Term or Acronyms

Definition

3PL

Third-Party Logistics Provider

4PL

Fourth-Party Logistics Provider. A company that coordinates the activity of one or more 3PL’s on behalf of a customer.

ABM

Activity-Based Management: application of ABC (Activity-Based Costing) to business performance.

ABP

Asset-Based Provider

ACR

All-Commodity Rate

ADP

Automatic Data Processing

ADR

Regulations for international movements of hazardous goods by road (see also IMDG, RID).

AEA

Association of European Airlines

AFH

Away From Home: FMCG-type products used away from home - e.g. those found in industrial, hotel or institutional applications.

AGV

Automated Guided Vehicle: also AGVS ("Automated Guided Vehicle System").

aka

also known as

ANA

Article Numbering Association: see also EAN.

ANSI

American National Standards Institute: US standards organization (see also BSI, ISO).

AOC

Agent of Change

APS

Advanced Planning & Scheduling: manufacturers' approach to planning and scheduling which deals directly with the constraints of production capacity and materials availability.

AQR

Any Quantity Rate: a fixed rate for transport, with no discount available for larger shipments.

AR

Automatic Replenishment: an extension of QR and CR where suppliers assume responsibility for retail inventories and replenishment (aka "Profile Replenishment").

ASN

Advanced Shipping Notification: electronic pre-notification of an upcoming shipment to the next stage in the supply chain.

ASP

Application Service Provider: application hosting and online network infrastructure for software vendors and end-users.

ASRS

Automated Storage and Retrieval System: automated warehousing.

ATA

Admission Temporaire: or temporary admission (Customs Warehousing term). Also "American Trucking Associations.”

ATS

Automatic Transportation System.

AVI

Automatic Vehicle Identification: applications of this new technology include detecting stolen vehicles and collecting tolls via electronic road pricing.

AVL

Automatic Vehicle Location: electronic location of vehicles using satellite or ground-based tracking. See also AVI, IVHS.

AWB

Air Way Bill

B/L

Bill of Lading. Also: SBOL, TBOL.

B2B

Business-to-Business

BACS

Bankers' Automated Clearing System

BAF

Bunker Adjustment Factor

BBC

Bumper to Back of Cab: distance between the front bumper of a commercial vehicle and the back of its cab.

BBP

Business-to-Business Procurement

bhp

brake horsepower: unit of engine power.

BI

Business Intelligence

BOL

Bill of Lading. Usually B/L.

BOM

Bill of Material

BPI

Business Process Improvement: business improvement practice using performance measurement to reduce or eliminate non-value added activities or costs, while at least maintaining quality, productivity, etc.

BPO

Business Process Optimization (see also eBPO)

BPR

Business Process Re-engineering

Buddy

A new employee co-worker, selected by HR and by employee manager, who will offer advice and guide a new colleague on all work related and company related matters in order to provide additional source of information and security on first days of employment.

BWS

Beers, Wines and Spirits

C

C-Type Warehouse: A physical Customs Warehouse (i.e. where goods are not subject to excise duty) in which the warehouse keeper takes on full responsibility for the goods stored, or owns them. See also A, D, E.

C&F

Cost and Freight: price includes goods and transport.

C21

Customs Clearance Request using form C21.

CAD

Cash Against Documents or "Computer-Aided Design.”

CAF

Currency Adjustment Factor or "Cost And Freight"

CALS

CALS

Continuous Acquisition & Life-cycle Support: strategy for streamlining business processes information exchange within an organization (formerly known as "Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support").

CAO

Computer-Assisted Ordering: computerized generation of store replenishment orders from POS, PI and shelf-stock data.

CAST-DPM

Computer-Aided Strategy and Tactics - Distribution Planning Model: proprietary software package designed to optimize vehicle fleets, depot locations, warehouse layouts, etc.

CBD

Cash Before Delivery

CC

Cubic Centimeters (e.g. engine size). Or "Cubic Capacity" (e.g. volume of truck body). Also "Carbon Copy.”

CCR

Capacity Constraining Resource: a bottleneck.

CCTV

Closed Circuit Television: often used in security.

CDG

Carriage of Dangerous Goods: usually expressed as either "CDG Road" or "CDG Rail.”

