Logistics & transport terms explained

EDI

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the structured, computer-to-computer exchange of business documents — such as orders, invoices, and shipping notices — in a standardised electronic format.

Operational TMS (OTMS)

An Operational TMS (OTMS) is a transport management system that covers the full day-to-day execution of transport — planning, fleet, drivers, tracking, communication, and finance — not just freight procurement or visibility.

OTM5

OTM5 (Open Transport Model 5) is an open standard for exchanging freight transport data — orders, consignments, stops, and statuses — between systems and partners.

CMR

A CMR is the standard international consignment note for road freight, governed by the CMR Convention, that serves as the contract of carriage and proof that goods were received and delivered.

e-CMR

An e-CMR is the digital equivalent of the paper CMR consignment note, enabled by the Additional Protocol to the CMR Convention, allowing the document to be created, signed, and shared electronically.

Waybill

A waybill is a transport document issued by a carrier that lists the goods, the route, and the parties involved, accompanying a shipment as a record of carriage.

Intermodal transport

Intermodal transport moves goods in one standardised loading unit — a container, swap body, or trailer — across two or more modes such as road, rail, and sea, without ever handling the goods themselves.

Multimodal transport

Multimodal transport is the movement of goods using two or more modes of transport — such as road, rail, sea, and air — under a single contract with one operator responsible for the whole journey.

Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP)

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is the optimisation problem of assigning a set of deliveries to a fleet of vehicles and sequencing the stops to minimise cost while respecting constraints like capacity and time windows.

ADR (dangerous goods)

ADR is the international agreement governing the carriage of dangerous goods by road, setting rules for classification, packaging, labelling, documentation, vehicles and driver training.

Cabotage

Cabotage is the transport of goods between two points within the same country by a carrier registered in another country, subject to EU restrictions.

CSRD reporting

CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) is the EU directive that requires large companies to publish standardised sustainability information, including the greenhouse-gas emissions of their transport.

EU Regulation 561/2006 (driving & rest times)

EU Regulation 561/2006 sets the rules for professional drivers’ daily and weekly driving times, breaks, and rest periods to improve road safety and working conditions.

Tachograph

A tachograph is a recording device fitted to trucks and buses that logs a driver's driving time, breaks, rest periods and other work, together with the vehicle's speed and distance, so that EU driving-time rules can be enforced.

Consignment

A consignment is a discrete shipment of goods sent from one party to another under a single transport order, with its own pickup, delivery, and status lifecycle.

Cross-docking

Cross-docking is a logistics practice where incoming goods are unloaded, sorted and loaded directly onto outbound vehicles at a dock, with little or no storage in between.

ETA

ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) is the predicted time at which a vehicle or shipment will reach a given stop or destination.

FTL vs LTL

FTL (full truckload) means a shipment fills or is charged for an entire vehicle, while LTL (less-than-truckload) means a shipment shares vehicle space with other consignments.

Groupage

Groupage is the practice of consolidating shipments from multiple customers into a single vehicle so each shipper pays only for the space they use.

Loading Metre (LDM)

A loading metre (LDM) is a unit that represents one metre of length along the floor of a truck across its full width, used to measure how much floor space a shipment occupies.

Proof of Delivery (POD)

Proof of Delivery (POD) is the documented confirmation that goods were delivered to the recipient, typically captured as a signature, photo, or timestamped status at the delivery point.

Swap body

A swap body is a standardised, detachable freight container that can be moved between trucks and trailers, allowing a vehicle to drop one load and pick up another quickly.

Track & trace

Track & trace is the ability to follow a freight shipment's location, status and ETA in real time, and to review its full movement history from pickup to delivery.

Fuel surcharge

A fuel surcharge is an adjustable fee added to freight rates that rises and falls with fuel prices, protecting carriers from volatility without renegotiating every contract.