Common Shipping Terms Defined

Vanguard Safety proudly offers a variety of ways in which customers can order and receive goods. As part of that service, we contract with various carriers to provide additional delivery assistance where applicable.  Below are some of the more common shipping terms we use in our invoice processing to explain additional and non-typical fees incurred at the point of delivery.

Lift Gate – A lift gate fee is charged when products are unloaded utilizing a truck’s lift gate or tail lift. Not all trucks are equipped with a lift gate; therefore, special arrangements must be made in advance. Lift gate service is usually dependent on one of two things: cargo type or the infrastructure of the pickup and delivery location.

Limited Access – An umbrella term covering special transportation services. These services may include navigating gated access, maintaining required appointments, inspections, etc., and are usually incurred when delivering to schools, churches, farms, military bases, military sites, nuclear power plants, prisons and correctional facilities. For a full list of limited access locations, please refer to your operating standards manual. 

LTL Sort and Segregate – If a carrier is required to sort or segregate a shipment to complete the delivery process, this fee may apply. This additional service might include transferring products from one pallet to another, removing products from a pallet, 
racking products, and counting all, or part, of the case quantities. 

On-Site Lumper – Lumper fees are often incurred when a delivery requires an added service such as breaking down pallets, sorting, counting or restocking products. Delivery times are budgeted, and extra services add extra time to the clock. 
To avoid these fees, recipients may choose to use their own staff when unloading the delivery. 

Trucking Detention – This charge often applies when drivers experience an excessive waiting time to unload their freight. Sometimes referred to as accessorial charges, these fees are commonly applied due to warehouse receiving inefficiencies, 
administrative issues or loading dock congestion. 

Regional Arbitrary – As the name suggests, this fee is often charged based on the region a product is delivered to. Certain zip-codes and hard-to-reach locations fall into this category and may have road congestion and toll requirements as contributing factors.