What an LTL service includes, and the accessorials that are not in your quote

A base LTL rate buys one thing: dock to dock. A forklift at each end, a loading dock at each end, standard business hours, no appointment, no notification. Anything else is an accessorial charge, and this is the list that explains most surprise invoices.

At pickup

• Liftgate. Needed wherever there is no dock. The single most common accessorial and the one most often assumed to be included. See liftgate service.
• Residential pickup. Charged for the address type, not for the truck size. A home business is a residential address as far as the tariff is concerned.
• Inside pickup. Anything beyond the kerb or the dock edge.
• Limited access. Schools, farms, storage facilities, construction sites, military bases, churches. A long list, applied by address type.
• Appointment or timed window. Constraining the carrier costs money.

At delivery, the same list plus three

• Notification before delivery. Frequently assumed, rarely included.
• Redelivery. If nobody is there, the freight comes back and goes out again.
• Storage. If it comes back and cannot go out again quickly.

The ones that apply to the freight rather than the address

• Overlength. Applied by length band, and it starts lower than most shippers expect. A single long item can cost more than the rest of the pallet.
• Non-stackable. If the freight cannot take weight on top, the carrier loses the space above it and charges for it, which is frequently what pushes awkward freight toward partial rather than LTL.
• Reweigh and reclassification. Not a service you order. A correction the carrier applies. See re-rating.
• Hazardous materials. Its own documentation regime, and not something to discover at pickup.

And the one that is not a charge at all

Cargo liability is not insurance. Carriers are liable up to a limit set by class and weight, which on light high-value freight can be a small fraction of what the goods are worth. Full value coverage is purchased separately, which is why a serious quote asks what the goods are worth, and knowing the difference before a pallet is damaged is worth more than the premium.

Why we list all of this rather than quoting low

Because a quote that omits a liftgate is not a cheaper quote, it is the same quote with a charge arriving later, and it makes the broker look either careless or clever. Neither is a good look on the second shipment.

What the base rate covers, line by line, is on the service page.