- Accessorial
- An extra fee added to the base shipping rate for a specific service or condition, such as residential delivery or additional handling.
- Additional handling
- A surcharge for packages that are oversized, oddly shaped, heavy, or not fully boxed, requiring special handling.
- Address correction
- A fee charged when a carrier has to correct an incomplete or inaccurate delivery address.
- Audit
- Reviewing carrier invoices line by line to catch and dispute billing errors and recover refunds.
- Base rate
- The published or contracted price to move a standard package between two points, before surcharges.
- Bid
- A carrier's pricing proposal for your business, typically in response to a request for rates.
- Billable weight
- The weight used to price a shipment: the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight.
- Carrier agreement
- The contract between a shipper and a carrier defining rates, discounts, surcharges, and terms.
- Chargeback
- A billed adjustment or fee applied by a carrier, often for a service or correction.
- Claim
- A request to a carrier for reimbursement on a lost or damaged shipment.
- Declared value
- The stated value of a shipment's contents, used for liability and insurance, which can carry a fee.
- Delivery area surcharge
- A fee for delivering to ZIP codes the carrier considers remote or extended.
- Demand surcharge
- A fee applied to specific services or package types during peak periods, often tied to volume tiers.
- DIM divisor
- The number used to convert cubic size into dimensional weight; a lower divisor means a higher billed weight.
- Dimensional weight
- A billable weight derived from a package's size (length × width × height ÷ divisor).
- Earned discount
- A discount tier unlocked by hitting a volume or spend threshold over a period.
- Fuel surcharge
- A percentage fee tied to fuel prices, reset regularly and applied to the base rate and many accessorials.
- General Rate Increase (GRI)
- The annual increase carriers apply to published rates and surcharges, usually effective in late December or January.
- Ground
- A carrier's economy service moving packages by road, typically the lowest cost for non-urgent freight.
- Guaranteed Service Refund (GSR)
- A refund owed when a carrier misses a guaranteed delivery commitment.
- Hundredweight (CWT)
- A pricing method for multiple-package shipments billed per hundred pounds.
- Incentive
- A negotiated discount off published rates in a carrier agreement.
- Last mile
- The final leg of delivery from a local facility to the recipient's address.
- Manifest
- The electronic record of shipments tendered to a carrier.
- Minimum charge
- The floor price for a shipment regardless of how low the calculated rate would be.
- Negotiated rate
- A contracted rate that differs from the carrier's published list price.
- Oversize / large package
- A surcharge category for packages exceeding size or length thresholds.
- Peak surcharge
- A seasonal fee applied during high-demand periods, especially the holiday season.
- Published rate
- A carrier's standard list price before any negotiated discounts.
- Rated weight
- See billable weight: the weight a shipment is actually charged on.
- Residential surcharge
- A per-package fee for delivery to a home rather than a commercial address.
- Reverse logistics
- The processes and cost of handling returns back through the supply chain.
- Saturday delivery
- An accessorial for weekend delivery service.
- Service level
- The speed and commitment tier of a shipment, such as ground, 2-day, or overnight.
- Shipping zone
- A band of distance between origin and destination that determines rate; higher zones cost more.
- Surcharge
- Any fee added on top of the base rate for a specific condition or service.
- Tender
- To hand off a shipment to a carrier for transport.
- Third-party billing
- Charging shipping to an account other than the shipper or recipient.
- Transit time
- The time a shipment takes from pickup to delivery.
- Zone skipping
- Moving freight in bulk closer to its destination before injecting it into a carrier, to lower zones.
