The desk's handbook. Every term, first sentence.
Thirty terms the GTA floor actually uses, each defined in its first sentence, each with the operational detail the textbook version leaves out. Written from two years of supply-side marketplace work — the desk notes are the parts that cost money to learn.
Models & services
7 TERMS3PL — third-party logistics
A 3PL is a company that runs warehousing, fulfillment, or transportation for other businesses — you own the inventory, they own the building, the forklifts, and the labour. The term covers everything from a single overflow warehouse to a national fulfillment network, which is why "we use a 3PL" tells you almost nothing until you ask what services are actually contracted: storage only, pick and pack, transportation, or the whole chain.
THE USEFUL QUESTION ISN'T "ARE YOU A 3PL" — IT'S "WHAT'S ON THE MENU AND WHAT'S EACH LINE PRICED AT." SEE THE PRICING ANATOMY.
Destuffing — de-stuff, container stripping
Destuffing is hand-unloading a floor-loaded shipping container carton by carton, usually onto pallets built to a spec. It's a labour job priced by container size with carton-count and SKU caps — a 40-footer of identical cartons is a fast straight run; the same box holding thirty SKUs has to be sorted before a single pallet is built. Distinct from simply unloading a palletized container, which is a forklift job measured in minutes.
THE TIER STRUCTURE (CARTON CAPS, SKU ALLOWANCES, OVERAGE INCREMENTS) IS DOCUMENTED IN THE COST ANATOMY GUIDE AND RUNS LIVE IN THE ESTIMATOR.
Transloading
Transloading is moving freight from one transport mode or container into another — ocean container to highway trailer, rail car to truck — usually with re-palletizing or consolidation in between. The freight changes vehicles and often changes form (floor-loaded to palletized); it may sit on the dock hours or days while the outbound leg is arranged. That dwell-and-transform step is what separates it from cross-docking.
EQUIPMENT DECIDES TRANSLOAD JOBS: PAPER ROLLS NEED A CLAMP TRUCK, AND A FACILITY WITHOUT ONE ISN'T A CANDIDATE NO MATTER HOW GOOD THE RATE. THE TRANSLOAD DESK.
Cross-docking — vs transloading
Cross-docking is receiving freight and shipping it back out with little or no storage — inbound trailer to outbound trailer across the dock, typically inside a day or two. The freight usually keeps its form: pallets in, the same pallets out, re-sorted by destination. Where transloading transforms the load, cross-docking routes it; pricing reflects that — commonly per pallet including in and out, with storage billing kicking in only past a stated free window.
ASK WHERE THE FREE WINDOW ENDS. THE CLASSIC STRUCTURE IS "PER PALLET, IN AND OUT, UP TO N DAYS — THEN STORAGE RATES APPLY." THE CROSS-DOCK DESK.
Drayage
Drayage is the short-haul trucking leg that moves a shipping container between a port, rail intermodal yard, or container depot and a nearby warehouse — in the GTA, typically between the CN/CP intermodal terminals and facilities along the 401/427 corridors. It's billed per move with accessorials for waiting time, chassis use, and off-hours pickups, and it lives or dies on appointment discipline at both ends.
DRAYAGE AND DEMURRAGE ARE A COUPLE: A LATE DRAY PICKUP BECOMES A DEMURRAGE INVOICE. THE DRAYAGE DESK.
Rework — restack, re-palletization
Rework is rebuilding non-compliant or damaged pallets — restacking to a height spec, swapping broken pallets, re-wrapping, relabeling — commonly at a warehouse dock or at the trailer tail after a receiver refuses a load. It's priced per pallet plus materials, and it's the fastest fix for the most common rejection reasons: stacking, wrap, and labels.
SAME-DAY REWORK AT THE TAIL IS REAL — BUT THE RECEIVER'S NEXT WINDOW IS USUALLY THE BINDING CONSTRAINT, NOT THE CREW. SEE THE FIRST 4 HOURS AND THE RESCUE DESK.
Pick and pack — vs pallet-in/pallet-out
Pick and pack is order-level fulfillment: staff pick individual cartons or units from stored inventory, pack them per order, label, and ship — priced per order, per carton, and per unit touched. Pallet-in/pallet-out is the opposite service tier: full pallets arrive, sit, and leave intact, priced on storage and pallet handling alone. The two tiers can differ in cost by multiples, which is why "do you need pick-pack or pallet-in/pallet-out?" is one of the first questions any serious quote asks.
