ETD – Estimated Time of Departure
ETD could be the estimated departure time of the shipper’s cargo on board a vessel or that of the transport vessel itself. It could be the estimated departure time of anything that could be waiting for dispatch.
FAK – Freight All Kinds
All commodities are assigned a classification by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA). The values range from 50-500 and take into account the difficulty involved in moving the goods. The higher the classification, the higher the cost per hundredweight due to increased difficulty in moving the product.
Finding the correct classification for freight can already be a difficult task for shipper’s shipping multiple types of products but became even more confusing for those shipping different classed commodities on the same skid. The solution to this issue was to create an FAK. The FAK groups multiple classes of freight into a single class. In order to streamline the process and reduce the need for re-classifying items, attempts were made to choose a class that averaged all goods in a shipment. The goal was to reach a price point that was fair to the shipper and the carrier.
IPI – Inland Point Intermodal
At times MLB and IPI are used interchangeably. However, IPI shipments move inland via truck or rail to a non-port destination. For example, a freight shipment from Yantian to Chicago via Seattle would be unloaded on the West Coast and then shipped inland via truck or rail.
TEU – Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit
A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is a measure of volume in units of twenty-foot long containers. For example, large container ships are able to transport more than 18,000 TEU (a few can even carry more than 21,000 TEU).
One 20-foot container equals one TEU. Two TEUs equal one FEU.
