Glossary
Courier Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential courier terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key courier vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in courier training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Biohazard bag
- Specimen bag.
- Chain of custody
- Record of who handled items.
- Cold chain
- Keeping items cold.
- Court filing
- Legal document delivery.
- Dispatch
- Assigns jobs.
- Drop-off window
- Delivery time range.
- ETA
- Estimated time of arrival.
- Independent contractor
- Self-employed worker.
- Manifest
- List of stops.
- Mileage log
- Record of miles driven.
- Proof of delivery
- Signature or photo.
- Route optimization
- Planning efficient stops.
- Rush delivery
- Urgent delivery.
- Same-day
- Delivered the same day.
- Specimen
- Medical sample.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Courier practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Courier training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.