Coordinating Military Deployments on Roads and Highways:
A Guide for State and Local Agencies

This publication is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information.

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Appendix C. Key Terms

Access road

An existing or proposed public highway from a military reservation, defense industry, or activity to suitable transportation facilities. (This may include a public highway through military installations when it is dedicated to public use and, by fee simple or easement, is owned, operated, and maintained by civil authority.)

Brigade (BDE)

A unit usually smaller than a division to which are attached groups and/or battalions and smaller units tailored to meet anticipated requirements.

Cargo

Item(s) or freight to be moved, including items on or in a vehicle, towed by a vehicle; or a vehicle itself.

Commercial carrier

Common, contract, for-hire, or private carrier.

Convoy

Any group of six or more vehicles temporarily organized to operate as a column, with or without escort, proceeding together under a single commander; or a series of vehicles dispatched at the rate of 10 or more per hour to the same destination over the same route.

Column formation

A formation in which elements are placed one behind another.

Column gap

The space between two consecutive elements proceeding on the same route. The space can be calculated in units of length or units of time measured from the rear of one element to the front of the following element.

Column length

The length of the roadway occupied by a column or a convoy in movement.

Dimension limitation

The overall width, length, or height of a vehicle or combination of vehicles, or combination of a vehicle and lading.

Division

A major administrative and tactical unit/formation that combines the necessary arms and services required for sustained combat; larger than a regiment/brigade and smaller than a corps.

Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (NSIDH)

A limited highway system in the United States of 42,500 miles as established by law. Highways are to be located so as to connect by routes, as directly as practicable, the principal metropolitan areas, cities, and industrial centers to serve the national defense, and to connect, at suitable border points, with routes of continental importance in Canada and Mexico.

Earliest arrival date (EAD)

A date specified by the supported commander in chief (CINC) that is the earliest date when a unit, a resupply shipment, or replacement personnel can be accepted at a port of debarkation (POD) during a deployment. This date is used with the latest arrival date to define a delivery window for transportation planning.

Essential cargo

Cargo required for accomplishment of a military mission in accordance with the definition of mission, as well as "essential materiel" specified in the Uniform Materiel Movement and Issue Priority System (UMMIPS), DoD Directive 4410.6; also, cargo that is essential for prosecution of a war or for national survival during a survival period.

Emergency highway traffic regulation plan

A system of traffic management and control devised to regulate the use of highways and to expedite and facilitate urgent vehicle movement by highway just before, during, and just after a national security emergency.

Emergency highway traffic regulation (EHTR)

A regulation that contains plans, routes, and schedules for the use of highways to facilitate the orderly flow of traffic during a national emergency. The EHTR provides for evacuation, regulating movement through dangerous areas, and clearing priority traffic over routes of limited capacity.

Executive Order (EO) 12656

Assignment of emergency preparedness responsibilities; dated November 18, 1988, as amended.

Highway network

A total system of highways, roads, streets, bridges, tunnels, and related facilities, including all toll facilities, regardless of financing.

Highway movement essential to national defense

Use of highway(s) by essential cargo that cannot be reduced in size or weight or moved by another means and that has been determined to be eligible for highway movement.

Installation road

A road or street within a military reservation or in which DoD has real estate interest. Such a road is not dedicated to public use and is not eligible for improvement with defense access road funds.

Latest arrival date (LAD) at the APOD/SPOD

A date specified by the supported commander in chief (CINC) that is the latest date when a unit, a resupply shipment, or replacement personnel can be accepted at a port of debarkation (POD) and support the concept of operations. ANLAD is used with the earliest arrival date to define a delivery window for transportation planning.

Legal limitation

The statutory, administrative, or other regulations governing permissible length, width, height, loads, tire pressure, performance limits, or other characteristics for vehicles serving in a regular operation. Regular operation does not include the operation of vehicles or combinations of vehicles in excess of legal limitations; the latter operation must be authorized by a special permit issued by an appropriate civil authority.

Movement authorization

A legal form issued to authorize movement of a load or vehicle over regulated routes during lower traffic periods and/or other specific periods as determined by the traffic regulation agencies, to optimize traffic handling and road use.

N-day

The unnamed day on which an active duty unit is notified for deployment or redeployment.

N-hour

Notification hour (N+1, N+5, etc.).

National security emergency

Any occurrence, including military attack or technological or other emergency, that seriously degrades or threatens the national security of the United States.

