Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms the guide uses. Every article links its terms here.

Accessorial: Any charge beyond the core rates: extra services or surcharges, from a carrier's residential fee to a 3PL's rush or relabeling fee.
Additional handling surcharge: A carrier charge for packages that are heavy, long, oddly shaped or not in a corrugated box, which need manual handling.
additional pick fee: A fee for each item after the first in an order, used when the order fee already includes the first pick.
Address correction: A carrier fee for fixing a wrong or incomplete delivery address, often billed weeks after the shipment.
administrative (clerical) fee: An occasional fee for paperwork or account tasks outside normal service, such as research or custom reports.
ASN (advance shipping notice): An electronic notice of what is in a shipment and when it will arrive. Brands send ASNs to the 3PL for inbound stock; 3PLs send ASNs to retailers for outbound wholesale orders.
B2B order fee: The per-order fee for wholesale or retail orders, which take more work than consumer orders (routing guides, labels, documents, pallets). It is usually much higher than the DTC order fee.
Base freight: The carrier's basic price for a package, set by its billable weight and zone, before fuel and other surcharges.
Billable weight: The weight the carrier actually charges for: the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight, rounded up by the carrier's rules.
BOL fee: A fee for preparing the bill of lading, the shipping document that goes with an LTL or truckload shipment.
Cartonization: The process of deciding which carton or cartons an order's items are packed into, usually by the warehouse management system (WMS) using each item's dimensions and weight. The chosen box sets the package's dimensions and dimensional weight, which drive shipping cost.
case pick fee: A fee for picking a full, unopened carton (case) instead of individual units, typical of wholesale orders and full-case consumer shipments.
Credit: A negative line or separate credit note from the 3PL that reverses or refunds an earlier charge, such as a billing error, a carrier refund or a damage claim.
credit card processing fee: A surcharge for paying the 3PL's invoice by card.
cross-docking: Moving inbound goods straight to outbound shipment with little or no storage, for example splitting a container into retailer shipments.
Cubic-foot storage: Storage priced by the volume of your inventory: product dimensions times units on hand, totaled in cubic feet.
custom packaging handling: An extra fee to pick or use the brand's own branded or custom packaging instead of the 3PL's standard materials.
cycle count: Counting part of the inventory on a rolling schedule (or all of it in a physical inventory) to check the system's numbers against what is on the shelf.
Delivery area surcharge: An extra carrier charge for delivering to ZIP codes the carrier treats as harder to reach (rural, extended or remote areas).
detention: A carrier's charge for keeping a truck waiting beyond the free time at pickup or delivery. It can reach the brand through the 3PL or the freight bill.
DIM divisor: The number a carrier divides package volume by to get dimensional weight. A larger divisor means a lower DIM weight, so the divisor in your contract changes your shipping cost.
Dimensional (DIM) weight: A weight calculated from a package's size (length × width × height ÷ a divisor). Carriers charge on the higher of this and the actual weight, so a big, light box costs more to ship.
disposal fee: A charge to destroy, recycle or donate stock that can't be sold, such as damaged returns or expired goods.
first pick: The first item picked in an order. Many 3PLs fold it into the order fee ("includes first unit"); others bill it on its own line, or bill every unit including the first.
FTL (truckload) freight: Renting a whole truck for one shipment, priced per trip.
fuel surcharge: A percentage the carrier adds to the base rate (and some surcharges) that moves with fuel prices, usually changing weekly.
GRI (general rate increase): A general rate increase, in two senses: a carrier's yearly (sometimes mid-year) increase to its published rates and surcharges, which flows into a 3PL's shipping rates; and a 3PL's own annual price increase on its rate card, set by the contract's price-change terms.
hourly warehouse labor: Work billed by the hour at a standard or overtime rate, for tasks the rate card doesn't price per piece.
Initial (receipt) storage: A first storage charge applied when goods arrive, before the regular monthly storage cycle starts. It may be a full month, a half month depending on arrival date, or a lower first-period rate.
kitting and assembly: Putting several items together into one sellable kit or bundle (for example a gift set) before orders come in.
label fee: A generic name 3PLs use for several different label charges: generating a shipping label, applying a label, labeling at receipt, or a carrier's return-label fee.
labeling and tagging (VAS): Applying labels, stickers, price tickets or hang tags to products as an extra service.
Landed cost: A product's full cost once it reaches your warehouse, ready to sell: the supplier price plus freight, insurance, duties and tariffs, customs and broker fees, and handling along the way. Your 3PL's receiving, storage and fulfillment fees are usually counted separately, as fulfillment costs.
late fee: Interest or a flat penalty for paying the 3PL's invoice late.
Liftgate fee: An LTL accessorial for a truck with a lift platform, needed when the delivery site has no loading dock.
long-term (aged inventory) storage surcharge: An extra storage charge on stock that has sat unsold longer than a set number of days, meant to push slow movers out.
LTL: Shipping one or a few pallets on a truck shared with other shippers, priced by weight, freight class, distance and accessorials.
