Logistics, Supply Chain & Trade Abbreviations
106 abbreviations · part of Business & Finance Abbreviations
Abbreviations used in shipping, freight, warehousing, inventory control, manufacturing planning, customs and international trade, including all eleven Incoterms 2020 rules. Entries explain where each term appears, such as on bills of lading, customs filings, freight quotes and warehouse systems, and how look-alike terms differ. Customs and trade requirements vary by country, so US and EU rules are noted where they matter most.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 3PL | Third-party logistics | Outsourced logistics services, such as warehousing, order fulfillment, transportation, freight brokerage, kitting and returns, provided by a specialist company on… |
| 4PL | Fourth-party logistics | Logistics model in which a single integrator manages a company's entire supply chain, including selecting and coordinating multiple 3PLs, carriers and technology… |
| AEO | Authorized Economic Operator | Status granted by customs authorities to businesses that meet security and compliance standards, giving them faster clearance, fewer inspections and simplified… |
| AES | Automated Export System | US government system through which exporters or their agents file Electronic Export Information on shipments leaving the country, receiving an Internal Transaction… |
| AGV | Automated guided vehicle | Driverless vehicle that moves materials in factories and warehouses along fixed routes guided by wires, magnetic tape, reflectors or markers. |
| AMR | Autonomous mobile robot | Warehouse or factory robot that uses sensors and onboard maps to navigate dynamically around people and obstacles, often bringing items to pickers or guiding them… |
| AMS | Automated Manifest System | US Customs and Border Protection system through which ocean carriers and NVOCCs electronically submit cargo manifest data, generally 24 hours before loading at the… |
| AS/RS | Automated storage and retrieval system | Computer-controlled system that automatically places and retrieves loads from storage locations, using cranes, shuttles or robots, allowing dense, high-bay storage with… |
| ASN | Advance shipping notice | Electronic message a supplier sends to a customer before a shipment arrives, listing what is being shipped, in which cartons or pallets, with carrier and tracking… |
| ATA Carnet | ATA Carnet | International customs document that allows temporary duty-free and tax-free import of goods such as commercial samples, professional equipment and trade show exhibits… |
| AWB | Air waybill | Non-negotiable transport document for air cargo, issued by or for the airline, serving as the contract of carriage and receipt for goods. |
| BAF | Bunker adjustment factor | Surcharge on ocean freight that adjusts for changes in the price of bunker (ship) fuel, usually recalculated monthly or quarterly by each carrier. |
| BCO | Beneficial cargo owner | Importer or exporter that actually owns the goods being shipped, such as a retailer or manufacturer, as distinct from a freight forwarder or NVOCC that books space on… |
| BOL | Bill of lading | Document issued by a carrier to a shipper that serves as a receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage and, in ocean shipping, a document of title that… |
| BOM | Bill of materials | Structured list of every part, subassembly, raw material and quantity needed to build a product, often arranged in levels that mirror the assembly. |
| C-TPAT | Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism | Voluntary US Customs and Border Protection program in which importers, carriers and other supply chain companies meet security criteria in exchange for benefits such as… |
| CBM | Cubic meter (freight) | Shipping and logistics abbreviation for cubic meter, the unit used to quote less-than-container-load (LCL) ocean freight and container capacity. |
| CFR | Cost and Freight | Sea and inland waterway rule in which the seller pays the cost of carriage to the named port of destination, but risk passes to the buyer once the goods are loaded on… |
| CFS | Container freight station | Warehouse at or near a port where LCL cargo is consolidated into containers for export or unloaded and separated for import. |
| CHB | Customs house broker | Licensed professional or firm that prepares and files customs entries, classifies goods, calculates duties and handles clearance on behalf of importers. |
| CI | Commercial invoice | Seller's invoice for internationally shipped goods, listing parties, description, quantities, unit values, currency, Incoterm and country of origin. |
| CIF | Cost, Insurance and Freight | Sea and inland waterway rule in which the seller pays freight to the named destination port and buys insurance for the buyer's benefit, while risk passes to the buyer… |
| CIP | Carriage and Insurance Paid To | Same as CPT, with the seller also obliged to buy cargo insurance covering the buyer's risk during carriage to the named destination. |
| CMR | Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road | 1956 international convention governing cross-border road freight in Europe and neighboring regions, and the standard consignment note (CMR note) used under it, which… |