MARKETPLACE REPS ASK THIS QUESTION ON ROUND ONE FOR A REASON — IT CHANGES THE QUOTE MORE THAN ANY OTHER SINGLE ANSWER. THE FULFILLMENT DESK.
Container & handling
8 TERMSFloor-loaded
Floor-loaded freight is packed loose into a container or trailer — cartons stacked directly on the floor, no pallets — to maximize cube on the ocean or highway leg. The savings on freight become labour on arrival: a floor-loaded 40-footer is a crew-hours destuffing job where the palletized equivalent is minutes of forklift work. Whether a container arrives floor-loaded or palletized is the single biggest lever on unloading cost.
IF YOU CONTROL ORIGIN LOADING, YOU CONTROL THIS COST. IF YOU DON'T, KNOW YOUR CARTON COUNT BEFORE ASKING FOR A QUOTE.
Ti-hi — ti × hi, tier/high
Ti-hi describes how a pallet is built: "ti" is cartons per layer, "hi" is layers high — a 10×5 ti-hi is ten cartons a layer, five layers, fifty cartons. Receivers publish expected ti-hi in their routing guides because it drives stability, height compliance, and automated depalletizing; a load built off-spec can bounce even when nothing is damaged.
REJECTIONS FOR "PALLET TOO HIGH" ARE OFTEN TI-HI FAILURES IN DISGUISE — ONE EXTRA LAYER PUTS THE BUILD OVER THE RECEIVER'S BEAM SPEC. SEE THE COMPLIANCE CHECKLIST.
Slip sheet
A slip sheet is a thin sheet of laminated cardboard or plastic used in place of a pallet — freight is pushed and pulled with a push-pull forklift attachment gripping the sheet's lip. It buys back the cube and weight a wooden pallet consumes (a real margin on export containers) at the cost of requiring the attachment and trained operators at both ends.
"CAN YOU HANDLE SLIP SHEETS?" IS AN EQUIPMENT QUESTION — A YES FROM A FACILITY WITHOUT THE ATTACHMENT IS A REWORK JOB WAITING AT THE OTHER END.
Clamp truck
A clamp truck is a forklift fitted with hydraulic paddles that squeeze and lift unpalletized product — paper rolls, appliances, bales — instead of forking under it. Loads like paper rolls simply cannot move without one, which makes the clamp a binary equipment gate: the facility either has it or the job goes elsewhere.
IN OUR OWN OPS HISTORY, A MISSING CLAMP ANSWER STRETCHED A PAPER-ROLL TRANSLOAD DEAL ACROSS 17 DAYS BEFORE IT DIED. EQUIPMENT BELONGS IN THE CAPABILITY PROFILE, NOT IN ROUND-FOUR EMAIL.
Stretch wrap — shrink wrap (colloquial)
Stretch wrap is the elastic plastic film wound around a built pallet to hold the load together — applied by hand or turntable, billed per pallet as a materials-and-labour line. (True shrink wrap is heat-shrunk film, a different product, but the floor uses the words interchangeably.) Wrap integrity is one of the first things a receiving dock looks at; loose or torn film reads as "this load shifted."
RE-WRAP IS THE CHEAPEST LINE ON A REWORK INVOICE AND THE MOST COMMON — BUDGET IT INTO ANY PLAN THAT TOUCHES PALLETS TWICE.
Pallet grades — Grade A/B, CHEP, heat-treated
Pallet grading sorts 48×40 wooden pallets by condition: Grade A (clean, tight, premium product expected by many retail receivers), Grade B (sound but repaired or weathered), and below. CHEP refers to the blue rental-pool pallets owned by the pool operator and exchanged rather than bought. Heat-treated (HT-stamped) pallets are required for export under ISPM-15 phytosanitary rules.
PALLET SWAPS ARE A REAL LINE ITEM: A REWORK THAT REBUILDS ONTO FRESH PALLETS BILLS THE PALLETS TOO. ASK WHICH GRADE A QUOTE ASSUMES.
Honeycombing
Honeycombing is the wasted space inside a warehouse that can't be used without double-handling — half-empty pick faces, lanes blocked by partial rows, the air above a short stack. It's the invisible tax on raw square footage, and it's the structural reason third-party storage quotes per pallet position instead of per square foot: the facility absorbs the honeycombing risk, not you.
WHEN A PER-SQFT DEAL LOOKS CHEAPER THAN PER-PALLET, HONEYCOMBING IS USUALLY THE NUMBER THAT FLIPS THE MATH BACK. RUN THE POSITION CALCULATOR.