CDL

Commercial Driving License

CFBR

Customs Freight Business Review

CFCs

Chlorofluorocarbons: range of chemicals at one time widely used in packaging, propellants and refrigerants but now believed to be responsible for the destruction of ozone in the upper atmosphere and consequently global warming.

CFD

Continuous Flow Distribution

CFR

Cost and Freight: also "CAF."

CFSP

Customs Freight Simplified Procedures: rapid release of imports by customs via EDI.

CFT

Cross-Functional Team: a multi-skilled team.

CHIEF

Customs Handling of Import & Export Freight. See also IES and MSS.

CIE

Customs Input of Entries

CIES

The Food Business Forum (Paris)

CIF

Cost, Insurance & Freight: i.e. price includes cost (of goods), insurance and transport.

CIM

International convention on the movement of freight by rail.

CKD

Complete Knock-Down: e.g. deconstruction of vehicles (etc.) for subsequent re-assembly at destination. See also SKD.

CL

Carload: a rail freight term.

CLM

Council of Logistics Management.

CLO

Chief Logistics Officer

CLR

Competitive Line Rate: a rail freight term.

CMR

International convention for the carriage of goods by road.

CNG

Compressed Natural Gas: used as motor fuel (see also LNG, LPG).

COA

Cab Over Engine: truck design where cab unit is positioned directly over the engine.

COD

Cash On Delivery: see also CWO.

COFC

Container On a Flatcar: see also TOFC.

CofI

Certificate of Inspection

CofM

Certificate of Manufacture. Also COM.

CofO

Certificate of Origin

CofS

Certificate of Shipment

COGSA

Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (USA).

COM

Certificate of Manufacture. Also CofM.

Company Information

Company Profile, includes Mission Statement and Corporate Objectives, Our Products, Founders & Key Executives and Organizational Chart.

COO

Chief Operating Officer: see also CEO.

Corrective Action Request (CAR)

The Corrective Action Request Form is a report issued to a specific person or department indicating a situation that is nonconforming that must be corrected. The CAR provides an area for the person or department to document the cause of the nonconformity and to describe any actions that will be taken to correct and prevent a similar nonconformity in the future. The CAR form is used in an internal audit to request corrective and/or preventative actions as a result of an internal audit.

CPC

Certificate of Professional Competence: a professional standard for UK road haulage operators, administered by the DETR. Also "Customs Procedure Code.”

CPFR

Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment

CPG

Consumer Packaged Goods: see also FMCG.

CPT

Carriage Paid To

CR

Continuous Replenishment: a modification of QR which eliminates the need for replenishment orders individual customer's purchases trigger manufacturing and distribution. See also AR and VMI.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management: management concept founded on the discovery that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company's profitability by 25—125%.

CRP

Capacity Requirements Planning: the process of establishing, measuring and adjusting limits or levels of capacity - e.g. to determine the human and machine resources required for production.

CRT

Continuously Regenerating Trap: vehicle exhaust system claimed to substantially reduce potentially harmful emissions when used with ULSD.

CS

Customer Service

CSRGT

Continuing Survey of Road Goods Transport: UK government survey.

CT

Channel Tunnel: the 22-mile rail tunnel linking the UK and France.

CUSDEC

Customs Declaration message.

CUSRES

Customs Response message.

Customer Complaint

Is a nonconformity that was not discovered in house,  but was discovered and reported by the customer. This is a very serious condition!

Customer Satisfaction

The measurement of the quality of product  or service as identified by statistical return and defect criteria, as well as annual Customer Satisfaction surveys for non-hardware related products.

Customer Supplied Product (CSP)

Material, product, fixtures, software, hardware, intellectual property or other items supplied by the customer to be used in the manufacturing, development or testing of product at the company and/or to be incorporated into the manufacturing process's.

Customer

Organization that purchases products or services from the company.

CV

Commercial Vehicle: a truck.

CVO

Commercial Vehicle Operations

CWO

Cash With Order: see also COD.

D

D-Type Warehouse: A Customs Warehouse (i.e. where goods are not subject to excise duty) where the value, nature and quantity of goods stored are established when the goods arrive (but not when they leave). See also A, C, E.

