Accessorial charges: the lines that move an LTL invoice after the quote

An accessorial charge is a fee for a service beyond moving freight from one dock to another. It is billed on top of the line haul rate, and it is the most common reason an LTL invoice comes in higher than the quote. Most accessorials are legitimate. What makes them painful is that they were not on the quote, because nobody asked or nobody said.

Why they exist

An LTL rate assumes a commercial dock at each end, freight that can be moved by forklift, and a driver who does not wait. Anything that departs from that costs the carrier time or equipment, and the carrier’s tariff lists a charge for each departure. The charges are published in the carrier’s rules tariff, and they differ from one carrier to the next.

At the pickup and delivery ends

Liftgate service, when there is no dock and the freight has to be lowered to the ground. Residential pickup or delivery, for homes and for many businesses run from homes. Limited access locations such as schools, churches, construction sites, farms and storage units. Inside delivery, when the freight has to go past the door. Appointment or notify before delivery, when the consignee must be called first. Liftgate in particular is covered in its own article.

Charges that follow the freight

Reweigh and re-class, when the carrier finds the weight or class on the bill of lading was wrong. Redelivery, when the first attempt failed. Storage, when freight sits at a terminal waiting for the consignee. Detention, when a driver waits beyond the free time at a dock. None of these is on any quote, because none of them is supposed to happen.

Which ones are avoidable

Almost all of the first group, by declaring them. A liftgate, residential or limited access charge billed after the fact usually costs more than the same service ordered in advance, and it arrives with a delay because the driver could not deliver as planned. The second group is avoided by getting the paperwork right: an accurate weight, the right class, and a consignee who knows the freight is coming.

Reading them on an invoice

Each accessorial should appear as its own line with its own code, and each should correspond to something that happened. If the invoice shows a residential charge for a commercial address, or a liftgate for a delivery to a dock, ask for the delivery receipt and the driver’s notes. Disputes go to the carrier with the documents attached, and they are far easier to win when the bill of lading declared the address type correctly in the first place.

Fuel is not an accessorial, but it moves too

The fuel surcharge is usually a percentage applied to the line haul and adjusted weekly against a published index. It is not a fee for a service and it cannot be avoided, but it does mean that a quote obtained weeks before shipping may not match the invoice exactly. That is a reason to ask what fuel basis the quote assumed.

Accessorial charges are also where carriers differ most from each other. Two carriers with similar line haul rates on a lane can have very different charges for a liftgate or a residential delivery, and the cheaper rate can become the more expensive invoice once the services are added. Comparing quotes means comparing them with the services included.

How we deal with them

We ask about both ends of the move before we quote: dock or not, residential or not, appointment or not, and what the access is like. What a complete quote has to ask is set out in the article on serious quotes. When a charge arrives that does not match what happened, disputing it is our job rather than yours.