Glossary
Trucking terms in plain English
The paperwork, money and freight words a carrier deals with daily, defined without jargon.
Free for up to 3 trucks. No card required.
Paperwork on the load
4 pagesThe documents that travel with the freight and decide whether you get paid for it.
What is a rate confirmation?
The document that sets what a broker pays a carrier for a load, and why every detail on it matters when the invoice is disputed.
What is a bill of lading?
The document that travels with the freight, what it evidences, and why a signed copy matters for getting paid.
What is a TMS?
A transportation management system is the software a carrier runs its loads, drivers, paperwork and billing on. Here is what one actually does.
What is a load board?
Where brokers post available freight and carriers find it, and how carriers use several at once.
Money and what gets deducted
6 pagesThe lines that show up on a settlement or an invoice and are not always self-explanatory.
What is detention?
What detention is, when it usually starts, and why so much of it never gets billed.
What is a lumper fee?
The charge for third-party loading or unloading at a warehouse, who pays it, and how to make sure it gets reimbursed.
What is TONU?
The payment owed when a truck is dispatched and the load then falls through, and why it needs recording properly.
What is deadhead?
Empty miles between loads, why they quietly destroy margin, and how to reduce them when planning capacity.
What is freight factoring?
Selling your invoices for immediate cash instead of waiting on broker payment terms, and what it costs you.
What is IFTA?
The International Fuel Tax Agreement in plain terms, and what carriers need to be recording throughout the quarter.
Compliance and the driver file
2 pagesWhat has to exist, be current, and be produceable when somebody asks.
Ways freight moves
3 pagesModes and arrangements you will be quoted on.
What is drayage?
Short-haul container moves between ports, rail yards and warehouses, and why the economics differ from long-haul.
What is intermodal freight?
Freight that travels by more than one mode in the same container, and where trucking fits into it.
What is an owner-operator?
A driver who owns their truck, how they are paid differently from a company driver, and why software has to know the difference.
Everything else
4 pagesFurther guides.
What is a CRM in logistics?
In freight a CRM tracks the companies that give you loads - brokers, shippers and consignees - not consumers. What that changes about the record.
What is fleet management software?
Fleet management software looks after the vehicles - location, servicing, fuel, driving. A TMS looks after the freight. Why buying the wrong one hurts.
What is an ELD?
An ELD records a driver's duty status from the engine instead of a paper log. Who needs one, who can still use paper, and why the usual exemption is the wrong one.
What is MC authority?
Operating authority and a USDOT Number are two separate requirements, not two names for one. What each covers, and why a carrier can hold one without the other.
The words each part of the job uses
The same terms, indexed by the module they belong to. Useful the other way round: if you are reading about a module, this is the vocabulary it assumes you already have.
- Dispatch software with every module on every plan
Detention · Drayage · Intermodal · TONU
- Every driver, every day, on one board
- One search across every load board you pay for
- A real driver app, included in every plan
- Maintenance that knows what the truck is under
- DVIR, inspections and defects that actually close the loop
- Driver qualification files that are never quietly out of date
Driver qualification file · MC authority (operating authority)
- Settlements that agree with the load and the P&L
- Invoice, age and factor without re-keying anything
Detention · Bill of lading · Lumper fee · Freight factoring · CRM (in logistics)
- A P&L you can actually act on
- IFTA without the quarterly scramble
- Know who is asking before the truck moves
- Truck and driver safety on one screen
- Dispatch that can see the hours before it plans the week
Every term above is a screen in Tezify
Run your real loads through it before you decide anything.
- Free tier
- Up to 3 trucks, permanently
- After that
- $19 per truck, not per seat
- Included
- Every module, on every plan