THE BIG LIST of ACCESSORIALS
To make these extra freight costs easier to understand, we’ve broken them down by the primary mode of transportation where they typically occur—along with clear definitions for each. This way, you can better anticipate and manage the additional fees that may come with your shipments.
All Freight Modes
Advanced Notification: When the carrier is required to notify the consignee before making a delivery.
Bill of Lading (BOL) Correction Fee: Imposed when an incorrect BOL is used and/or a correction is required after the load has been picked up.
Hazardous Materials: Certain products are composed of various materials that are capable of posing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, and property when transported. An extra free is incurred because there are specific driver and equipment requirements for these shipments.
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Be aware that there are some hazmat materials that cannot be transported. (Restricted vs. prohibited)
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Hazmat shipments need to be accompanied by an MSDS sheet outlining the contents of the shipment.
- Hazmat materials are classified into nine distinct classes
Liftgate: Commercial trucks are designed to load and unload conveniently onto loading docks. When shipments are being made to addresses with no loading dock area, they require liftgate equipment. A liftgate is a special hydraulic platform fitted on the back of a truck that can raise or lower a shipment to and from the ground.
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Not all trucks are equipped with liftgates, so you’ll need to specifically source a carrier that has them. If you don’t communicate that a lift gate is needed, the driver will arrive without the required equipment and won’t be able to complete the delivery. This means your shipment will need to be redelivered (another fee) and could potentially be late (another fee).
Limited Access: Any pick-up or delivery locations that present additional challenges and complexities for carriers, and/or requiring more time and work for the driver, varying based on carrier. Some of the most common examples:
- Gate enclosures
- Guard shacks
- Schools
- Military bases
- Unmanned storage facilities
- Camps, carnivals, fairs
- Churches, mosques, temples
- Prisons
- Golf courses
- Construction sites
Inside Delivery: This fee is added to a shipment when the motor carrier driver is required to go inside, meaning beyond the front door or loading dock) to pick up or delivery the shipment.
Residential: Motor carriers add this accessorial charge when they are required to make a delivery in a residential area. The reason is the delivery density is far less, meaning more miles are required to make each delivery versus when delivering the a DC or warehouse there are typically many within just a few miles and positioned next to a major highway exit.
Truckload & Intermodal
Detention: A detention charge is made on trailers/containers held by or for a consignor/consignee for loading or unloading, forwarding directions or any other purpose. Typically, there are 2 hours free time before detention becomes an issue.
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Detention is billed on an hourly basis and a negotiable charge at time of contract, not at time of invoicing.
Driver Assist: This charge becomes a part of shipment if the driver’s labor is needed to either load or unload the shipment from their trailer.
Driver Load Count or Verification: If the driver is required to count or verify the contents of a load, while unloading or loading their trailer.
Driver Clean: When it is required for the driver to clean their trailer as a result of moving a shipper’s load, there will be a charge for their labor. Often times this is a known requirement for a particular business, which lends itself well to negotiating the rate down as part of the overall service contract.
Layover: If a carrier is required, by the action of the shipper or consignee,
Lumper: When a carrier is required to hire labor to perform loading or unloading. This is fairly typical with some industries and is a straight pass through invoice.
Misuse Charge: Equipment spotted at customer location by Carrier A but used instead by Carrier B.
Out of Route Miles: Additional services that require the motor carrier to be more than 10 miles outside of the contracted rate.
Overweight: Overweight charges come when the combination of tractor, trailer and cargo weigh in excess of local, state and federal requirements. 80,000 pounds is the standard in total or if the weight is not properly distributed over various points of the equipment, unless a heavy haul permit is pulled.
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12,000 pounds average single axle weight.
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17,000 pounds per axle.
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34,000 pounds per tandem axle.
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While overweight accessorial charges can come from a truckload shipment, they are associated with domestic 53’ shipments more often. As a matter of fact, weight is the number one issue shippers fail on with intermodal.
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There is an automatic $200 for stops and scaling, accumulating charges depending on the rework solution and there may also be fines levied by transit authorities the shipper will be responsible to pay.
Pool Setup or Teardown: Charges associated with establishing or terminating an equipment pool at a customer’s location.
Redelivery: For whatever reason, an issue arises that a shipment needs to go back to a location to be unloaded. If that occurs, the shipper will be charged to redeliver the load to consignee location.
Rework: The time and material charge required when either a load shifts, there is damage or their is an overweight situation that needs to be corrected before the carrier can complete the load.
Stop-Off Charge: The fee for an extra pick-up or delivery, multi-stop.
Storage: Storage charges are assigned to the shipper or consignee for holding containers or trailers at an intermodal terminal beyond the free time allotted to them.
Truck Order Not Used (TONU): This is one of the easiest accessorials to avoid and comes down to communication. When a motor carrier or drayman goes to pick up a trailer / container or make a delivery and for some reason leaves without performing the shipment requirements, then there will be a charge because the shipper did utilize the equipment. They just did not load or unload the product, which is not the cost carriers are charging, meaning motor carriers charge when the wheels are moving or if sitting for extended time at the request of the shipper.
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Examples include:
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The driver is dispatched for pick up/delivery, but carrier advised that the load is not ready
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The driver is refused or load is canceled after the placement of rail owned equipment which requires a return to retrieve the rail owned equipment
Yard Pulls: The carrier pulls a container to their terminal/yard from a port or rail ramp. While this may be an additional expense to a load, by the time a freight provider makes this call it is less than the storage fees that would continue to accrue.
Intermodal
Chassis Charge: This accessorial is associated more with ocean shipments. The fee is often a no charge item from the ocean carrier, but not always so ask the question when evaluating quotes.
Demurrage: A charge assessed for cargo that is left at the terminal beyond the allotted free time, the clock is always ticking.
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Note that congestion at pick-up/delivery or the location being closed will NOT void this charge.
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Demurrage is billed at a daily rate, which often times escalates as the number of days increase and these fees need to be paid before a container can be pulled from the yard.
Per Diem: A carrier charge against another carrier/customer for use of its containers, trailers or chassis. (These charges accumulate until the equipment is returned.)
Scale: Overweight issues. (Some shippers request scaling on every load, but there is an additional charge for this request as well)
LTL
Oversized / Overlength: When a shipment occupies more than a standard pallet position on a trailer. (The fee is often cited when the shipment is over 12 feet.)
Reclassification & Reweigh: Misclassified LTL shipments or incorrect weight reported
Sort / Seg: When a carrier is required to sort and/or segregate consignor or consignee shipment.
