TONU (truck ordered not used)

A truck that shows up to a cancelled load has lost the day: the deadhead to get there, the hours of service spent, and the other load it could have taken. TONU is the accessorial that pays for that, and unlike detention it is a flat fee rather than an hourly one.

Two sides argue about it. The carrier says the truck was dispatched and the load disappeared. The shipper says the load was never confirmed, or was cancelled with notice, or the truck was late anyway. The broker is in the middle with the rate confirmation, which is why the rate confirmation should say what a TONU pays and when it applies, and why a broker’s dispatch record (when the carrier was confirmed, when the truck was told to go, when the cancellation came in) is the evidence.

A broker can usually recover a TONU from a shipper only if the shipper’s contract provides for it, which is the same story as every accessorial: the terms have to exist before the load, and the claim has to move the same day.