A message from a party booking forwarding and/or transport services for a consignment to the party providing those services. The message will contain conditions under which the sender of the messages requires the services to take place.

The message is a single consignment message which can be used by all modes of transport for the forwarding and transport of goods from any origin to any destination, regardless of route or prevailing commercial practice.

A firm booking message is a commitment from the consignor to the carrier or forwarder to avail of certain services and is used for planning or operational purposes by the carrier or forwarder.

A firm booking message can be answered by a booking confirmation message.

A firm booking message may also be used to cancel a previously sent firm booking message.

A firm booking message can be replaced by a new firm booking message. It contains all relevant reservation data related to a consignment and it may be followed by a Transport Instruction message to finalise the contract.

In addition to the main principles detailed above, a number of general principles also apply;

A number of generic transport terms are used in this specification, to be described as:

CONSIGNEE
the organisation (party) which has the intention to receive the goods.

CONSIGNOR
the party ordering transport, orders a carrier to collect goods for transportation.

CONSIGNMENT
a collection of goods items to be transported from one or many despatch locations to one or many delivery locations. (synonym: shipment).

CARRIER
the party contracted by the consignor or forwarder to transport goods.

DESPATCH LOCATION
the physical location from which goods for transport are shipped.

DELIVERY LOCATION
the physical location to which goods for transport are finally delivered.

EQUIPMENT
material resources necessary to facilitate the transport and handling of cargo. Transport equipment does under the given circumstances not have the ability to move by its own propulsion (e.g. sea container, trailer, unit load device, pallet).

FORWARDER
the party contracted by the consignor to arrange to have the goods transported.

GOODS ITEM
a collection of products normally grouped together for transport purposes, e.g. 12 pallets of foodstuffs.

LINE ITEM
a specific product identified and defined for trade purposes, e.g. a case of flour containing 24 packets of 250 grams.

MODE OF TRANSPORT
the method of transport used for the conveyance of goods or persons, e.g. by rail, by road, by sea.

MEANS OF TRANSPORT
the vehicle used for the transport of goods or persons, e.g. aircraft, truck, vessel.

PLACE OF ACCEPTANCE
the place at which the responsibility of the carrier starts.

PLACE OF DELIVERY
the place at which the responsibility of the carrier ends.

TYPE OF MEANS OF TRANSPORT
the type of vehicle used in the transport process, e.g. wide body, tank truck, passenger vessel.

TYPE OF EQUIPMENT
the type of material used, e.g. 40 feet container, four way pallet, mafi trailer.