Palletization
Palletization is building loose or floor-loaded freight onto pallets to a defined spec — footprint, ti-hi, height cap, wrap, labels. It's the standard second half of a destuffing job and a frequent standalone service for floor-loaded inbound that has to ship out palletized (FBA prep being the canonical case: loose packages in, labeled pallets out).
THE SPEC IS THE PRICE: "PALLETIZE THIS" IS A CLARIFICATION ROUND; "48×40, MAX 60 INCHES, 10×5 TI-HI, WRAPPED AND LABELED" IS A QUOTE.
Freight & delivery
6 TERMSFTL vs LTL — full truckload / less-than-truckload
FTL (full truckload) dedicates an entire trailer to one shipper's freight, priced per lane; LTL (less-than-truckload) shares trailer space among multiple shippers, priced per pallet or per hundredweight with the carrier consolidating at terminals. FTL is faster and touches freight less; LTL is cheaper at small volumes but adds terminal handling — and every extra touch is a damage and delay opportunity.
THE GTA CROSSOVER POINT MOVES WITH THE MARKET, BUT THE RULE HOLDS: FRAGILE OR REWORK-PRONE FREIGHT EARNS FTL EARLIER THAN THE RATE SHEET SUGGESTS.
Liftgate
A liftgate is the hydraulic platform on a truck's tail that lowers freight to ground level, required whenever the delivery point has no dock — storefronts, job sites, residential final mile. Liftgate service is an accessorial: it must be requested at booking, it bills extra, and forgetting it strands a pallet on a truck in front of a building that can't receive it.
FINAL-MILE CHOREOGRAPHY LIVES OR DIES ON THIS FLAG — "TWO LIFTGATE BOX TRUCKS, DRIVER UNLOADS, NO STACKING" IS A REAL SPEC AND EVERY WORD OF IT PRICES. THE RE-DELIVERY DESK.
Re-delivery
Re-delivery is the second attempt to deliver freight after a refusal or failed appointment — back through the receiver's window with corrected paperwork, reworked pallets, or simply a new time slot. It carries its own transportation cost plus whatever the fix cost, which is why the economics of a rejection are decided by how fast the re-appointment is secured.
WHOEVER OWNS THE RE-APPOINTMENT OWNS THE TIMELINE — MAKE IT EXPLICIT ON DAY ZERO. SEE THE FIRST 4 HOURS.
Receiving window — delivery appointment
A receiving window is the scheduled time slot a distribution centre assigns for a trailer to arrive and unload — and at volume DCs it's enforced in both directions: late arrivals refused, early arrivals turned away or parked. Windows are booked through the receiver's scheduling system days in advance, and a missed one re-enters the queue behind everyone else.
GTA RE-APPOINTMENT QUEUES CAN RUN DAYS — WHICH IS WHY THE RECEIVING-OFFICE CALL OUTRANKS THE CREW CALL AFTER ANY REJECTION.
Lumper fee
A lumper fee is the charge for third-party unloading labour at a receiving dock — common at grocery and food DCs, where the receiver's contracted lumper service unloads the trailer and the carrier (then ultimately the shipper) pays for it. It's a North American institution that surprises first-time importers: delivering the freight can include paying someone at the destination to take it off your truck.
LUMPER RECEIPTS BELONG IN THE POD PACKAGE — UNDOCUMENTED LUMPER CHARGES ARE ONE OF THE CLASSIC INVOICE DISPUTES.
Detention vs demurrage
Detention is the charge for holding transport equipment too long — a trailer at your dock past free time, a container chassis out past its window — while demurrage is the charge for a container sitting at the port or rail terminal beyond its free days. Same instinct (equipment time is money), different clocks and different invoicers: carriers bill detention; ports, terminals, and steamship lines bill demurrage.
AFTER A REJECTION, DETENTION IS THE METER THAT RUNS WHILE YOU DECIDE — KNOW THE FREE TIME AND HOURLY RATE IN YOUR CARRIER AGREEMENT BEFORE PICKING THE FIX. THE PLAYBOOK BUDGETS 15 MINUTES FOR EXACTLY THIS.
Paperwork & compliance
6 TERMSBOL — bill of lading
The bill of lading is the contract-and-receipt that travels with freight: who ships, who receives, what's on board, in what count and condition. It's signed at origin, annotated at destination, and it's where a receiver writes the rejection reason when a load bounces — which makes the annotated BOL the single most important photograph in any dispute over who pays for what.
PHOTOGRAPH BOTH SIDES BEFORE A SINGLE PALLET MOVES. A NOTATION ON PAPER BEATS EVERY VERBAL ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED AT THE DOCK.
