TMS · Freight forwarder · Carrier · Subcontractor · Transport order · CMR · eCMR · eFTI · POD · FTL · LTL / part load · Groupage · Consolidation · Loading metre · Tautliner · Mega trailer · Container haulage / drayage · Intermodal transport · Delivery order · T1 · Demurrage and detention · Waiting time · Empty run · Round trip / connected trip · Freight exchange · Spot market vs contract freight · Dispatcher · ETA · Telematics · Geofencing · Tachograph · Driver CPC · ADR · Driving bans · Toll · Cabotage · Pallet exchange · Payment terms and sconto · Freight invoice audit · Factoring · VIES · Customer credit check · Freight fraud · Incoterms · OCR · AI dispatcher · Driver app · White-label tracking portal · Digital transport company · Freight management software
Software that runs the transport office: orders, dispatch, documents, tracking, invoicing and reporting in one database. A TMS for carriers centres on trucks and drivers; one for forwarders centres on the customer order, the carrier and the margin between them. What is a TMS? →
A company that organises transport for a customer, usually buying capacity from carriers and reselling it with a margin. Legally the forwarder contracts with the customer; the carrier performs the carriage. Many European forwarders also run their own trucks. Software for freight forwarders →
The company that physically moves the goods with its own vehicles and drivers and is liable under the CMR Convention for loss, damage and delay between taking over and delivery. TMS for carriers →
A carrier hired by a forwarder or another carrier to perform a load. The subcontractor's invoice should be checked against the agreed rate on the transport order before payment. Carrier invoice audit →
The written instruction from customer to carrier (or forwarder to subcontractor) with route, dates, cargo, price and payment terms. It is the document a TMS creates first and everything else derives from. Digital order intake →
The international road waybill under the 1956 CMR Convention: 24 numbered boxes covering sender, consignee, goods, carrier, instructions and three signatures. It evidences the contract of carriage and the condition of the goods at take-over. Free CMR generator →
The digital CMR under the 2008 e-CMR Protocol: the same particulars, signed electronically by sender, carrier and consignee, with a tamper-evident record (hash, timestamp, signer identity). Replaces the paper copies and the scan-and-e-mail routine. eCMR software →
EU Regulation 2020/1056 obliging authorities to accept freight transport information electronically through certified eFTI platforms, phased in from 2025–2027. It does not make eCMR mandatory but makes digital documents the inspection standard. eCMR and eFTI →
Evidence that the consignee received the goods: the signed box 24 of the CMR, a signed delivery note or an eCMR consignee signature. It closes the carrier's liability window and is the usual trigger for invoicing. Driver app: POD photos filed by AI →
A shipment that occupies the whole vehicle, priced per trip or per km, from one loading to one unloading. The opposite of LTL.
A shipment that fills only part of the vehicle; several LTL shipments from different customers share one truck, each with its own price and documents. Part load and groupage software →
Consolidating several smaller consignments into one vehicle run, usually via a depot or warehouse, with distribution at the far end. In CargoMind a groupage order is created from a warehouse consolidation. Part loads and groupage →
The warehouse process of combining inbound stock from different orders into one outbound truck run, tracked against the vehicle's free pallets, kilograms and loading metres. Warehouse management →
One metre of trailer floor length over its full width (≈ 2.4 m) — the unit for pricing part loads. A 13.6 m tautliner has 13.6 LDM; a EUR pallet across the width uses 0.4 LDM.
The standard European semi-trailer with sliding curtain sides, 13.6 m long, taking 33 EUR pallets or 34 with a mega (low-deck, 3 m inner height) version.
A low-deck curtainsider with 3 m internal height (100 m³) for volume cargo, pulled by a low-coupling tractor.
The road leg of a container move: picking the box up at a port or rail terminal on a chassis, delivering it, and returning the empty to a depot within the free time. Priced per container and per leg. Container trucking software →
Moving the same loading unit (container, swap body, trailer) by two or more modes — road plus rail or sea — without handling the goods themselves. Container trucking software →
The shipping line's or forwarder's release document authorising the haulier to collect a container from the terminal; carries container number, seal, PIN, free-time and return depot. One DO can cover several containers. One order per container from a DO →
The EU customs transit declaration for non-Union goods moving under customs control between offices. Travels with the goods; must never be copied from one container to another.
Charges for keeping a container at the terminal (demurrage) or outside the terminal (detention) beyond the free time. In road freight the term also covers waiting-time charges at the ramp.
Time the truck spends at loading or unloading beyond the agreed free period, usually billed per hour after 2–4 free hours. The transport order should state the free time and the hourly rate.