| CO | Certificate of origin | Document certifying the country in which goods were manufactured, required by some importing countries and used to claim reduced duties under free trade agreements. |
| CPFR | Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment | Business practice in which retailers and suppliers share forecasts, promotion plans and sales data and jointly plan production and replenishment. |
| CPT | Carriage Paid To | The seller contracts and pays for carriage to a named destination, but risk passes to the buyer as soon as the goods are handed to the first carrier at origin. |
| CY | Container yard | Terminal or depot area where loaded and empty containers are stored before loading onto ships or after discharge, and where full container loads are received or picked… |
| D&D | Demurrage and detention | Charges for keeping containers beyond the free time allowed: demurrage generally applies while a full container stays in the terminal, and detention while the container… |
| D/O | Delivery order | Document issued by a carrier or its agent authorizing a terminal or warehouse to release cargo to the consignee or its trucker, after freight and charges are paid and… |
| DAP | Delivered at Place | Seller bears all costs and risks of transporting the goods to a named destination, delivering them on the arriving vehicle ready for unloading. |
| DAT | Delivered at Terminal | Former Incoterms rule, used in the 2010 edition, in which the seller delivered goods unloaded at a named terminal at destination. |
| DC | Distribution center | Warehouse designed for rapid throughput, receiving goods from suppliers and shipping them on to stores, other facilities or customers, rather than storing them for long… |
| DDP | Delivered Duty Paid | Incoterms rule placing the maximum obligation on the seller, who delivers the goods to the named destination cleared for import with all duties and taxes paid, ready… |
| DDU | Delivered Duty Unpaid | Delivery term from older Incoterms editions in which the seller delivered goods to the destination without paying import duties and taxes, which fell to the buyer. |
| DG | Dangerous goods | Materials that can harm people, property or the environment during transport, such as flammable liquids, lithium batteries, gases, corrosives and toxic substances… |
| DIM | Dimensional weight | Billable weight calculated from a package's volume, length times width times height divided by a carrier's divisor, used when it exceeds the actual weight, so carriers… |
| DOH | Days on hand | Number of days current inventory would last at the average rate of usage or sales, calculated as on-hand quantity divided by average daily demand. |
| DPU | Delivered at Place Unloaded | Only Incoterms rule requiring the seller to unload the goods at the named destination, bearing all costs and risks until they are unloaded there. |
| DSD | Direct store delivery | Distribution method in which suppliers deliver products straight to retail stores and often stock shelves themselves, bypassing the retailer's distribution centers. |
| EAN | European Article Number | Thirteen-digit product barcode standard (EAN-13) used on retail goods across most of the world outside North America, now officially called the International Article… |
| EDI | Electronic data interchange | Computer-to-computer exchange of standardized business documents, such as purchase orders, invoices and shipping notices, between trading partners without paper or… |
| EEI | Electronic Export Information | Export data, such as exporter, consignee, commodity classification, value and destination, filed through the Automated Export System for US exports, used for trade… |
| EOQ | Economic order quantity | Order size that minimizes the combined cost of ordering and holding inventory, calculated as the square root of two times annual demand times cost per order, divided by… |
| EORI | Economic Operators Registration and Identification number | Identification number that businesses need to import or export goods to or from the European Union or the United Kingdom, used on customs declarations. |
| ETD | Estimated time of departure | Predicted time at which a flight, ship, train or other journey will leave, revised as delays develop. |
| EXW | Ex Works | Incoterms rule placing the least obligation on the seller, who simply makes the goods available at its own premises or another named place, not loaded onto any vehicle… |
| FAK | Freight all kinds | Single freight rate applied regardless of the type of goods shipped, simplifying pricing for shippers with mixed commodities in LTL trucking or ocean contracts. |
| FAS | Free Alongside Ship | Sea and inland waterway rule in which the seller delivers the goods, cleared for export, alongside the vessel nominated by the buyer at the named port, for example on… |
| FC | Fulfillment center | Warehouse that stores inventory and picks, packs and ships individual online orders directly to consumers, often running around the clock with heavy automation. |
| FCA | Free Carrier | Seller delivers the goods, cleared for export, to a carrier or person nominated by the buyer at a named place: if that place is the seller's premises, the seller loads… |