Permit

A written authorization to move or operate on a highway a vehicle or vehicles having a size, weight, load, or other characteristic (such as a hazardous material cargo) exceeding the legal limitations for vehicles in regular operation and/or operating during restricted hours or on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays.

Port of embarkation (POE)

The geographic point in a routing scheme from which cargo or personnel depart. This point may be a seaport or an aerial port from which personnel and equipment move to a port of debarkation.

Port of debarkation (POD)

The geographic point in a routing scheme at which cargo or personnel arrive.

Port operations group

A task-organized unit, located at a seaport of embarkation and/or debarkation under the control of the landing force support party and/or combat service support element, that assists and supports the loading and/or unloading and staging of personnel, supplies, and equipment for shipping.

Port planning order (PPO)

An agreement between a commercial port and the military to provide staging space and port support to meet military deployment needs.

Port security

The safeguarding of vessels, harbors, ports, waterfront facilities, and cargo from internal threats such as destruction, loss, or injury from sabotage or other subversive acts, accidents, thefts, or similar causes.

Port support activity (PSA)

A tailorable support organization composed of mobilization station assets that ensures the equipment of the deploying units is ready to load. The PSA operates unique equipment in conjunction with ship loading operations. It is operationally controlled by the military port commander or terminal transfer unit commander.

Power projection

The ability of a nation to apply all or some of its elements of national power—political, economic, informational, or military—to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain forces in and from multiple dispersed locations to respond to crises, to contribute to deterrence, and to enhance regional stability.

Power projection platforms (PPP)

Military installations that strategically deploy one or more high-priority active component brigades (or larger). The military installation may also mobilize and deploy high-priority reserve component units.

Priority permit

A legal form issued to authorize movement of a load or vehicle between two or more points over regulated routes within specified time limits.

Ready-to-load date (RLD)

The date when a unit will be prepared to depart from its origin.

Replacement road

A public road that must be built to replace a public highway or street that has been or will be closed to public use because of construction, expansion, security, or safety requirements of a military installation or defense industry.

Required delivery date (RDD)

A date when a unit or material must arrive at its destination and complete offloading to properly support the military operation.

Regulated routes

Highways, roads, and streets, or portions thereof that must be subject to regulation because of hazardous conditions, special uses, or limited capacity in relation to demand.

Regulated routes—Class A

Highways, roads, and streets, or portions thereof that lie within an area contaminated by radioactivity or other material or affected by circumstances that are hazardous to the life and health of highway users. These roads may be used with special precautions and practices.

Regulated routes—Class B

Highways, roads, and streets, or portions thereof that are temporarily reserved for a special purpose, such as military or civil defense movements or use by other priority vehicles that may be allowed access to such routes by permit.

Regulated routes—Class C

Highways, roads and streets, or portions thereof that are determined to have, or are expected to develop, critical capacity restrictions and on which travel is generally limited to holders of road use permits.

Roads "open to public travel"

Roads within military installations to which dependents, visitors, and other members of the public are permitted access. To have identification to enter a road does not exclude it from being a road "open to public travel."

Single port manager (SPM)

The U.S. Transportation Command, through its component command the Military Traffic Management Command, is designated as the single port manager for all common-user seaports worldwide. The single port manager performs functions necessary to support the strategic flow of deploying forces' equipment and sustainment supply in the sealift port of embarkation (SPOE) and hand-off to the geographic commander in chief (CINC) in the sealift port of debarkation (SPOD). The single port manager is responsible for providing the strategic deployment status to the CINC and to operating the SPOD port operator base according to the CINC's priorities and guidance. The single port manager is responsible for all phases of theater port operations, from a bare beach deployment to a commercial contract-supported deployment.

Traffic engineering

The field of engineering that involves planning, geometric design, and traffic operations of roads, streets, and highways. It includes their networks, terminals, abutting land, and relationships with other modes of transportation for safe, efficient, and convenient movement of persons and goods.

Traffic regulation posts

Control points at either end of or along regulated routes for controlling the flow of traffic onto or on the route, checking road use permits, and advising vehicle occupants of any dangers.

Weight limitation

Applies to axle loads and spacing and to the gross load of a vehicle, or the combination thereof.

Warning order

A planning directive that describes a situation, allocates forces and resources, establishes command relationships, provides other initial planning guidance, and initiates subordinate unit mission planning.

Vehicle distance

The clearance between vehicles in a column that is measured from the rear of one vehicle to the front of the following vehicle.