Kilometres driven without cargo to reach the next loading. The single biggest controllable cost in road freight; freight exchanges and return-load matching exist to reduce it. Freight exchange integration →
Two or more orders planned on the same truck in sequence — out and back, or a chain of part loads — sharing the vehicle cost. Connected trips split a shared carrier cost across the orders at equal margin. Connected trips →
An online spot market where forwarders post loads and carriers post free trucks: TIMOCOM, Trans.eu, Transporeon and others. Used to fill empty runs and to find capacity at short notice. TIMOCOM and Trans.eu integration →
Spot loads are priced per trip at current market rates; contract freight is agreed for a period or volume. Carriers mix both to keep trucks moving and margins stable.
The person who assigns loads to trucks and drivers, plans routes and times, communicates with drivers and customers and keeps the documents moving. The AI dispatcher automates the routine part of this role. AI dispatcher →
The predicted arrival at the next stop from live position, remaining distance, driving-time rules and rest breaks. Shared with customers through a tracking link. Live tracking →
On-board GPS and vehicle-data units reporting position, speed, fuel, odometer and tachograph data to a provider's platform (Frotcom, Webfleet, Wialon, Teltonika…). A TMS reads them through the provider's API; phone-based tracking replaces them for position only. GPS tracking without hardware →
A virtual perimeter around a loading or delivery place; a truck entering or leaving it can update the order status automatically (arrived, departed) without the driver pressing anything.
The mandatory recorder of driving, rest and working time in trucks over 3.5 t; drivers use a personal card. Driving-time limits (4.5 h / 9 h / 56 h per week) constrain every schedule and ETA.
The EU Certificate of Professional Competence for professional drivers, renewed every five years with 35 hours of training; one of the driver documents a TMS tracks for expiry.
The European agreement on the carriage of dangerous goods by road: classes, packaging, vehicle equipment and a driver certificate. Orders with ADR goods need an ADR-certified driver and equipped vehicle.
National bans on heavy-truck traffic on Sundays, public holidays and summer Saturdays (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Poland and others). They must be checked when planning routes and ETAs.
Distance-based road charges per km by axle count and emission class (Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czechia…) or time-based vignettes (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia…). The largest variable cost after fuel. Truck cost per km calculator →
Domestic transport performed in a member state by a carrier established in another, limited by the EU Mobility Package to three operations within seven days after an international delivery, followed by a cooling-off period.
The practice of swapping standardised EUR pallets one-for-one at loading and unloading. Open pallet accounts are a frequent source of disputes; the CMR's special agreements box is where the exchange is recorded.
Payment terms are the days allowed to pay the carrier's or forwarder's invoice (30, 45, 60…). Sconto is an early-payment discount, e.g. 2 % for payment within 5 days; invoice audits check that an agreed sconto is honoured. Carrier invoice audit →
Checking each incoming carrier invoice against the transport order it bills — rate, currency, sconto, duplicates — before approval. Automated audits do it with OCR on every invoice rather than on a sample. Freight invoice audit software →
Selling receivables (invoices) to a finance company for immediate cash minus a fee. Common in road freight because customers pay in 45–60 days while fuel and wages are paid weekly.
The EU's VAT Information Exchange System: a live check whether an EU VAT number is valid. The first step of any customer or carrier check — an invalid number means trouble with the invoice and the VAT credit. Free company credit check →
Assessing whether a new customer will pay: VAT validity, register status, company age, filed accounts, insolvency and blacklist signals, summarised as a risk score and payment advice (standard terms, shorter terms, prepayment). Company credit check by VAT number →
Schemes where a fake or hijacked company books loads it never pays for or re-brokers them to an unknowing carrier. Credit checks and verifying the VAT number against the register are the standard defences. Credit checks for freight forwarders →
The ICC's standard trade terms (EXW, FCA, DAP, DDP…) defining who arranges and pays for transport and where risk passes. They decide whether the shipper or the buyer books the truck.
Extracting structured data from PDFs, scans and photos — transport orders, delivery orders, CMRs, invoices, receipts. AI OCR reads any layout and maps fields to the order instead of matching a fixed template. Digital order intake →
An AI system that executes dispatching tasks on instruction — create and assign orders, send documents, chase PODs and payments, scout loads — through tools of the TMS, with every action logged and sensitive ones confirmed by a human. AI dispatcher →
The driver-facing side of a TMS on the driver's phone — stops, instructions, status updates, position, photos, documents and pay — delivered as a web app or through a messenger bot (Telegram, WhatsApp). Driver app →
A customer-facing page under the carrier's or forwarder's brand showing live position, ETA and documents for the customer's shipments, replacing 'where is my truck?' calls.
A carrier or forwarder whose orders, dispatch, documents, tracking, invoicing and controlling run in one system rather than in e-mail, Excel and messengers — the end state of digitalising the transport office. Digitalise the transport company →
An umbrella term for software that plans, executes and settles freight; in road transport it is used interchangeably with TMS and freight forwarding software. Freight management in Excel: where it breaks →
CargoMind runs orders, CMR and eCMR, part loads, container moves, freight exchanges, drivers and invoicing for carriers and forwarders across Europe. 30 days free.
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