| FCL | Full container load | Ocean freight booking in which one shipper uses an entire container, packing it at origin and having it delivered sealed to the consignee. |
| FEFO | First expired, first out | Stock rotation method that ships or uses the items with the earliest expiration date first, regardless of when they were received, to minimize waste of perishable goods. |
| FEU | Forty-foot equivalent unit | Measure of container capacity equal to one 40-foot container, or two TEU. |
| FF | Freight forwarder | Company that arranges the transport of goods on behalf of shippers, booking space with carriers, preparing documents, consolidating cargo and often handling customs… |
| FOB | Free on Board | Sea and inland waterway Incoterms rule in which the seller clears the goods for export and loads them on board the vessel nominated by the buyer at the named port of… |
| FTL | Full truckload | Trucking service in which one shipper's goods fill, or pay for, an entire trailer, moving directly from pickup to delivery without transfer at terminals. |
| FTZ | Foreign-trade zone | Designated area in the United States, under customs supervision, where foreign goods can be stored, processed or assembled without paying duties until they enter the US… |
| GRI | General rate increase | Across-the-board increase in ocean freight rates announced by carriers for a trade lane, effective on a set date, although not all announced GRIs hold in the market. |
| GTIN | Global Trade Item Number | Umbrella identifier, managed by GS1, covering the barcode numbers used for trade items worldwide: GTIN-12 (UPC), GTIN-13 (EAN), GTIN-14 for cases and cartons, and GTIN-8. |
| HAWB | House air waybill | Air waybill issued by a freight forwarder to an individual shipper in a consolidated air shipment, covering that shipper's goods under the airline's master air waybill. |
| HAZMAT | Hazardous materials | Substances such as chemicals, fuels, gases and radioactive materials that can harm people, property or the environment, and the specialized teams and procedures used to… |
| HBL | House bill of lading | Bill of lading issued by a freight forwarder or NVOCC to the actual shipper, as opposed to the master bill issued by the ocean carrier to the forwarder. |
| HC | High cube container | Shipping container that is 9 feet 6 inches tall instead of the standard 8 feet 6 inches, giving about 13% more volume. |
| HS | Harmonized System | International product classification system maintained by the World Customs Organization, assigning six-digit codes to more than 5,000 commodity groups so countries can… |
| HTS | Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States | Official US tariff schedule, maintained by the US International Trade Commission, that extends the six-digit Harmonized System to 10 digits and sets the duty rate for… |
| Incoterms | International Commercial Terms | Set of eleven standard trade rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce that define where a seller delivers goods, when risk passes to the buyer, and who… |
| ISF | Importer Security Filing | Data filing required by US Customs and Border Protection for ocean cargo bound for the United States, submitted at least 24 hours before the goods are loaded on the… |
| JIT | Just-in-time | Production and inventory strategy in which materials arrive only as they are needed for production or sale, minimizing inventory and waste. |
| L/C | Letter of credit | Bank's written promise to pay a seller on behalf of a buyer, provided the seller presents documents, such as a bill of lading and invoice, that comply exactly with the… |
| LCL | Less than container load | Ocean freight service for shipments too small to fill a container, in which a consolidator combines cargo from several shippers into one container and separates it… |
| LPN | License plate number | Unique barcode label applied to a pallet, carton or tote in a warehouse, letting the warehouse management system track its entire contents with one scan. |
| LTL | Less than truckload | Trucking service for shipments too small to fill a trailer, typically between about 150 and 15,000 pounds, in which freight from many shippers is combined on one truck… |
| MAWB | Master air waybill | Air waybill issued by the airline to a freight forwarder covering a whole consolidated shipment, which may contain many house air waybills. |
| MBL | Master bill of lading | Bill of lading issued by the ocean carrier, typically to a freight forwarder or NVOCC, covering the full container or consolidated shipment. |
| MPS | Master production schedule | Plan stating which finished products will be made, in what quantities and when, usually by week, which drives material requirements planning. |
| MRO | Maintenance, repair and operations | Supplies and services used to keep facilities and equipment running rather than becoming part of a finished product, such as tools, spare parts, lubricants, safety gear… |
| MRP | Material requirements planning | Planning method and software that calculates what materials and components a manufacturer needs, in what quantities and when, by exploding the bill of materials against… |
| MRP II | Manufacturing resource planning | Extension of material requirements planning that integrates production planning with capacity, shop floor control, purchasing and financial planning, simulating the… |
