City Logistic

We help you discover the technical terms and acronyms of City Logistics.

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TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit)

This is the standard measure of volume in the transport of an ISO container. Most containers have standard lengths of 20 and 40 feet: a 20-foot (6.10 m) container corresponds to 1 TEU while a 40-foot container corresponds to 2 TEU. Although the height of the containers may vary, this does not affect the TEU measurement. This measurement is used to determine the capacity of a ship in terms of the number of containers, the number of containers handled in a port in a certain period of time and can be the unit of measurement by which the cost of shipping is determined.

Third Party Logistics Provider (3PL)

An operator to whom a company can entrust all or part of its logistics activities (see also Logistics Operator).

Time charter

Time-based rental agreement.

Time to customer

The time between the moment a customer requests goods or a service to the moment he receives this product or service.

Time to market

The time between the beginning of the design process of a new product and its marketing.

Total Cost of Ownership

This is the sum of all the costs incurred for the design, construction and management of a point of sale.

Total lead-time

The total time that elapses between the decision to issue a replenishment order and when the goods become available for use. This is the sum of the Order Lead Time, the Purchasing Lead Time, the Transit Time and the Goods Inward Lead Time phases for a replenishment order.

Touchpoint

Touchpoints are channels through which the company and the customer can get in touch for example in a physical store or on a website.

Traceability

The identification of the goods and materials used in the manufacturing or production process in order to highlight the link between the materials and the production batch and to trace them in the event of any subsequent defects.

Tracking and Tracing

Logistics traceability and goods tracking. The first term tends to identify them in transit, while the second one deals with the moment they arrive at their destination. Tracing is intended as a continuous or on request verification of the position of a vehicle, a transport unit or goods in general. Tracking, meanwhile, indicates the route of a vehicle, a transport unit for goods in general.

Transit Point

Areas and storage points where the flow of goods from different origins can transit, without being stored, before it’s sent on to other different destinations.

Transit Time

The time it takes to physically move goods between different stages of the supply chain, or sideways to another facility.

Transport Contract

Contract by which a party, known as the carrier, undertakes to transport things from one place to another for a fee, within the time frame established by the contract. The carrier performs this transportation on behalf of one person (the sender) and undertakes to deliver the items to another person (the recipient).

Transport declaration

Document used for road transports, which shows the list of goods loaded on the vehicle and refers to the copies of the delivery note which are attached.

Transport of delivery document (Documento di Trasporto or DDT in Italian)

It replaces the packing slip and can be omitted if the goods travel together with the relevant invoices.

Transportation Hub

Buildings and facilities used for freight transportation services, for example transhipment equipment which can serve a number of freight companies. A transportation centre is often owned and operated by the many companies that use it.