What Are Accessorial Charges?
27 Aug 2026
Accessorials can add significant cost to a quoted rate. Ideally the costs of accesorials are negotiated before shipping occurs, and often most accessorials arise from an avoidable situation.
An accessorial is any service beyond standard dock-to-dock pickup and delivery, which is referred to as the linehaul rate. If the carrier has to perform extra services or incurs extra time or costs as part of the shipment, that will be billed in the form of an accessorial.
What are accessorial charges?
The base freight rate (line haul) covers the picking up of a load at point A and delivery to point B, anything other service or cost will be billed as an accessorial.
They are not penalties and they are not padding. Each one covers something the carrier genuinely had to do, whether that is equipment they had to bring, time the driver spent waiting, or a correction because there was an issue that was not in control of the carrier.
Charges set by the location
These are decided by where the freight is shipping too, and how it will need to be unloaded. All of these are things that should be known at the time of booking.
Liftgate. The truck needs a powered platform because there is no dock and no forklift at one end.
Residential delivery. Delivering to a home takes longer and can be more challenging due to location and accessibility, and carriers price accordingly.
Limited access. Carriers define this broadly, and more broadly than most shippers expect: schools, military bases, churches, construction sites, storage facilities, farms, and anywhere with restricted entry. Confirm how your destination is classified before tendering rather than after. In some cases, having to check in through a guard shack is considered limited access.
Driver Assist. The driver may need to participate in the unloading either by hand unloading or utilizing a pallet jack.
Pallet Jack Required. In some cases, a carrier may be asked to supply a pallet jack. This definitely needs to be worked out ahead of time and the majority of carriers cannot assist with this type of request.
Notification or appointment. The carrier has to call ahead and book a delivery window, which also adds a day or so to transit.
Estimate your freight class before you ship
Enter the dimensions and weight and get the class your density suggests, with the full NMFC scale alongside it.
Open the calculatorCharges set by time
These types of charges are sometimes known in advance, and other times they arise during a pick up or delivery.
Detention. The driver waits beyond the free window to load or unload. Usually caused by freight that is not staged, a backed-up dock, missing paperwork, or nobody available to receive.
Layover. The driver is held overnight because loading or unloading cannot happen on the scheduled day, and the truck has already arrived.
Truck ordered not used. The truck arrived or the carrier has designated a truck and there was no load to collect. TONUs can be charged even before a truck arrives, since a carrier can no longer commit it’s truck to another load if the load cancels on relatively short notice.
Redelivery. The first attempt failed, so the carrier comes back. This is the expensive one, because it also costs a day and sometimes triggers storage at the terminal in between.
Reconsignment. The freight cannot be delivered to the original planned location and must be rerouted to another location.
Charges set by the freight being different
These come about due to a shippers miscalculations on weight or dimensions or due to LTL companies deciding the classification was incorrect after the freight was picked up.
Reweigh. The carrier weighs the freight and it does not match the bill of lading.
Reclassification. The declared freight class was wrong, usually because the density was estimated rather than measured. Covered in our guide to freight class.
Oversize or overlength. A piece is longer or larger than the carrier's standard handling allows.
Extra handling. Freight that cannot be moved by forklift in the normal way, usually because it is loose, oddly shaped or poorly palletized.
Which accessorials can be avoided
| Group | Decided | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Before the truck moves | Declare location related accessorials at booking and get the costs up front. This allows everyone to be prepared and not surprised. |
| Time | Sometimes ahead of time, sometimes unknown until occurence | Stage freight early, staff the dock during the window, have paperwork ready |
| Freight different | After the fact | Measure and weigh carefully before using freight class calculator |
Detention is probably the most common of the accessorial, and is avoidable by proper preparation by the shipper or receiver.
Why accessorials often occur with LTL
Accessorials can occur with any shipment of any kind, but they do tend to occur most often with LTL shipments.
An LTL driver is running a fixed, sequenced route with many other deliveries on board. If the delivery needs a liftgate that was not booked, the driver must return the freight to the terminal. Reweighing and reclassifying happens often too because the shipper may not have been exact with their dimensions or weight.
Being upfront about anything that may cost more will only help avoid surprise charges on the invoice. That is covered further in our guide to LTL shipping.
Reducing accessorials for good
Four things that change the pattern of being charged for accessorials, rather than just one invoice.
Fix the dock problem. If you are regularly running into detention charges, evaluate why this is happening. Booking loads before they are ready to ship or not having proper staffing for busy shipping times are generally major contributors to slow loading and unloading times that result in extra charges.
Negotiate the costs for regularly occurring accessorials. If accessorials are unavoidable for your business, negotiate the charges ahead of time. This allows costs to be known rather than a surprise.
Put the requirements on the bill of lading. Not just in an email at booking, having requirements on the bill of lading set the shipment up for success.
Quoting without surprises
A quote that leaves accessorials out is not a less expensive quote, it is an incomplete one. Any provider, broker or carrier, can win a booking by not asking whether there is a dock at the far end, and the shipper finds out three weeks later on the invoice.
LT2 Logistics arranges freight across the United States and into Canada, and we would rather ask the awkward questions at booking than have you discover the answers on a bill.
If accessorials keep landing on your invoices and you cannot see why, call us at (262) 888-3553 and describe how and where you ship. We will tell you which ones are structural to your business and which ones you are paying for by accident. More on how our brokerage works.
