Parcel fuel glossary

32 terms you will meet on invoices, in carrier notices and in contract talks.

Accessorial charge: A charge on top of the base rate for an extra service or condition, such as residential delivery or additional handling. Fuel is often applied to accessorials too.
Additional handling: A per-package accessorial for items that are heavy, long or not fully enclosed in corrugated cardboard.
Base rate: The published or contracted transportation charge before accessorials and fuel.
Calculated rate: On this site, a surcharge derived from the carrier’s published table and the applicable EIA fuel price, pending the carrier’s own publication.
Carrier published: On this site, a surcharge read from the carrier’s own publication.
Collar: A fuel cap paired with a floor: the surcharge cannot rise above one level or fall below another.
Delivery area surcharge (DAS): An accessorial for deliveries to ZIP codes the carrier classifies as remote or extended.
Demand surcharge: A temporary per-package or per-pound charge carriers apply during peak periods.
DIM weight: Dimensional weight: a billable weight based on package size. The carrier bills the greater of actual and DIM weight.
EIA: The U.S. Energy Information Administration, which publishes the weekly diesel and jet fuel prices carriers index to.
Estimated rate: On this site, a surcharge based on incomplete information, such as an averaging window a carrier does not fully publish.
Fuel cap: A contract term that limits the fuel surcharge to a maximum percentage.
Fuel discount: A contract term that reduces the published fuel surcharge by a percentage of itself.
Fuel per $100: Our way of quoting a surcharge: the dollars of fuel charged per $100 of charges it applies to. 30.25% is $30.25 per $100.
Fuel table: A carrier’s published schedule that converts a fuel price into a surcharge percentage.
Gulf Coast jet fuel: EIA’s weekly U.S. Gulf Coast kerosene-type jet fuel spot price, the index for most air and express surcharges.
General rate increase (GRI): A carrier’s annual increase to list rates, usually announced in the fall and effective early in the new year.
Index: The fuel price a surcharge is tied to, such as EIA’s national on-highway diesel price.
On-highway diesel: EIA’s weekly average retail price of diesel fuel in the United States, surveyed on Mondays; the index for ground surcharges.
PADD: Petroleum Administration for Defense District: the regions EIA uses for regional fuel prices.
Percentage point: The unit for differences between percentages. A move from 29.25% to 30.25% is one percentage point.
Pivot price: The fuel price in a table below which steps become coarser, so the surcharge falls more slowly as fuel drops.
Points off: A discount stated as fixed percentage points below the published surcharge, rather than as a percentage of it.
Re-opener: A clause that allows terms to be renegotiated when a stated event occurs, such as a fuel table change.
Residential surcharge: An accessorial for delivery to a home rather than a business address.
Stale: On this site, a rate that could not be verified within its expected update window; the last known value is shown with its date.
Step: The increment by which a table changes the surcharge, usually 0.25 percentage points per band of fuel price.
Table freeze: A contract term that fixes the fuel table in force at signing for the length of the agreement.
Table reset: A carrier’s publication of a new fuel table, which can change the surcharge at the same fuel price.
ULSD: Ultra-low sulfur diesel, the diesel fuel used by trucks. Wholesale ULSD prices lead retail diesel prices.
Wholesale diesel: The spot price at which diesel trades between refiners, traders and distributors at hubs such as New York Harbor.
Zone: A band of distance between origin and destination that carriers use to set base rates.