DAF

Delivered At Frontier

DC

Distribution Center. Also RDC, NDC, EDC, IDC.

DCC

Dedicated Contract Carriage: dedicated contract transport service.

DCM

Distribution Channel Management: strategic management of direct and indirect supply channels.

DDE

Direct Data Entry

DDP

Delivery with Duty Paid: see also "DDU.”

DDR

Driver's Daily Report

DDU

Delivery with Duty Unpaid: see also "DDP.”

Departmental Review Meeting

A meeting held each month within each department. This meeting is chaired by the Department Manager and attended by all of the employees in the department.

DEQ

Delivery Ex-Quay

DES

Delivery Ex-Ship

DI

Direct Input

Disposition of Nonconformity

Action to be taken to deal with an existing activity, process, product, organization or any combination thereof in order to resolve the nonconformity.

DIY

Do-it-Yourself: home-improvement merchandise.

DM

Depot Manager or "Depot Maintenance."

DOA

Dead On Arrival: imperfect delivery.

DOG

Daily Order Generation

DOT

US Department of Transportation (e.g. US): full title in UK is "Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions" (DETR).

DPO

Documentary Proof of Origin

DRP

Distribution Requirements Planning: sophisticated planning technique where consumer demand sets inventory levels. See also MRP.

DSD

Direct to Store Delivery: a retail delivery which has not passed through an RDC.

DTD

Door-to-Door delivery service.

DUP

Duty Unpaid

DWT

Dead Weight Tonnage: ship's cargo capacity.

E

E-Type Warehouse: A public Customs Warehouse (i.e. where goods are not subject to excise duty) where trader and trader's system are authorized for warehousing, with goods stored at notified storage facilities. See also A, C, D.

E&IC

Excise & Inland Customs

EAI

Enterprise Application Integration

EAN

European Article Numbering: bar code system used primarily in the retail industry and controlled by the European Article Numbering Association.

EAS

Electronic Article Surveillance: popular item security system used by retailers, based on magnetic tags.

eBPO

Electronic Business Process Optimization

ECA

Electronic Commerce Association

ECR

Efficient Consumer Response: logistics discipline involving the synchronization of suppliers' and retailers' supply chains to reduce stocks. If stocks are cut then supply chains must be able to respond more efficiently to changes in consumer demand - i.e. they must make an "efficient consumer response.” (See also AR, CR, ER, QR, etc.)

ECU

European Currency Unit: early name for the Euro.

EDC

European Distribution Centre: see also RDC, NDC, IDC. Also "Electronic Data Capture.”

EDI

Electronic Data Interchange: electronic transfer of data - especially sales volumes, stocks, orders, etc. See also FEDI, TEDIS.

EDIFACT

Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce & Transport: a UN initiative.

EFR

Efficient Foodservice Response: ECR for the catering trade.

EFT

Electronic Funds Transfer

EFTPoS

Electronic Fund Transfer Point of Sale: EPoS for financial data.

EHS

Electronic Home Shopping: shopping via the Internet.

ELC

Export Letter of Credit: see also L/C, ILC.

EOQ

Economic Order Quantity

EPoS

Electronic Point of Sale: system for capturing sales data at the checkout.

EPS

Earnings Per Share

EPU

Entry Processing Unit

ER

Efficient Replenishment or Effective Replenishment: a facet of ECR.

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning: integration of technology to run all manufacturing and related processes across an entire enterprise. Also "Electronic Road Pricing."

ERTS

Enhanced Remote Transit Shed

ESP

Events Stock Planning: planning technique for those without Extra Sensory Perception.

ETA

Estimated Time of Arrival

EU

European Union: a group of 15 European countries (member states), including the UK, which are working towards a system of ever-closer union. The EU's population is about 370 million. See also EFTA.

EUL

Efficient Unit Loads

EV

Electric Vehicle

EVA

Economic Value Added

FAK

Freight All Kinds

FAS

Free Alongside: price includes delivery of goods alongside ship at port of export. See also FOB. Also "Flexible Accounting System.”

FB

Freight Bill

FBO

Fixed-Base Operator

FC&S

Free of Capture & Seizure: clause which excludes war risks from a marine insurance policy.

