Shipping Terms                               

Gross Weight

Group of stevedores usually 4 to 5 members with supervisor assigned to a hold or portion of the vessel being loaded or unloaded.

Port of entry into a country or region.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a multilateral treaty intended to help reduce trade barriers and promote tariff concessions.

General Cargo Rate. The basic tariff category which was introduced to cover most air cargo now covers only a minority, the remainder being under SCR or class rates.

When damage to cargo on board a vessel exceeds carrier's insurance, carrier will release cargo only with an acceptance agreement to claim only a general percentage of all the damage sustained.

Any of various export licenses covering export commodities for which validated export licenses are not required. No formal application or written authorization is needed to ship exports under a general export license.

Government contract warehouse for the storage of cargoes left unclaimed for ten working days after availability. Unclaimed cargoes are auctioned publicly after one year.

Entire weight of goods, packing, and container,, ready for shipment.

General Sales Agent acting on behalf of an airline. Usually Broker or Forwarder.

Shipping Terms                               

An internationally accepted and uniform description system for classifying goods for customs, statistical and other purposes.

A key provision of the recently signed trade bill, effective Jan. 1, 1989, that establishes international uniformity for product classifications. Most U.S. Trading partners adopted it a year earlier, and it was drafted in Brussels a decade ago with U.S. representatives' input. In essence, it is a new tariff schedule in that it changes methods of rating some items.

The cover of - or opening- in the deck of a vessel, through which cargo is loaded.

Specifically designed to be self sustaining with heavy lift cranes, to handle unusually heavy and/or out-sized cargoes.

Freight too heavy to be handled by regular ship's tackle

An air waybill issued by a freight consolidator. See Air Waybill

A central location to which traffic from many cities is directed and from which traffic is fed to other areas.

A short ton hundredweight = 100 pounds. Long ton hundredweight = 112 pounds.

Term used by steamship lines, agents, or port captains who are appointed to handle all matters in assisting the master of the vessel while in port to obtain bunkering, fresh water, food and supplies, payroll for the crew, doctors appointments, ship repair, etc.