Accessorial Charges: What They Are, What They Cost and How to Avoid Them

Accessorial charges are the extra fees a carrier bills beyond the linehaul rate for anything beyond a plain dock-to-dock move: a liftgate, a residential stop, a driver kept waiting, a reweigh, a second delivery attempt. They're the main reason a freight invoice ends up higher than the quote.

Most of them are published, predictable and avoidable. Below is what each common accessorial means, what carriers actually charge for it in 2026 (taken from their own tariffs, not guesses), and what you can do to keep each one off your bill.

What are accessorial charges?

An accessorial charge, sometimes shortened to "accessorial" or "accessorial fee", pays for work or equipment outside the basic job of hauling freight from one dock to another. The linehaul rate covers the miles. Accessorials cover everything else: extra labor, extra time, special equipment, extra paperwork and stops that cost the carrier more than a normal commercial delivery.

People search for this under several names: accessorials, accessorial fees, freight accessorial charges, and the common misspellings "accesorial" and "assessorial". They all mean the same thing, and the list below covers every one of them.

Every LTL carrier lists its accessorials in a rules tariff, a long document with item numbers such as "Item 566 Inside Delivery". When an accessorial shows up on your invoice, it should point back to one of those items and to something written on the bill of lading or the delivery receipt.

Two things make accessorials feel like surprises. First, a quote only includes the accessorials you told the carrier about. Second, many are applied after the fact, once the driver reports that there was no dock, that the receiver wasn't ready, or that the freight was bigger than the paperwork said.

Accessorial charges list: what carriers charge in 2026

Here is what three large LTL carriers publish for the most common charges. "Cwt" means per 100 pounds of shipment weight, so a 1,500 lb shipment is 15 cwt. Where a charge is per cwt, the minimum is what most small shipments end up paying.

Sources: TForce Freight Rules Tariff UPGF 102-T, Old Dominion accessorial services brochure based on tariff ODFL 100-Q, and Estes accessorial charges sheet. Carriers revise these, and brokers and contract shippers often get different rates, so treat them as a reference point rather than a promise.

Look at the spread. A residential delivery can cost $75 with one carrier and $207 with another before you even reach the per-cwt math. That alone is a good reason to get the accessorials into the quote instead of finding them on the invoice. We put the numbers side by side, with example bills at three shipment weights, in our LTL accessorial fee index.

LTL accessorial charges, one by one

Liftgate

A liftgate is the hydraulic platform on the back of the truck that lowers freight to the ground when there's no dock or forklift. It's billed separately at pickup and at delivery, so a shipment that needs it at both ends pays twice. If either location doesn't have a dock, say so when you book. Adding a liftgate after the fact usually means a second trip, and then you pay redelivery as well.

Residential delivery

Any home, home-based business or address in a residential area counts, even if the person receiving it runs a real company. Carriers flag these from their own address data, so a commercial address in a mostly residential area can still get billed as residential. If you're sure an address is commercial, say so on the bill of lading and be ready to show it.

Limited access

These are places where a truck can't just roll in and unload: schools, churches, military bases, construction sites, prisons, farms, storage units, mines and similar locations. The exact list varies by carrier, so check the tariff item if you ship to these often. TForce lists churches, construction sites, military bases and schools without a dock in its Item 755.

Inside delivery or pickup

The driver normally hands freight over at the tailgate. Moving it past the first doorway, into a room, up a floor or down a hallway is inside delivery, and it's priced by weight. Estes adds a charge per extra floor on top. If the receiver can bring a pallet jack to the door, you skip this one.

Appointment and notify before delivery

Carriers charge when they have to call ahead or deliver inside a set window. It's small, usually $30 to $65, and often worth it, because a missed delivery costs far more. Just make sure it's on the quote.

Redelivery and reconsignment

Redelivery is a second attempt after the first one failed because the receiver was closed, refused the freight or wasn't ready. Reconsignment is when you change the delivery address after the freight is moving. TForce charges $85 to change it before delivery is attempted and much more after. Both come down to confirming the receiver's hours and address before pickup.

Reweigh, inspection and reclassification

Carriers measure and weigh freight on the dock. If the weight or density doesn't match the bill of lading, they reclassify it, rerate it and add an inspection fee. Old Dominion charges $25 per reclassification. TForce charges $40 when an inspection or reweigh raises the charges by $15 or more. The fee is small, but the rerate on a higher freight class is where the real money goes. Since freight class moved to density in 2025, accurate dimensions matter more than ever. Our freight class guide explains the density math, and if a reclass has already hit you, here's why an LTL invoice comes in higher than the quote and how to dispute it.

Over-length freight

Long pieces block floor space and slow the dock, so carriers charge a flat fee by length. The jumps are steep: TForce charges $375 for pieces from 8 to under 12 feet and $850 from 12 to under 20 feet. Old Dominion charges $495 and $1,000 for the same bands. If a piece is close to a breakpoint, an inch can cost you hundreds.

Protect from freeze

From fall to spring, carriers will keep freezable freight in heated trailers and terminals for a per-cwt fee. TForce offers it from October 1 to April 30. Bottled drinks, paint, adhesives and some chemicals need it on northern lanes in winter.

Hazardous materials

Hazmat adds a flat per-shipment fee ($30 to $60 across these three carriers) on top of the handling and paperwork rules. Leaving it off the bill of lading isn't a way to save money. It's a safety and legal problem.

