Accessorial charges

Every truckload rate has two parts: the linehaul, which pays for moving the freight from A to B, and the accessorials, which pay for everything the standard move did not include. The rate confirmation should say which accessorials the broker will pay and at what rate; anything not listed is a negotiation after the fact.

The accessorials that show up most on a carrier invoice:

Charge	Typical trigger	Typical range
Detention	Waiting past two free hours at a dock	$50–$100 per hour
Layover	Held overnight through no fault of the driver	$150–$350 per day
Lumper fee	Third-party unloading at a warehouse	$100–$400, reimbursed at cost with the receipt
Truck ordered not used (TONU)	Load cancelled after the truck was dispatched	$150–$250, more for reefers and flatbeds
Extra stop	A pickup or delivery not on the original tender	$50–$150 per stop
Liftgate, inside delivery, residential	Equipment or handling beyond dock-to-dock	Varies by market

Two things decide whether an accessorial gets paid. First, the paperwork: arrival and departure times on the bill of lading or in the ELD log for detention, the receipt for a lumper, the dispatch record for a TONU. Second, timing: most shippers will not accept a detention claim more than a few days after delivery, and most carriers expect the charge on the invoice, not in a separate email a month later.

For a broker, the cost of accessorials is less the fee itself than the argument about it. A charge that appears on the invoice without matching what the rate confirmation authorized is the single most common reason a carrier invoice sits unpaid.