# Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the logistics and platform terms used in Shipment Insight and in these docs.

## Logistics terms

- **3PL**: Third-party logistics provider. A company that runs transport or warehousing for shippers.
- **Appointment**: The agreed time window for a truck to load or unload at a facility. Shown in the facility's local time.
- **BOL (bill of lading)**: The document that lists the goods, the shipper, the receiver and the carrier. It's also a receipt for the freight.
- **Broker**: A company that arranges freight for shippers using carriers it doesn't own.
- **Carrier**: The trucking company (or airline, railway, shipping line) that physically moves the freight.
- **Consignee**: The receiver of a shipment.
- **Check call**: A phone call to a carrier or driver to ask where a load is. Good tracking makes them unnecessary.
- **DC (distribution centre)**: A warehouse that receives goods and ships them on to stores or customers.
- **Demurrage**: A charge for keeping a container or railcar beyond its free time.
- **Detention**: A charge for keeping a truck or trailer at a facility beyond the free time, usually two hours.
- **Dock door**: A door at a facility where trucks back in to load or unload.
- **Dwell time**: How long a truck spends at a facility, from arrival to departure.
- **EDI**: Electronic data interchange. A standard way for companies' systems to exchange business messages.
- **EDI 204**: A load tender: a shipper or broker offers a load to a carrier.
- **EDI 214**: A shipment status message: arrived, departed, delivered, and sometimes a position.
- **EDI 990**: A carrier's response to a load tender: accepted or declined.
- **ELD (electronic logging device)**: The device in a truck that records driving hours. Required in the US and Canada, and a main source of GPS positions.
- **ETA**: Estimated time of arrival. In Shipment Insight, the **Predicted ETA** is calculated, not just reported.
- **Facility**: Any place where freight is picked up or delivered: a plant, warehouse, DC or store.
- **FTL (full truckload)**: A shipment that uses a whole truck, usually from one pickup to one delivery.
- **Gate**: The entrance to a facility's yard, where trucks check in and out.
- **HOS (hours of service)**: Legal limits on how long a driver can drive and work before a break or rest. They affect the ETA.
- **Intermodal**: Freight that moves in the same container across more than one mode, such as rail and truck.
- **Lane**: A route between an origin and a destination, for example Montréal to Chicago.
- **Load**: The freight on one truck, and often the word for the shipment itself.
- **LTL (less than truckload)**: A shipment that shares a truck with other customers' freight.
- **POD (proof of delivery)**: A signed document or photo that shows the freight was delivered.
- **PRO number**: The carrier's tracking number for a shipment, common in LTL.
- **Reefer**: A refrigerated trailer or container.
- **SCAC**: Standard Carrier Alpha Code. A two- to four-letter code that identifies a carrier.
- **Shipper**: The company sending the freight, such as a manufacturer or retailer.
- **Telematics**: Systems in a truck that report its position and status over the network.
- **Tender**: Offering a load to a carrier, who can accept or decline it.
- **TMS**: Transportation management system. Software for planning, booking and paying for freight.
- **Yard**: The area outside a facility where trucks, trailers and containers park.
- **Yard jockey (spotter)**: A driver who moves trailers around the yard, between parking slots and dock doors.
- **YMS**: Yard management system. Software that runs the gate, yard and dock doors.

## Shipment Insight terms

- **API key**: A secret that lets your systems use the API. It has scopes and starts with `si_live_` or `si_test_`.
- **Audit log**: A record of who did what in your organization, which admins can view and export.
- **Exception**: An active shipment at **Medium** or **High** risk, listed in **Exceptions**.
- **Fallback**: Switching automatically to the next tracking source when the main one goes quiet.
- **Geofence**: A virtual area around a location. Entering or leaving it records an arrival or a departure.
- **Idempotency key**: A unique value sent with an API request so that retrying it never creates a duplicate.
- **Milestone**: A step recorded on a shipment's timeline, with its time and source.
- **Organization**: Your company in Shipment Insight: a shipper, carrier, broker, 3PL or facility.
- **Passkey**: A way to sign in with your device's fingerprint, face or PIN instead of a password.
- **Ping**: One position report from a tracking source.
- **Recovery code**: A one-time code to sign in if you lose access to your two-factor device.
- **Risk score**: The chance that a shipment misses its appointment, with the reasons behind it.
- **Role**: What a person can do in the console, such as admin, manager, operator or viewer.
- **Scope**: A permission given to an API key, such as reading shipments.
- **Share**: Permission for another organization to see a shipment you're both part of.
- **Simulated data**: Fictional carriers, loads and facilities used while the platform is in preview.
- **Stale**: A shipment that hasn't sent a position for more than 60 minutes.
- **Tracking rate**: The share of active shipments that sent a position in the last hour.
- **Tracking source**: Where updates come from: ELD, carrier API, EDI 214, driver app or manual.
- **Two-factor authentication**: A second check at sign-in, such as a code from an authenticator app.
- **Webhook**: A message Shipment Insight sends to your system when an event happens.