Handling Costs
The cost included in moving, transferring, preparing, and handling.

Hangertainer
Specialised container equipped with hanger beams for the purpose of stowing garments on hangers.

Hard copy
Computer output printed on paper.

Harmless Chemicals
A cargo description, which is a contradiction of terms. A chemical is a substance and whether it is harmless or not, depends on the context in which the substance appears or is used.

Harmonised Tariff System
An international classification system designed to improve the collection of import and export statistics as well as provide a uniform tariff code structure for incorporation into national tariff systems. Promotes a high degree of international uniformity in the presentation of customs tariffs and foreign trade statistics. Consists of approximately 5,000 item descriptions, grouped into 21 sections and 97 chapters.

Harmonize Tariff Schedule of the United States
An organized listing of goods and their duty rates which is used as the basis for classifying imported products and identifying the rates of duty to be charged. The tariff schedule is divided into a variety of sections and chapters dealing independently with merchandise in wide-ranging product categories. The U.S. International Trade Commission is responsible for publishing the information.

Harmonized Commodity Description & Coding System
An international classification system that assigns identification numbers to specific products. The coding system ensures that all parties in international trade use consistent classification for the purposes of documentation, statistical control, and duty assessment.

Hawaiian carrier
A for-hire air carrier that operates within the state of Hawaii

HAWB
see House Airwaybill

Hawthorne Effect
From a study conducted at the Hawthorne Plant of Western Electric Company in 1927-1932 which found that the act of showing people that you are concerned usually results in better job performance. Studying and monitoring of activities are typically seen as being concerned and results in improved productivity.

Hazardous Goods
Articles or substances that could have a significant risk to health, safety, or property, and that ordinarily require special attention when transported. Also called Dangerous Goods.

Hazardous Material
A hazardous material is defined as any substance or material could adversely affect the safety of the public, handlers or carriers during transportation. There are nine classes of hazardous materials:

Heavy Lift Charge
Charge for cargo which is too heavy to be lifted by standard cranes or ship’s tackle.

Hedge Inventory
A form of inventory buildup to buffer against some event that may not happen. Hedge inventory planning involves speculation related to potential labor strikes, price increases, unsettled governments, and events that could severely impair a company’s strategic initiatives. Risk and consequences are unusually high, and top management approval is often required.

Heijunka
In the Just-in-Time philosophy, an approach to level production throughout the supply chain to match the planned rate of end product sales.

Hierarchy of Cost Assignability
In cost accounting, an approach to group activity costs at the level of an organization where they are incurred, or can be directly related to. Examples are the level where individual units are identified (unit-level), where batches of units are organized or processed (batch-level), where a process is operated or supported (process-level), or where costs cannot be objectively assigned to lower level activities or processes (facility-level). This approach is used to better understand the nature of the costs, including the level in the organization at which they are incurred, the level to which they can be initially assigned (attached) and the degree to which they are assignable to other activity and/or cost object levels, i.e. activity or cost object cost, or sustaining costs.

Highway Trust Fund
Federal highway use tax revenues are paid into this fund, and the federal government’s share of highway construction is paid from the fund.

Highway use taxes
Taxes assessed by federal and state governments against users of the highway (the fuel tax is an example). The use tax money is used to pay for the construction, maintenance, and policing of highways.

Hi-low
Usually refers to a forklift truck on which the operator must stand rather than sit.

Hitchment
Marrying 2 or more portions of one shipment that originate at different geographical locations, moving under one bill of lading, from one shipper to one consignee. Authority for this service must be granted by tariff publication.

Holds
Section of vessel in which containers are stored.See Bays

Home Page
The starting point for a website. It is the page that is retrieved and displayed by default when a user visits the website. The default home-page name for a server depends on the server’s configuration. On many web servers, it is index.html or default.htm. Some web servers support multiple home pages.

