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Terminology Services

Ports Primer for Communities Glossary

Description:

This glossary was developed for the "Ports Primer for Communities, An Overview of Ports Planning and Operations to Support Community Participation". Glossary is courtesy of the American Association of Port Authorities, National Cooperative Freight Research Program, Starcrest Consulting Group and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Publishing Organization:

Office of Air and Radiation/Office of Transportation and Air Quality/Transportation and Climate Division

Last Update:

August 28, 2019

Program Site:

https://www.epa.gov/ports-initiative

Terms & Acronyms

	Term
	Ballast water	Definition: Fresh or salt water, sometimes containing sediments, held in tanks and cargo holds of ships to increase stability and maneuverability during transit.
	Breakbulk	Definition: General cargo that is not in containers but rather is stored in boxes, bales, pallets or other units to be loaded onto or discharged from ships or other forms of transportation. Examples include iron, steel, machinery, linerboard and wood pulp.
	Bulk	Definition: Loose cargo (dry or liquid) that is loaded (shoveled, scooped, forked, mechanically conveyed or pumped) in volume directly into a ship's hold. Examples include grain, coal and oil.
	Capacity	Definition: The available space for, or ability to handle, freight.
	Cargo	Definition: The freight (goods, products) carried by a ship, barge, train, truck or plane.
	Class I freight railroad	Definition: Defined by the American Association of Railroads each year based on annual operating revenue. A railroad is dropped from the Class I list if it fails to meet the annual revenue threshold for three consecutive years.
	Clerks	Definition: When cargo is unloaded from a ship, a clerk checks the actual count of the goods versus the amount listed on the ship’s manifest. The clerk will note shortages, overages or damage. This is used to make claims if needed.
	Consolidator	Definition: The person or firm that consolidates (combines) cargo from a number of shippers into a container that will deliver the goods to several buyers.
	Container	Definition: A box made of aluminum, steel or fiberglass used to transport cargo by ship, rail, truck or barge. Common dimensions are 20' x 8' x 8' (called a TEU or twenty-foot equivalent unit) or 40' x 8' x 8' (called an FEU or forty-foot equivalent unit).
	Convention	Definition: An international agreement.
	Diesel	Definition: A type of fuel typically used in a compression-ignition engine. In common maritime use, diesel can refer to several varieties of fuels including Marine Diesel Oil (MDO) and Marine Gas Oil (MGO). Diesel may also be labeled by its sulfur content, such as the case of LSD (low sulfur diesel with less than 500 parts per million (ppm) sulfur) or ULSD (ultra-low sulfur diesel with less than 15 ppm sulfur).
	Draft	Definition: The depth of a loaded vessel in the water taken from the level of the waterline to the lowest point of the hull of the vessel; depth of water, or distance between the bottom of the ship and waterline.
	Drayage	Definition: The transport of goods over a short distance.
	Drayage Terminal	Definition: A terminal with the capacity to handle truck pickup and dropoff.
	Dredge	Definition: The process of removing sediment from harbor or river bottoms for safety purposes and to allow for deeper vessels.
	Eminent Domain	Definition: The right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation.
	Exports	Definition: Merchandise transported out of the United States to foreign countries.
	Freight	Definition: Merchandise hauled by transportation lines.
	Goods movement	Definition: The distribution of freight (including raw materials, parts and finished consumer products) by all modes of transportation including marine, air, rail and truck.
	Gross domestic product	Definition: The total value of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States. As long as the labor and property are located in the United States, the supplier (workers, owners) may be either U.S. residents or residents of foreign countries. Acronym: GDP
	Hostler (or hustler)	Definition: An employee who drives a tractor for the purpose of moving cargo within a container yard.
	Imports	Definition: Commodities of foreign origin entering the United States, as well as goods of domestic origin returned to the United States with no change in condition or after having been processed and/or assembled in other countries.
	Inland Port	Definition: Term sometimes used to describe a port that is not located on a coast (e.g. Great Lakes or Mississippi River ports) or an area with large intermodal freight facilities that is not near navigable water (e.g., landlocked intermodal rail and truck facilities).
	Intermodal	Definition: Used to indicate movements of cargo containers interchangeably between transport modes – i.e. motor, water and air carriers – and where the equipment is compatible within multiple systems. For example, boxes of hot sauce from Louisiana are stuffed into metal boxes called containers at the factory. That container is put onto a truck chassis (or a railroad flat car) and moved to a port. There the container is lifted off the vehicle and lifted onto a ship. At the receiving port, the process is reversed. Intermodal transportation uses few laborers and speeds up the delivery time.
	Labor union	Definition: An organization of workers formed to serve members’ collective interests with regard to wages and working conditions.
	Landlord port	Definition: At a landlord port, the port authority owns the wharves, which it then rents or leases to a terminal operator (usually a stevedoring company). The operator invests in cargo-handling equipment (forklifts, cranes, etc.), hires longshore laborers to operate such lift machinery and negotiates contracts with ocean carriers (steamship services) to handle the unloading and loading of ship cargoes.
	Longshoremen	Definition: Dock workers who load and unload ships or perform administrative tasks associated with the loading or unloading of cargo. They may or may not be members of labor unions. Longshore “gangs” are hired by stevedoring firms to work the ships. Longshoremen are also called stevedores.
