Clothing Definitions — definition lists for the apparel industry from Apparel Search
If you work in the transportation, logistics or shipping department of an apparel or textile company, these are your terms. The shipping list defines the documents, vehicles, units and systems that move clothing around the world — bill of lading, cargo and consignee, containers, cross-docking, intermodal transport, less-than-truckload shipping, pallets, ports, supply chain management and tariffs — with links to freight resources including container sizes and volumetric weight.
Less Than Truckload (LTL) Shipping
Clothing & Fashion Industry Terms and Definitions presented by Apparel Search. We have not created the definitions on these particular pages. We are simply posting them for your easy access. Enjoy your reading...
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selecting a freight forwarder and
choosing a customs broker.
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Documents and Units: How Freight Is DescribedShipping runs on paper and boxes, and its vocabulary keeps both precise. The bill of lading is the master document — receipt, contract and, at sea, title to the goods in one form. The waybill is its simpler cousin, a non-negotiable record of the shipment. The consignee is the party named to receive the goods, and getting that name wrong can strand a container at a port. Cargo is the goods themselves; bulk cargo is cargo shipped loose rather than packaged, a category apparel rarely uses but every logistics professional must distinguish. The container is the unit that remade world trade — a standard steel box whose sizes this page's resources tabulate — and the pallet is its smaller partner, a flat platform that lets forklifts move stacks of cartons as one load. Less-than-truckload shipping prices the space between those units, letting a brand ship a few pallets across a continent without hiring a whole truck. Systems: From Intermodal to Supply ChainThe systems terms describe movement at scale. Intermodal shipping sends one container by ship, rail and truck without unpacking it — the reason a dress sewn in one hemisphere can hang in a store in another with its tags already attached. Common carriers sell that transport to the public under published terms. Cross-docking strips storage out of distribution, flowing goods from inbound to outbound dock; drop shipping removes the retailer's warehouse altogether, the supplier sending orders straight to customers. Logistics is the planning discipline over all of it, supply chain the whole path from fiber to shopper, and supply chain management the profession of optimizing it — cost, speed, reliability and now carbon. Tariffs and free trade frame the economics, taxing or freeing each border crossing. For apparel, where seasons expire and a late container is a markdown, these are not back-office words: they are the difference between a collection that arrives for its season and one that arrives for the clearance rail. Common QuestionsWhat is a bill of lading?A bill of lading is the document issued by a carrier that lists the goods being shipped, serves as a receipt for them, and evidences the contract of carriage. In ocean shipping it can also serve as a document of title to the goods. What does LTL mean in shipping?LTL means less than truckload: a shipment too small to fill a truck, combined with other shippers' freight in the same vehicle and priced by weight and space. It is a standard option for apparel shipments between factories, warehouses and stores. What is cross-docking?Cross-docking is a logistics practice in which goods arriving at a facility are transferred directly to outbound transport with little or no storage time, keeping apparel moving toward stores instead of sitting in a warehouse. More to Explore
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