| NMFC | National Motor Freight Classification | Standard that groups commodities into 18 freight classes, from 50 to 500, based on density, handling, stowability and liability, used to price LTL shipments in North… |
| NVOCC | Non-vessel operating common carrier | Shipping intermediary that issues its own bills of lading and acts as a carrier to shippers but does not operate ships, instead buying space on ocean carriers' vessels. |
| OBL | Original bill of lading | Paper original of an ocean bill of lading, usually issued in a set of three, which must be presented to release cargo when the bill is negotiable. |
| OOG | Out of gauge | Cargo too large to fit within the dimensions of a standard container, such as machinery or boats, shipped on flat racks or open-top containers with special handling and… |
| OTD | On-time delivery | Percentage of orders or shipments delivered by the promised or requested date, used to measure supplier, carrier and manufacturing performance. |
| OTIF | On time in full | Delivery performance measure showing the percentage of orders delivered on the agreed date, in the full quantity ordered, and often with correct documentation. |
| PL | Packing list | Shipping document itemizing the contents of each package in a shipment, with quantities, weights and dimensions, used by forwarders, customs and receivers to check the… |
| POD | Proof of delivery | Evidence that a shipment reached its recipient, such as a signed delivery receipt, signature on a handheld device, photo or GPS record, used to confirm delivery… |
| POL | Port of loading | Port where cargo is loaded onto the vessel, shown on bookings and bills of lading and used to determine charges and Incoterm delivery points. |
| RMA | Return merchandise authorization | Approval and tracking number a seller or manufacturer issues before a customer returns a product for refund, repair, replacement or credit. |
| ROP | Reorder point | Inventory level at which a new order should be placed so that it arrives before stock runs out, calculated as average demand during the supplier's lead time plus safety… |
| RTV | Return to vendor | Process of sending unsold, defective or excess merchandise from a retailer or distributor back to the supplier for credit, replacement or disposal, under the terms of… |
| S&OP | Sales and operations planning | Monthly cross-functional process in which sales, marketing, operations, supply chain and finance agree on one demand forecast and a matching supply plan, reconciling… |
| SCAC | Standard Carrier Alpha Code | Unique two-to-four-letter code identifying a transportation company, used on bills of lading, EDI messages and customs filings. |
| SCM | Supply chain management | Coordination of the flow of materials, information and money from raw-material suppliers through manufacturing, distribution and retail to the end customer, covering… |
| SKU | Stock keeping unit | Unique code a business assigns to each distinct item it stocks, so that every combination of product, size, color or pack size can be tracked separately in inventory… |
| SS | Safety stock | Extra inventory held above expected demand to protect against unexpected spikes in sales or delays in supply, sized according to demand variability, lead time… |
| SSCC | Serial Shipping Container Code | Eighteen-digit GS1 number that uniquely identifies a logistics unit, such as a pallet or carton, printed as a GS1-128 barcode on a shipping label and referenced in… |
| SWB | Sea waybill | Non-negotiable ocean transport document that names the consignee, who can collect the cargo without presenting an original, making it faster and simpler than a bill of… |
| TEU | Twenty-foot equivalent unit | Standard measure of container shipping capacity, equal to one 20-foot shipping container. |
| THC | Terminal handling charge | Fee charged by shipping lines for handling containers at ports, covering moving them between vessel and container yard, billed separately at origin (OTHC) and… |
| TMS | Transportation management system | Software for planning, executing and optimizing freight shipments, including carrier selection, rate shopping, load building, tendering, tracking, freight auditing and… |
| UPC | Universal Product Code | Twelve-digit barcode standard printed on retail products in the United States and Canada, encoding a company prefix licensed from GS1 and an item number, scanned at… |
| VGM | Verified gross mass | Confirmed total weight of a packed shipping container, which the shipper must provide to the carrier before the container can be loaded onto a ship. |
| VMI | Vendor-managed inventory | Arrangement in which the supplier monitors a customer's inventory levels, using shared sales and stock data, and decides when and how much to replenish within agreed… |
| WMS | Warehouse management system | Software that controls warehouse operations, including receiving, put-away, storage locations, picking, packing, shipping, inventory counts and labor management, often… |
| WOS | Weeks of supply | Inventory measure expressing stock on hand as the number of weeks it would last at forecast or recent sales rates, common in retail and fashion planning. |
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