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Every field on a rate confirmation, and the ones that start disputes
Updated September 11, 2026 · 3 min read
In short
A rate confirmation has seven parts: parties and references, stops with appointment windows, the freight, the rate and whether it includes fuel, accessorial terms, instructions for the driver, and the legal terms incorporated from the carrier agreement. Disputes come from four fields most often: whether fuel is in the rate, detention free time and rate, the pallet count and weight, and appointment windows written loosely enough to argue about.
A rate confirmation is one page, and every field on it is there because somebody once had an argument about it. Here is what each part does and which ones to be careful with.
Parties and references
The broker’s name, MC number and contact; the carrier’s name, MC number and contact; the broker’s load number; and the shipper’s references: purchase order, pickup number, delivery or appointment number. The references are what the driver will be asked for at both gates and what the receiver’s system uses to find the appointment. A missing pickup number costs a driver an hour at a guard shack.
Stops
Each pickup and delivery with the full address, the date, the appointment window, the contact name and phone, and whether the stop is live or drop. The window is where sloppiness costs money: “deliver 9/15” invites the receiver to say the appointment was 08:00 and the truck that arrived at 11:00 was late, which forfeits detention. Write “9/15 08:00–14:00” or “9/15 10:00 appt”.
Multi-stop loads list the stops in order with a stop-off charge for each extra one.
Freight
Commodity, weight, piece or pallet count, equipment type and length, temperature and mode for a reefer, hazmat class if any, and dimensions for anything that is not standard pallets. The weight and pallet count are the fields the BOL will later be checked against; the temperature is the field that ruins a reefer load when it is wrong.
Rate
The linehaul and whether fuel is included, or the linehaul plus a stated fuel surcharge, and the total. This is the most-read number on the page and the one carriers accept or decline over. It is also the anchor for the invoice audit: linehaul and fuel on the invoice must equal linehaul and fuel here.
Accessorials
Detention: the free time (two hours is standard) and the hourly rate after it, and the notification requirement. Layover per day. Truck ordered not used, as a flat amount, and the conditions. Lumper: reimbursed at cost with receipt, or paid by the broker directly with a code. Stop-off charges. Tarping for flatbed. The rule is that anything not written here is a negotiation later, and the negotiation usually goes badly for the carrier and then for the broker.
Instructions
Check-call or tracking expectations (tracking link, app, or calls at set times), seal rules, POD requirements (signed BOL photographed at delivery, sent the same day), what to do if the receiver refuses freight, and who to call after hours.
A newer item here is consent to automated communication: a clause stating that the carrier agrees, for itself and its drivers, to receive automated text messages and calls about the load’s status, may reply STOP at any time, and that message and data rates may apply. US law requires the recipient’s prior express consent for automated texts and artificial-voice calls to mobile phones, and the rate confirmation is the document the carrier signs on every load, so it is where brokers put the language. LogiPilot publishes the clause its customers use.
Terms
A reference to the broker-carrier agreement, the prohibition on re-brokering, payment terms and the quick-pay option, the requirement for a clean POD before payment, and penalties for late delivery or a missed appointment where the shipper’s contract passes those through.
The four fields that start disputes
- Fuel. In the rate or not. A plus sign with no number behind it is the most common ambiguity on the page.
- Detention terms. Free time and rate stated here or not stated at all; a carrier invoice with detention the rate confirmation never mentioned is a dispute every time.
- Weight and count. What the tender said versus what the BOL says versus what the receiver counted. The rate confirmation is the broker’s version; it has to match the tender exactly.
- Appointment windows. Written loosely, they cannot support a detention claim or a late-delivery defense.
Get those four right and most of the arguments that reach accounts payable never start. It also explains why rate confirmations are among the most valuable documents to read automatically: the same dozen fields, on a short page, that three people downstream will type again.
Terms used