LTL freight: Shipping one or a few pallets on a truck shared with other shippers, priced by weight, freight class, distance and accessorials.
lumper fee: A fee for third-party labor that loads or unloads a truck at a warehouse or retailer DC, often passed back to the shipper.
marketing insert fee: A fee for adding flyers, samples, thank-you cards or required notices to an order.
marketplace (FBA) prep: Preparing units and cartons to a marketplace's inbound rules (for example Amazon FBA): labeling, bagging, box-content labels and carton or pallet build.
Monthly minimum: A floor on what you pay each month. If your eligible fees fall short, the 3PL bills the difference as a shortfall charge.
no-appointment fee: A charge when a truck shows up to deliver your inventory without a booked dock appointment (or misses its slot).
non-compliant receiving fee: An extra charge when an inbound shipment doesn't follow the 3PL's receiving rules (wrong labels, mixed or oversized pallets, damaged cartons), covering the extra work to fix it. It may be a flat penalty or hourly labor.
order cancellation fee: A charge when you cancel an order after the 3PL has started working on it, covering the labor to stop it and put the items back.
order fee: A flat fee per order shipped. Depending on the 3PL it may include the first item picked, or cover order handling only with every item billed separately.
Oversize and large package surcharge: A carrier surcharge for packages over the carrier's size or weight limits, larger than an additional handling charge.
oversize pallet storage: A higher storage rate, or a second position charge, for pallets taller or heavier than the 3PL's standard.
pallet pick fee: A fee for pulling a whole pallet out of storage to ship it, used for large wholesale or marketplace replenishment orders.
Pallet position: One pallet-sized storage slot in the racking or on the floor. You pay for the position whether the pallet on it is full or nearly empty.
Pallet supplies (pallet fee): A charge for the physical pallet (and slip sheets or wrap) the 3PL provides when it builds an outbound or inbound pallet.
pallet wrap: Wrapping a pallet in plastic film so it stays stable in storage or on a truck, billed for labor and film.
pass-through: A cost the 3PL pays to someone else (carrier, supplier, customs) and bills to you, ideally at cost or with a stated markup.
Peak and demand surcharge: Temporary carrier surcharges during busy periods, usually around the holidays, sometimes applied to every package and sometimes only to residential, large or additional-handling packages.
pick and pack: The warehouse work of taking the right items off the shelf (pick) and packing them for shipment (pack). On a rate card it is usually an order fee plus a per-unit or additional-unit fee.
pick fee: A fee for each item picked from the shelf. At some 3PLs it applies to every unit; at others only to units after the first.
product personalization: Customizing the product itself (embroidery, engraving, printing) before it ships.
putaway: Moving received stock from the dock into its storage location. Most 3PLs include it in the receiving fee; some bill it separately.
Rate card: The 3PL's price list for your account: every fee, its unit and its rate, usually an exhibit to the contract.
rebagging: Taking items out of their original bags and putting them into new poly bags or branded packaging.
Residential surcharge: An extra carrier charge for delivering to a home rather than a business.
retailer chargeback: A penalty a retailer deducts from a brand for breaking its shipping or labeling rules, which the 3PL may pass on if it caused the error.
return to sender (RTS): A package the carrier couldn't deliver and sent back to the warehouse. You usually pay the return postage and a handling fee to process it.
Returns processing fee: What the 3PL charges to receive a customer return, check its condition and either restock it or set it aside. Usually per return (often including the first unit) plus per additional unit.
returns rework: Extra work to make a returned item sellable again: relabeling, repackaging, cleaning or repairing it.
rush order fee: A premium for shipping an order faster than the normal cutoff allows, such as same-day handling of an order released late.
shipping adjustments: Extra charges (or credits) that arrive after a package ships, when the carrier re-measures, re-weighs or re-rates it.
shipping charges: What you pay to send each package to the customer: the carrier's postage plus surcharges, billed by the 3PL at cost, with a markup, or from the 3PL's own shipping rate card.
Shipping markup: On cost-plus shipping, what the 3PL adds to its carrier cost when it bills you, as a stated percentage or a fee per label that belongs in the contract. On a 3PL's own shipping rate card, the margin is inside the price and isn't shown separately.
SKU setup fee: A one-time charge per new product (SKU) the 3PL adds to its system, often including measuring and weighing the item.
special handling surcharge: An extra fulfillment charge for items that are heavy, oversized, fragile or otherwise slow to handle.
special projects: One-off work outside the rate card (sorting, repacking, relabeling, preparing a retail or marketplace shipment), usually billed by the hour.
Split shipment: An order fulfilled in parts, on different days or from different warehouses. Each part customarily carries its own order fee. Different from a multi-parcel order, which is one fulfillment packed in two or more boxes.
SSCC: A shipping label, and its 18-digit code, that many wholesale and retail customers require on each carton or pallet you send them. Scanning its barcode identifies that carton or pallet and links it to the advance ship notice listing what is inside.
temperature-controlled storage: Storage in cooled, refrigerated or frozen space, priced above ambient storage.
warehouse transfer: Moving inventory from one warehouse to another (or between areas of one building), billed for the labor and any trucking.
warehouseman's lien: A warehouse's legal right to keep your stored goods, and after notice sell them, to collect unpaid storage, handling and related charges. Charges on your other goods are covered only if the warehouse receipt or agreement says so.
Zone: A number for how far a package travels from origin to destination. Higher zones cost more.