Glossary
Shipping and Receiving Clerk Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential shipping and receiving clerk terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key shipping and receiving clerk vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in shipping and receiving clerk training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Bill of lading (BOL)
- A shipping document that serves as a receipt and contract.
- Cross-docking
- Moving goods directly from inbound to outbound.
- Cycle count
- Counting a portion of inventory regularly.
- Freight class
- A classification that affects LTL rates.
- FTL
- Full truckload shipping.
- LTL
- Less-than-truckload shipping.
- OS&D
- Overages, shortages and damages.
- Packing list
- A list of items in a shipment.
- Pallet
- A platform for moving goods.
- Proof of delivery
- Confirmation a shipment was delivered.
- Purchase order (PO)
- A document authorizing a purchase.
- Receiving
- Checking in incoming goods.
- SKU
- Stock keeping unit.
- Variance
- A difference between recorded and actual inventory.
- WMS
- Warehouse management system.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Shipping and Receiving Clerk practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Shipping and Receiving Clerk training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.