porterage

1. (uncountable) The carrying or transportation of goods by a porter (“person who carries luggage and related objects”) or other person.Examples: "[T]he Gallant was ready punctually at his hour with three or four Porters, by the help of whom he quickly removed all the choice Goods or any that were worth Porterage to a place appointed."; "If Goods are to be brought Home to your ovvn Houſe, there are Charges for VVeighage, Cranage, Porterage, VVharfage, Cartage, Lighterage, &c. […] Porterage, is the paying the Porters at the VVaterſide, for loading, unloading, vveighing, craning, &c."; "Shipt, from Spain, 10 tuns of vvine, at 10 l [pounds] ſterling per hhd [hogshead]: payd, cuſtom at the port of London, 1 s [shilling] per gallon; the carriage, for lighterage, cartage, and porterage, amounted to 5 l."Synonyms: portageuncountable

2. (uncountable) Porters regarded collectively.Examples: "He [George Mallory] went down with [Charles Granville] Bruce and [Andrew] Irvine that same day to Camp III, intent on investigating afresh with Bruce's aid the question of available porterage. It was found just possible to collect together sufficient men, who were not indisposed, to carry up oxygen supplies for such an attempt."uncountable

3. (uncountable, obsolete, rare) Goods or other things which are carried; burdens.Examples: "Novv, the parts in man that may be called the Porters, and vvhich bear the burdens that are carried, can be no other than the Scapula, and its Acromion, vvhich is the part upon vvhich the burden is pitched; and the back bone vvhich is the part that gives the greateſt ſtrength tovvards the bearing of it, both vvhich, vvhen age hath much enfeebled a man, become unſerviceable as unto thoſe ends, theſe Porters do novv become a porterage themſelves, and thoſe parts that vvere vvont to bear the greateſt burdens, are novv ſo great a burden themſelves, that the man ſtoops under them, and is ſcarce able to bear them."obsoleterareuncountable

4. (countable, uncountable) The charge for such carrying or transportation.Examples: "Boatage, and Porterage to the VVare-houſe"; "The neareſt rivals of our manufacturers, are thoſe of Europe, vvho are ſubjected to the follovving charges in bringing their goods into our market: […] porterages, freight, insurance, damage, intereſt of money, vvaſte, and loſs on exchange."; "Fancy, then, the packing, and peeping into the packages, and porterages, and percentages on porterages; and the engineering, and the tunnelling, and the bridge-building, and the steam whistling, and the grinding of iron, and the raising of dust in the Limousin ([Jean-François] Marmontel's country), and in Burgundy, and in Savoy, and under the Mont Cenis, and in Piedmont, and in Lombardy, and at last over the field of Solferino, to fetch me my bottle of diaphanous mustard!"Synonyms: portagecountableuncountable