Customer Glossary P-S
Jump to:
P-Q
- Package Freight
Goods shipped in less than carload quantities.
- Packing List
A detailed specification as to goods packed.
- Pad
An area within a parking lot designated for a particular type of trailer, such as loaded outbound.
- Pallet
A wooden, paper, plastic or metal platform, usually with a top and bottom, on which packaged goods are placed to facilitate movement by some type of freight handling equipment.
- Per Diem Charge
A charge based on a fixed rate per day which one carrier makes against another for the use of its cars.
- PICL
Perpetual Inventory of Car Location - a system of keeping track of cars within a yard as they are moved.
- Piggy Back
Transportation of a highway trailer on a railroad flat car
- Piggy Back Ramp
An incline for loading and unloading trailers from a flat car.
- Pigs
A railroad term for trailers loaded on flat cars.
- Pool
An assigned group of cars used to satisfy the requirements of a particular customer at a specific location, a particular customer at no designated location, an agent at a specific location or a particular commodity at no specific location.
- Port Charge
A charge for services rendered at ports.
- Port Mark
A term used in foreign shipping which denotes final destination - not the port of entry unless such port is the final destination.
- Port of Entry
A port at which foreign goods are admitted into the receiving country. Ports of Entry are officially designated by the government.
- Precooling
Reducing the temperature of refrigerator cars prior to loading.
- Prepaid
A term denoting that transportation charges have been or are to be paid at the point of shipment.
- Private Car
Cars whose ownership is vested in a person or company that is not engaged in the service of common carriage.
- Private Sidetrack
A siding owned or leased by a shipper or receiver of freight.
- Pro Number
The number used in identifying waybills and freight bills. Pro means progressive and agents use progressive numbers for this identification.
R
- Racks
Equipment sometimes used in refrigerator cars for the protection of meats and other commodities. Racks also used to transport auto parts.
- Ramp
A structure, permanent or temporary, from which trailers are driven onto or off of a railroad flatcar. Also used in reference to any city or location where piggyback loading and unloading can be performed.
- Received Bill
A railroad movement of at least two roadhaul carriers of which the UP is the last carrier.
- Reciprocal Switching
A switching service performed for another railroad on loaded cars on which the other railroad receives a road haul. The switching railroad is paid by the road haul carrier for performing the service.
- Reconsignment
(a) Any change, other than a change in the route, made in a consignment before the arrival of the goods at their billed destination.
(b) Any change made in a consignment after the arrival of the goods at their billed destination, when the change is accomplished under conditions which make it subject to the reconsignment rules and charges of the carrier.
- Record Rights
The legal privilege or rights of one rail carrier to deliver in interchange an empty car to another carrier at a specific junction. This right is earned as a result of the latter carrier having first delivered this car loaded to the prior carrier at the same mentioned junction. Thus, based on the record of the loaded move, the prior carrier has the empty right.
- Refining in Transit
The stopping of shipments of sugar, oils etc., at a point located between origin and destination to be refined.
- Refrigeration
The protection of perishable freight against heat.
- Refused Freight
Goods which the owner refuses to accept.
- Reshipment
Goods reshipped under conditions which do not make the act subject to the reconsignment rules of a carrier.
- Restricted Articles
Articles that will be accepted by carriers only under certain definite conditions.
- Retarder
A device for slowing the movement of cars being switched in a hump yard.
- Reverse Route
The exact reverse of the route a loaded car traveled from its destination, including all carriers and junctions involved.
- Rip Track
Location within a yard where cars are placed for major repairs or for major cleaning, conditioning or upgrading.
- Roadhaul Move
A movement of rail equipment from one terminal to another.
- Round House
A building used for repairing locomotives.
S
- SCO
Shipper Car Order - a request by a shipper to a railroad for empty cars of a certain type for loading.
- Schedule
The planned times of movement between two locations. (a) The time which is supposed to be consumed in a movement between two points. (b) A list of prices or other information, such as a freight tariff, is often called a freight schedule.
- Seal
A device for fastening or locking the doors on a rail car or trailer.
- Seal Numbers
Seals are used to insure the integrity of a shipment carried in a rail car, van or container. The seal is placed through the door handles and then locked. Each seal is impressed with a seal number; if the seal is broken or the number differs from that originally reported, the consignee knows that the shipment has been tampered with.
- Shipper
The owner of goods offered for carriage.
- Shipper's Export Declaration
A form required by law to be filled out when goods are shipped to foreign countries. All essential facts such as weight, size, value etc., must be given.
- Shipper's Load and Count
A term denoting that the contents were laded and counted by the shipper and not checked or verified by the carrier.
- Shipping Order
Instructions of shippers to carrier for forwarding of goods; usually the triplicate copy of the bill of lading.
- Shipping Permit
A permit issued by a carrier authorizing its agent to accept certain shipments against which an embargo has been placed.
- Short Line
A switch carrier or roadhaul carrier that is not a Class 1 carrier. The carrier usually owns less than one hundred miles of track.
- Siding
A track parallel to a main track, having switches at both ends, used for meeting and passing trains.
- Special Conditions
Information on a car to assure safe and proper handling by the Operating Department.
- Special Instructions
Orders issued by the customer that imposes restrictions on the movement and/or routing of a car.
- Spur
A track extending from and connected at only one end with another track.
- SPLC
Standard Point Location Code - an industry wide standard used to identify a location served by a common carrier.
- Spotting Cars
The placing of cars where required for loading or unloading.
- Station
A place designated in the timetable by name, at which a train may stop for traffic; or to enter or leave the main track; or from which fixed signals are operated.
- Station Master
A profile of the characteristics of a particular station stored in TCS. TCS checks against the station master to validate reports.
- STCC
Standard Transportation Commodity Codes. - The STCC system is a 7-digit coding structure designed to classify all commodities or articles which move or may move in freight transportation.
- Stevedore
A person who loads or unloads the hold of a vessel.
- Stop
The destination where a car is to perform a service or notify a customer (ie. weight, part unload, shipper order notify, complete unload, spot for loading), or where an event already has taken place.
- Stoppage in Transit
The holding of a shipment between point of origin and destination on order of the owner of the goods.
- Storage
A charge made on property stored.
- Store Door Delivery
The movement of goods to the consignee's place of business.
- Summary Advance Consist
A summary by blocks of the contents of train or job normally for the use of office personnel.
- Summary Train List
A summary by blocks of the contents of a train or job normally for the use of train crews.
- Switch
To move cars from one track to another at the customer's request for which there may or may not be a tariff charge.
- Switch Road
A carrier that has operating rights within one terminal only.
- System Destination
On line stop from station/yard, indicating that the car either will be put into a yard hold, placed at industry or delivered in interchange.