Haulage generally refers to the business of being a haulier (UK English) or hauler (US English), also called haulage contractor, common carrier, contract carrier, or private carrier, in other words of transporting goods by road or rail for other companies or one's own company. It includes the horizontal transport of ore, coal, supplies, and waste, also called cartage or drayage. The vertical transport of the same with cranes is called hoisting.
Haulage fees, sometimes also simply called "haulage", include the charges made for hauling freight on carts, drays, lorries, or trucks, and is incorporated for example in the cost of loading raw ore at a mine site and transporting it to a processing plant. A railway, supplying cars, may negotiate rates with customers located on another railway's line, the road granting haulage rights. This differs from trackage rights in that the host railway operates the trains for the other railway, where with trackage rights, the secondary railway operates trains over the host's track