porterage

noun

1. (uncountable)The carrying or transportation of goods by a porter (“person who carries luggage and related objects”) or other person.

   “[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.”

   “When parties talk about the cost of applying the railway system to the docks, it would be well for them to consider the cost of not applying it. […] How large an amount of expense is now incurred for cartage and porterage which might be saved by the employment of a different system?”

   “The specific job of the Kohathites is the porterage of the most sacred objects (enumerated in vv. 5–15) by shoulder (4:15; 7:9).”

2. (uncountable)Porters regarded collectively.

   “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.”

3. (obsolete, rare, uncountable)Goods or other things which are carried; burdens.
4. (countable, uncountable)The charge for such carrying or transportation.

   “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!”

   “Further information on the reverse of the list of connections advised us that the labels tied to our baggage entitled us to free porterage at Basle SBB station (normally this is charged at a regulation scale); […]”

5. (uncountable)The occupation of, or services provided by, a porter (“person in control of the entrance to a building”).

   “In rules of Porterage untaught, / Simplicity, not vvorth a groat, / For years had kept the Temple door; / Full on his breaſt a glaſs he vvore, / Thro' vvhich his boſom open lay / To ev'ry one vvho paſs'd that vvay.”

   “There is an underground parking space for each flat, a 24-hour porterage service and careful security arrangements.”

   “A good-sized drawing-room and dining-room and two double bedrooms – you won't need more. Twenty-four-hour porterage and a modern security system.”

   “There is a strong demand for studio or one- and two-bedroom apartments with private underground parking and twenty-four hour porterage by young single professionals and executives and working couples with minimal domestic lifestyles.”