Truckload accessorial charges

Truckload carriers rarely publish tariffs, so these charges are usually set in the rate confirmation. One public benchmark is the standard accessorial schedule J.B. Hunt published for carriers hauling through its Carrier 360 platform. It shows what a large broker pays carriers, and it's in the same range many shippers are billed. The most common truckload accessorials:

Detention. The truck waits past its free time, usually two hours, to be loaded or unloaded. In J.B. Hunt's schedule, detention starts two hours after arrival at $50 an hour, up to five hours. LTL carriers charge waiting time too: TForce charges $75 per 15 minutes once free time runs out, and its free time grows with shipment weight, from 30 minutes for small shipments to 4 hours for 20,000 lb and up.

Layover. If the truck can't load or unload until the next day, the carrier bills a daily layover. J.B. Hunt's schedule lists $250 per day.

TONU (truck ordered, not used). You book a truck, then cancel after it's dispatched or the freight isn't ready. J.B. Hunt's schedule lists $200. Some people call it a dry run.

Stop-off charges. Each extra pickup or delivery on a multi-stop load carries a fee, agreed in advance.

Driver assist and lumpers. If the driver has to help load or unload, there's usually a per-stop fee (J.B. Hunt's schedule lists $50). Lumpers are third-party crews at grocery and big-box warehouses who unload trucks for a fee. Federal law, 49 U.S.C. 14103, says that if a shipper or receiver requires loading or unloading help, it has to provide that help or pay for it, and it can't make the driver pay for it. In practice the lumper is paid at the dock and then billed back through the carrier, so ask whether a receiver uses lumpers before you book.

We wrote a separate piece on how brokers handle detention and layover costs if waiting time is your biggest headache.

Is a fuel surcharge an accessorial?

Technically yes. Most tariffs list it as a separate line, and nearly every shipment pays it. It isn't a penalty, though. It moves with diesel prices. TForce, for example, ties its fuel surcharge to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly on-highway diesel price: the price published on Monday sets the surcharge that takes effect on Wednesday. You can see the government number on the EIA diesel price page. More on how it works in our fuel surcharge guide.

Accessorial pay: what carriers and drivers get

If you're on the carrier side, "accessorial pay" is the other half of the same charges: detention, layover, TONU and stop pay that the carrier bills and sometimes passes on to drivers. Collecting it is harder than it sounds. ATRI's 2024 detention study found drivers were detained at 39.3% of stops in 2023, and 94.5% of fleets charge detention, but they're paid on fewer than half of those invoices. ATRI puts the cost of detention at $3.6 billion in direct losses plus $11.5 billion in lost productivity for 2023.

On pay to drivers, a 2018 DOT Inspector General report cited an ATRI survey where about 60 percent of carriers said they pass some of the detention fees on to their drivers. It also found that every extra 15 minutes of dwell time raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent, which is one reason waiting time matters beyond the money.

How to avoid accessorial charges

Nearly every avoidable accessorial comes from information the carrier didn't have at booking. This is the checklist we run before a load moves:

Describe both ends honestly. Business or residence, dock or no dock, forklift or not, limited access or not, appointment needed or not. Put it on the quote and the bill of lading.

Measure and weigh every handling unit. Length, width, height including the pallet, and real weight. Round up, not down. This is the single best defense against reclassification.

Check for long pieces. Anything 8 feet or longer, and anything near 12 feet, should be flagged and priced before pickup.

Confirm hours and readiness. Call the receiver. Make sure someone will be there, the dock is open, and the freight is staged before the truck shows up. That prevents detention, redelivery and TONU.

Ask about lumpers and appointment rules at big warehouses and grocery DCs, and get the cost agreed ahead of time.

Pay known accessorials up front. A liftgate on the quote is almost always cheaper and easier than one added after a failed delivery.

Get the accessorial schedule. Ask your carrier or broker for the tariff items behind any quote so you know the minimums.

How to check an invoice for accessorials

When the bill arrives, match every accessorial line to proof. Detention should have in and out times on the delivery receipt. Liftgate, residential and inside delivery should match the service on the bill of lading or a note on the receipt. A reclass should come with an inspection certificate or the carrier's dock measurements. If a charge has no paperwork behind it, ask for the documents before you pay. Our bill of lading guide shows which fields carriers rely on when they bill.

New to LTL? Our explainer on what less than truckload (LTL) shipping is covers how it works before you dig into the fees.

To see how brokers help with the biggest of these fees, read our guide to detention and layover costs.

Accessorial charges FAQ

What is an accessorial charge in shipping?

It's a fee for any service beyond the basic pickup, linehaul and delivery between two commercial docks. Liftgate, residential delivery, detention, inside delivery and reclassification are the most common.

Are accessorial charges negotiable?

Often, yes. Large shippers and brokers negotiate accessorial rates and free time into their contracts. Even on a single shipment, telling the carrier about a liftgate or appointment in advance usually costs less than having it applied after the fact.

Who pays accessorial charges, the shipper or the receiver?

Whoever pays the freight bill, which depends on the freight terms on the bill of lading (prepaid or collect). The sales terms between buyer and seller are a separate question. Our guide to FOB shipping point vs FOB destination explains the difference.

What's the difference between detention and layover?

Detention is paid by the hour when the truck waits past its free time on the same day. Layover is a daily charge when the truck has to wait until the next day.

What does TONU mean in trucking?

Truck ordered, not used. It's a flat fee when a truck is dispatched and the load is cancelled or isn't ready.

Why did I get a residential charge for a business address?

Carriers classify addresses from their own data and from what the driver sees. A business in a home, or in an area zoned residential, can trigger it. If the address is commercial, note it on the bill of lading and dispute it with proof.

If you want a quote with the likely accessorials built in from the start, request an LTL quote or a truckload quote and tell us about both locations. We'll flag what's likely to apply before you book, and you can look up any freight term in our glossary.