FCI

Freight Carriage & Insurance: price includes transport and insurance.

FCL

Full Container Load

FCP

Freight Carriage Paid

FCR

Forwarders' Certificate of Receipt: negotiable banking document.

FEDI

Financial Electronic Data Interchange. See also EDI.

FEU

Forty-Foot Equivalent Unit: a standard measure for containers (see also TEU).

FF

Freight Forwarder

FFS

Finite Forward Scheduling: manufacturers' scheduling approach which assumes there is a finite production capacity (c.f. the "infinite" capacity assumptions of MRP II planning).

FID

Foreign Income Dividend

FIEO

Federation of Indian Export Organisations

FIFO

First In First Out: warehousing term, meaning that the oldest inventory (first in) is the first to be used (first out). See also LIFO.

FLT

Fork Lift Truck

FMC

Fully Mission Capable: a system that works. (See also NMC.)

FMCG

Fast Moving Consumer Goods: i.e. food, drink, pharmaceuticals, household products, etc.

FMI

Food Marketing Institute: US food industry trade association.

FOB

Free On Board: point during transportation where title, transport costs, risk, etc. transfer from seller to another party (e.g. FOB Truck, FOB Vessel, FOB Warehouse). See also FAS, FOR, FOT. Also "Freight On Board.”

FOC

Free of Charge

FOR

Free On Rail: point during transportation where title, transport costs, risk, etc. transfer from seller to another party (see also FOB, FOT).

FOT

Free On Truck: point during transportation where title, transport costs, risk, etc. transfer from seller to another party (see also FOB, FOR).

fpm

feet per minute

FSD

Final Supplementary Declaration: Customs term. Also "Full Scale Development.”

FSDC

Full Service Distribution Company

FSR

Field Stock Room: small regional storage area for particularly quick response logistics (e.g. two hours for computer spares).

FSTL

Full Service Truck Lease: commercial vehicle lease, including servicing, etc.

FTZ

Foreign Trade Zone

FUF

First Updated Forecast

GATT

General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade

GAWR

Gross Axle Weight Rating: manufacturer's rating of the maximum load that an axle can support.

GCW

Gross Combined Weight: total weight of a loaded drawbar vehicle.

GFA

Global Freight Agreement

GKN

A pallet.

GLN

Global Location Number

GM

General Maintenance: routine or scheduled maintenance (see also IM, OM). Also "General Manager."

GMA

Grocery Manufacturers of America: US food industry trade association.

GOH

Garments on Hanger

GPS

Global Positioning System: satellite based location system, used in vehicle positioning.

GRN

Goods Returned Note or Goods Received Note

GSP

Generalized System of Preferences: certificate from HM Customs allowing reduced rate of duty on a UK import.

GST

General Systems Theory: the common basic features of all social, organic and mechanical systems.

GTW

Gross Tare Weight: see also TW and GVW.

GVW

Gross Vehicle Weight: maximum rated weight of a truck, including its cargo. See also TW.

H&L

Home & Leisure merchandise.

H&R

Hire and Reward: e.g. the third-party road haulage sector (contrast with OAO).

H&S

Health & Safety. Also HSE: Health & Safety Executive.

HA

Highways Agency: UK government agency responsible for trunk roads and motorways.

HCI

Human-Computer Interface

HGV

Heavy Goods Vehicle: a truck. See also LGV.

HHT

Hand Held Terminal: bar-code scanner or other portable data input device.

HLOP

High Level Order Picker: see also LLOP, ROLLOP.

hp

Horsepower: unit of power (see also bhp). Also "Hire Purchase."

HPT

Hand Pallet Truck

IATA

International Air Transport Association

IBC

Intermediate Bulk Containers

ICC

Interstate Commerce Commission (USA)

ICD

Inland Clearance Depot

ICHCA

International Cargo Handling Co-ordination Association: UK-based international trade association.

IDC

International Distribution Center. Also RDC, NDC, EDC.

Identification

Is the ability to uniquely identify a part by part number, name or other unique identifier.

IES

Import-Export System: see also CHIEF, MSS.

IFWLA

International Federation of Warehousing Logistics Associations.