Freight, Maritime & Customs Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms that show up in freight forwarding, maritime, NVOCC, ground handling, customs and EDI workflows — with diagrams, formulas and real examples, written by people who run these workflows.

8 categories Freight · Maritime · Customs · Air Cargo · EDI
Freight & NVOCC
The language of freight forwarding, NVOCC and multimodal transport — bills of lading, container loads, charges and the documents that move cargo by sea, road and rail.
Maritime & Ship Management
Ship management, chartering, class and compliance — the terms behind vessel operations, from charter parties and dry-docking to ISM, SOLAS and MARPOL.
Supply Chain & Inventory
The concepts and metrics of supply chain and inventory management — safety stock, reorder points, EOQ, inventory turnover, OTIF and the bullwhip effect.
Customs & Compliance
Customs clearance and trade compliance — HS codes, AEO, free trade zones and the frameworks that govern goods crossing borders.
Air Cargo & Ground Handling
Air freight and ground handling — air waybills, ULDs, dangerous goods and the acceptance and handling of cargo through the airport.
EDI & Standards
Electronic data interchange standards — the message formats (EDIFACT, ANSI X12, BAPLIE, COPRAR) that let carriers, ports and customs exchange data.
AI & Analytics
The AI and analytics ideas behind modern logistics software — machine learning, predictive and prescriptive analytics, document AI, agents and anomaly detection.
Technology & IoT
The technology behind connected logistics — IoT sensors, gateways and edge devices, cloud and edge computing, APIs and the protocols that link devices, ships, cargo and systems.
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