There are many different methods in transporting shipping cases or trade show cases. They may be shipped by truck, air, or ship. The carrier can be either a van line, common carrier or airplane. It is helpful to understand some of the abbreviations commonly used by many freight and shipping companies.
FOB – Free on board.
Freight is the exhibit properties, products and other materials shipped for an exhibit.
Consignee is the person to whom the goods are shipped, the receiver.
Consignor is the person who ships the goods, the shipper.
Actual weight is the shipping weight determined by weighing the vehicle empty. This is the Tare Weight. Once the shipment is loaded and weighed on the scale the Gross Weight. By subtracting the two weights, you find the Actual Weight of the shipment.
Expedited air freight usually refers to overnight air which is called Air Express. Keep in mind this can be quite costly. Air Freight is products needing to be shipped quickly which is usually by air.
Common carrier is a shipper which transports crated, cased, or skidded materials and consolidates freight of more than one customer into one shipment headed for a particular location. This is sometimes referred to Motor Freight Carrier.
A cubic foot equals 1728 inches (12″ x 12″ x12″) and is used in computing the cost of the exhibit transportation and storage. CWT Hundred weight is the weight measurement for computing drayage (material handling) and exhibit freight equaling 100 pounds. CWT is always rounded up to the next even 100 pounds. C is the Roman number for 100.
Declared Value is the value of the entire contents of a shipment in dollars.
B/L is a bill of lading used with truck freight shipments. Oc/BL – Ocean Bill of lading.
CPT - Carriage paid to.
COD – Cash on Delivery.
Deferred Air Freight is air freight that waits until cargo space is available (usually 3-5dys) at a reduced rate.
POV is a personally operated vehicle which is a van or truck driven by the exhibitor or company staff carrying exhibit materials direct to the show site.