Honeycombing
(1) The practice of removing merchandise in pallet load quantities where the space is not exhausted in an orderly fashion. This results in inefficiencies due to the fact that the received merchandise may not be efficiently stored in the space which is created by the honey-combing. (2) The storing or withdrawal or supplies in a manner that results in vacant space that is not usable for storage of other items. (3) Creation of unoccupied space resulting from withdrawal of unit loads. This is one of the major hidden costs of warehousing.

Hopper cars
Rail cars that permit top loading and bottom unloading of bulk commodities, some hopper cars have permanent tops with hatches to provide protection against the elements.

Horizontal Occupancy Ratio
Ratio of exposed floor space in the occupiable space to floor space occupied by warehousing units.

Horizontal Play/Horizontal Hub
This is a term for a function that cuts across many industries, usually defines a facility or organization that is providing a common service.

Horizontal Separations
Space consumed by pallets in a column or unit clearances in racks, bins and shelves. Also space consumed by beams, rails shelves or other horizontal supports.

Hoshin Planning
Breakthrough planning. A Japanese strategic planning process in which a company develops up to four vision statements that indicate where the company should be in the next five years. Company goals and work plans are developed based on the vision statements. Periodic audits are then conducted to monitor progress.

Hospitality
The division of service that provides receiving, warehousing, inspection, installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) for new or renovated hotels, restaurants or assisted living center.

Hostler
An individual employed to move trucks and trailers within a terminal or warehouse yard area.

House Airwaybill
Document issued by agent. Used for consolidation of cargo. Reference numbers are normally issued by agent for identification of individual shipments within a consolidation.

Household goods warehouse
A warehouse that is used to store household goods.

HR
see Human Resources

HS-code
see Harmonized Commodity Description & Coding System

HTML
see HyperText Markup Language

HTS
see Harmonize Tariff Schedule of the United States

HTTP
See HyperText Transport Protocol

Hub
‘(1). A large retailer or manufacturer having many trading partners. (2) A reference for a transportation network as in ”hub and spoke” which is common in the airline and trucking industry. For example, a hub airport serves as the focal point for the origin and termination of long-distance flights where flights from outlying areas are fed into the hub airport for connecting flights. (3) A common connection point for devices in a network. (4) A Web ”hub” is one of the initial names for what is now known as a ”portal”. It came from the creative idea of producing a website, which would contain many different ”portal spots” (small boxes that looked like ads, with links to different yet related content). This content, combined with Internet technology, made this idea a milestone in the development and appearance of websites, primarily due to the ability to display a lot of useful content and store one’s preferred information on a secured server. The web term ”hub” was replaced with portal.’

Hub airport
An airport that serves as the focal point for the origin and termination of long-distance flights, flights from outlying areas are fed into the hub airport for connecting flights.

Human Resources
The function broadly responsible for personnel policies and practices within an organization.

Human-machine interface
Any point where data is communicated from a worker to a computer or from a computer to a worker. Data entry programs, inquire programs, reports, documents, LED displays, and voice commands are all examples of human-machine interfaces.

Hundredweight
A pricing unit used in transportation .

Hustler
Tractor that pulls containers around the pier for positioning. Also known as a yard hustler.

Hybrid Inventory System
An inventory system combining features of the fixed reorder quantity inventory model and the fixed reorder cycle inventory model. Features of the fixed reorder cycle inventory model and the fixed reorder quantity inventory model can be combined in many different ways. For example, in the order point-periodic review combination system, an order is placed if the inventory level drops below a specified level before the review date, if not, the order quantity is determined at the next review date. Another hybrid inventory system is the optional replenishment model. Also see: Fixed Reorder Cycle Inventory Model, Fixed Reorder Quantity Inventory Model, Optional Replenishment Model

Hyperlink
‘A computer term. Also referred to as ”link”. The text you find on a website which can be ”clicked on” with a mouse which, in turn, will take you to another web page or a different area of the same web page. Hyperlinks are created or ”coded” in HTML’

HyperText Markup Language
The standard language for describing the contents and appearance of pages on the