POD — proof of delivery
Proof of delivery is the signed confirmation that freight arrived — the receiver's signature, timestamp, and any exceptions noted at the moment of handoff. It closes the loop the BOL opened, triggers invoicing, and caps the window for damage claims; an exception-free POD on damaged freight is an argument you've already lost.
ORDER-PROCESSING QUOTES OFTEN PRICE THE PAPER TRAIL AS ITS OWN LINE — PACKING LIST, BOL, POD — BECAUSE THE PAPERWORK IS REAL LABOUR.
ASN — advance ship notice
An advance ship notice is the electronic message (classically EDI 856) telling a receiver exactly what's coming before it arrives — POs, cartons, pallets, tracking. Volume DCs schedule and staff against ASNs; freight that shows up not matching its ASN is non-compliant freight even when physically perfect, and it bounces or draws chargebacks accordingly.
"PAPERWORK MATCHES" IS A PRE-SHIP CHECKLIST LINE FOR A REASON — COUNTS, PO NUMBERS, AND THE ASN HAVE TO AGREE WITH WHAT'S PHYSICALLY ON THE TRAILER. THE CHECKLIST.
Routing guide — vendor compliance manual
A routing guide is the rulebook a large receiver publishes to its suppliers: approved carriers, appointment procedures, pallet specs, ti-hi expectations, label placement, paperwork requirements, and the chargebacks for violating any of it. The receiving dock doesn't improvise — it enforces this document, which means most "surprise" rejections were published in advance to anyone who read it.
SHIPPING TO A DC WHOSE ROUTING GUIDE NOBODY HAS OPENED ISN'T A COMPLIANCE STRATEGY — IT'S HOPE WITH A TRAILER ATTACHED.
Bonded vs sufferance warehouse
A customs bonded warehouse is a CBSA-licensed facility where imported goods can be stored long-term with duties and taxes deferred until the goods enter the Canadian market — or never paid at all if they re-export. A sufferance warehouse is the short-term cousin: a licensed holding point where freight waits for customs release, measured in days. Bonded is a storage strategy; sufferance is a customs waiting room.
"BONDED" IS A LICENSE, NOT A VIBE — ASK FOR THE LICENSE CLASS BEFORE ROUTING UNRELEASED FREIGHT. BONDED SPACE ON THE EXCHANGE.
Food-grade warehouse
A food-grade warehouse meets the sanitation, pest-control, recordkeeping, and traceability standards required to store food safely — in Canada, operating under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations framework, frequently with third-party GFSI-family audits on top. It's a documented operating discipline (audit trails, lot control, segregation rules), not a clean-looking floor.
CERTIFICATIONS GATE THE MATCH: FOOD FREIGHT ONLY ROUTES TO PROFILES THAT CARRY THE PAPER. FOOD-GRADE SPACE.
Billing & space
3 TERMSPallet position
A pallet position is one rack or floor slot that holds one pallet base — the unit third-party warehouses actually sell. Quoting per position (rather than per square foot) absorbs everything raw footage hides: aisles, racking profiles, staging lanes, honeycombing. Your position count is pure arithmetic — pallets divided by stack height, rounded up — and it's the number every storage quote starts from.
RUN IT IN TEN SECONDS ON THE POSITION CALCULATOR; PRICE IT IN THE ESTIMATOR.
In/out fees — handling in, handling out
In/out fees are the per-pallet charges for physically receiving freight into storage and pulling it for outbound — billed separately from the storage rate because they scale with how often inventory turns, not how long it sits. High-turn inventory can owe more in handling than in storage, which makes the in/out line the most commonly underestimated number in a storage budget.
MULTIPLY THE IN/OUT LINE BY YOUR REAL MONTHLY TURNS BEFORE COMPARING STORAGE RATES — THE CHEAP HEADLINE NUMBER ROUTINELY LOSES. THE ANATOMY.
WMS — warehouse management system
A WMS is the software that runs a warehouse's inventory: what's on hand, in which position, received when, allocated to which order. For a customer storing freight in someone else's building, WMS access is the difference between visibility and voicemail — "can I see my volume on hand?" is one of the most asked questions in third-party storage, and the answer separates modern operations from spreadsheet-and-phone ones.
CUSTOMERS ASKED US FOR EXACTLY THIS, IN THOSE WORDS, FOR TWO YEARS — IT'S WHY THE EXCHANGE SHIPS A CONTROL TOWER AND NOT A PHONE NUMBER.