The following are some of the key terms used in shipping planning.
The carrier is provider of the delivery service. Multiple carriers can be involved in delivering items that are part of an order.
A delivery plan is a complete sequence of movements needed to deliver one or more orders from one or multiple origins to one or multiple destinations. A delivery plan is comprised of shipments, loads, origins, stops, and destinations.
The destination is the last node or address in the travel route of a load where all remaining shipments in the load are dropped off.
A load carries one or more complete shipments (never a partial shipment) between two points. A load has one origin and one destination, but it can have multiple intermediate stops. Shipments can be added to a load at its origin or any intermediate stop and can be dropped off at the load destination or any intermediate stop.
The origin is the node the load originally ships from.
A shipment is a delivery of one or more orders and order lines from a single shipper to a single consignee. A shipment can be carried through multiple loads and by multiple carriers.
A stop is any location where a shipment is picked up or dropped off. A load has a stop sequence that determines its travel route.