	Marine Terminal	Definition: Port facilities for docking, cargo-handling and storage.
	Marine Transportation System	Definition: Consists of all the intermodal components that are part of the maritime domain, including ships, ports, inland waterways, intermodal rail and trucks, and other users of the maritime system. Acronym: MTS
	Maritime	Definition: Located on or near the sea. Commerce or navigation by sea. The maritime industry includes people working for transportation (ship, rail, truck and towboat/barge) companies, freight forwarders and customs brokers; stevedoring companies; labor unions; chandlers; warehouses; ship building and repair firms; importers/exporters; pilot associations, etc.
	Neo-bulk	Definition: Uniformly packaged goods, such as wood pulp bales, which stow as solidly as bulk, but are handled as general cargos.
	On-dock Railyard	Definition: A railyard connected directly to a dock.
	Operating port	Definition: A port where the port authority builds the wharves, owns the cranes and cargo-handling equipment, and hires the labor to move cargo in the sheds and yards. A stevedore hires longshore laborers to lift cargo between the ship and the dock, where the port’s laborers pick it up and bring it to the storage site. (See landlord port.)
	Particulate matter	Definition 1: Refers to small particles in the air that can be measured to determine air quality and potential health impacts. Airborne PM can result from direct emissions of particles (primary PM) or from the condensation of certain gases that have themselves been directly emitted or chemically transformed in the atmosphere (secondary PM). PM is often classified by size: PM2.5 and PM10. Definition 2: PM2.5 – Also known as "fine" particulate matter, PM2.5 refers to the fraction of PM in a sample that is 2.5 microns in diameter or less. This size of PM is commonly associated with combustion and secondary PM. Definition 3: PM10 – Also known as "coarse" particulate matter, PM10 refers to the fraction of PM in a sample that is 10 microns in diameter or less. Acronym: PM
	Port	Definition: The term generally refers to places alongside navigable water (e.g., oceans, rivers, or lakes) with facilities for the loading and unloading of passengers or cargo from ships, ferries, and other commercial vessels. These facilities may be operated by different entities including state or local public port authorities, private terminal operators, and federal agencies. Activities associated with ports include operation of vessels, cargo handling equipment, locomotives, trucks, vehicles, and storage and warehousing facilities related to the transportation of cargo or passengers as well as the development and maintenance of supporting infrastructure (also see inland ports).
	Port Agency or Port Authority	Definition 1: A government entity. A port authority may own facilities in one or more ports, and a port authority’s domain may include both seaports and airports. It may be difficult to tell visually where the control of a port authority ends. For example, port authorities do not control private terminals (except in as much as landlord ports can impose lease-based controls on private terminal tenants), military operations and industrial facilities located in or around port facilities. Definition 2: Autonomous (independent) port authority: a self-sustaining, self-governing public body. Definition 3: Semi-autonomous (semi-independent) port authority: a public body subject to certain state controls. Definition 4: Bi-state or regional port authorities: a public body created by agreement between two or more states. Definition 5: Port authorities with limited agency or power: a public body limited to certain actions such as bonding. Definition 6: Divisions of state, county or municipal government: a government department. Definition 7: Independent port or navigation districts: entities that function as "special purpose" political subdivisions of a state with defined geographic boundaries over which they have authority.
	Roll-on/Roll-off	Definition: Cargo that can be driven directly into the belly of the ship via ramps that are lowered to the dock, rather than being lifted aboard. Examples include cars, buses, trucks or other vehicles. Acronym: ro/ro
	Stevedores	Definition: Labor management companies that provide equipment and hire workers to transfer cargo between ships and docks. Stevedore companies may also serve as terminal operators. The laborers hired by the stevedoring firms are called stevedores or longshoremen.
	Supply Chain	Definition: A network that supplies goods or services from the source of production through the point of consumption. A supply chain is considered to include people, organizations, transportation infrastructure, information technology and physical locations such as manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and retail outlets.
	Terminal	Definition: A designated area of a port used for the transmission, care and convenience of cargo and/or passengers in the interchange of them between land and water carriers or between two water carriers. It includes wharves, warehouses, covered and/or open storage spaces, cold storage plants, grain elevators and/or bulk cargo loading and/or unloading structures, landings, and receiving stations.
	Trucks	Definition: Heavy automotive vehicles used to transport cargo. In the maritime industry, cargo is often carried by tractor-trailers. The tractor is the front part of the vehicle, also called a cab. The trailer is the detachable wheeled chassis behind the tractor, on which containers or other cargoes are placed.
	Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit	Definition: A unit of measurement equal to the space occupied by a standard twenty-foot container. Used in stating the capacity of container vessel or storage area. One 40-foot container is equal to two TEUs. Acronym: TEU
	Vessel	Definition: A ship or large boat.
	Volatile organic compound	Definition: A very broad term used to describe the entire set of vapor-phase atmospheric organic chemicals. Acronym: VOC

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