a set temperature range door to door. Set point and pre-cooling matter as much as the truck.

The party sending the freight — the “ship from” on the bill of lading. The shipper packs, labels, and tenders the load to the carrier, and usually originates the quote. That’s you, when you ship with us.

Transferring freight from one type of equipment to another mid-journey — classically unstuffing an ocean container and reloading the goods onto domestic trailers. It frees the container fast and lets the freight continue on the most efficient unit.