The short version
- A freight quote prices the trip: the base rate and fuel. Accessorial charges price everything else, and they’re added after the freight moves.
- They come from the carrier’s rules tariff, a separate document from your quote and often from your contract, and each carrier writes its own.
- The same service can cost very different amounts. The minimum charge for a residential delivery runs from $75 at one national LTL carrier to a flat $243 at another.
- Most accessorials are triggered by what the bill of lading says or doesn’t say, which makes an accurate bill of lading the cheapest fix.
- When one is wrong, the evidence is your shipment record, and the clock to dispute it starts when the bill arrives.
Why the quote and the bill are different documents
When a carrier quotes a shipment, it prices what you told it: the origin, the destination, the weight, the class and the service level. That’s the base rate plus a fuel surcharge.
Everything else lives in the rules tariff, the carrier’s rulebook for what it charges beyond the base rate. AFS Logistics found that LTL rules tariffs now regularly run past 70 pages, some over 200, and that carriers can change them without notice unless your contract says otherwise. Carriers say plainly that a quote is an estimate. Old Dominion’s tariff bills on “services actually performed,” not on what was quoted.
So there are three documents in play: the quote, your contract if you have one, and the carrier’s rules tariff. Where your contract is silent, the tariff applies. Most shippers have read the first, some have read the second, and almost none have read the third.
The charges that show up most
Accessorials fall into three groups, depending on what triggers them.
Where the freight is going
- Residential delivery. Any delivery to a home, or to a business run from one. Old Dominion charges $7.20 per hundred pounds with a $125 minimum; FedEx Freight charges a flat $243, billed separately at pickup and delivery.
- Limited access. Sites that are harder to reach or slower to deliver to. Old Dominion’s list includes military sites, prisons, day care centers, parks and libraries, and each carrier publishes its own.
- Liftgate. Needed when there’s no dock and the freight has to come down to ground level. Minimums run from $75 at Estes to $207 at FedEx Freight.
- Inside delivery. Bringing the freight past the door, rather than to the truck’s tailgate.
Time
- Appointment or notification. A call ahead or a scheduled delivery window. Commonly $30 a shipment at Estes and Old Dominion, $65 at FedEx Freight.
- Detention. Waiting at the dock beyond the carrier’s free time. More on this below.
- Redelivery. A second attempt after the first one failed, often because the receiver wasn’t ready or the address was wrong.
The freight itself
- Excessive length. Anything over about 8 feet. On current tariffs, a 20-foot piece runs $1,000 at Estes, $1,300 at Old Dominion and $1,514 at FedEx Freight. AFS found overlength charges were 114% higher in 2023 than in 2019, the single biggest driver of accessorial growth.
- Reweigh and reinspection. The carrier checks the weight or class and rebills if it differs from the bill of lading, plus a fee: $25 at Old Dominion when an inspection leads to a reclass, $40 at FedEx Freight when a reweigh moves the weight far enough.
- Hazardous materials. A per-shipment surcharge for regulated freight, on top of the shipper’s own compliance duties.
Those categories grew unevenly. In AFS’s data, appointment charges were up 123% between 2019 and 2023, residential charges 13%. Across all of them, accessorials averaged 8.7% of LTL spend in 2023 for AFS’s customers. We looked at what that does to a freight budget in Why Your LTL Costs Rose While Your Volume Didn’t.
Reading an invoice, one charge code at a time
Every accessorial on an invoice should match something in your shipment record. If it doesn’t, that’s the one to question.
| Charge | Check it against | Common reason it’s wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | The delivery address and the receiver’s business type | A business address flagged residential by the carrier’s address database |
| Limited access | The carrier’s own list of limited-access locations | A standard commercial site coded as limited access |
| Liftgate | Whether liftgate was requested on the bill of lading, and the delivery receipt | Billed on a dock delivery |
| Appointment | Whether you or the receiver asked for one | Added automatically for a receiver who doesn’t require it |
| Detention | Arrival time, appointment time and departure time on the signed delivery receipt | The truck arrived late, so the free time should have shifted |
| Redelivery | The first attempt: when, and why it failed | The first attempt was outside the delivery window |
| Reweigh or reclass | Your weights, dimensions and photos at tender | A reweigh inside the carrier’s own tolerance |
[FPI DATA: the accessorial code FPI finds mis-billed most often, and the share of accessorial lines it disputes.]
Detention, where the clock matters
Detention is the charge that turns most on timestamps. Truck drivers lose real hours to it: the American Transportation Research Institute found detention at 39% of stops in 2023. Carriers bill for it from the free time in their tariffs.
The rules differ by carrier. Old Dominion allows 20 minutes of free time for a single shipment, rising to an hour for nine or more, then charges $3 a minute with a $50 minimum. The clock starts at the appointment time, measured on the driver’s handheld device, and Old Dominion adds free time when its own driver is more than 30 minutes late. FedEx Freight allows 15 to 60 minutes depending on weight, then charges $82 per 15 minutes.
That’s why a detention charge is only as good as the record behind it. If your dock logs check-in and check-out times, and the receiver signs a delivery receipt with times on it, a detention charge for a truck that arrived late can be reversed. If nobody wrote the times down, the carrier’s scan is the only record.
Preventing them at the bill of lading
Most accessorials start with what the bill of lading says, or leaves out. A few habits stop the avoidable ones before they’re billed.
- Flag residential, limited-access, liftgate and inside-delivery needs when you book, so they’re rated at the start instead of added at the end.
- Measure and weigh at tender, and keep a photo of the pallet. It’s the only evidence you’ll have against a reweigh.
- Confirm appointments in writing and keep the confirmation with the shipment record.
- Ask receivers whether they need an appointment or a liftgate, rather than finding out from the invoice.
- Know which of your carriers’ tariffs apply, and where your contract overrides them.
Disputing the wrong ones
A dispute succeeds on evidence. When a charge doesn’t match the shipment record, file with the carrier and include the freight bill, which federal rules require, along with the bill of lading, the signed delivery receipt and any appointment confirmation.
Move quickly. Federal law generally gives a shipper 180 days from receiving a motor carrier’s bill to contest it, and some carrier tariffs set their own shorter windows for claims. Once a claim is filed, the carrier has 30 days to acknowledge it and 60 days to pay, decline or settle. How Freight Audit and Payment Works covers the full process and the time limits.
We’re not lawyers, and this isn’t legal advice. For contract or claim questions that matter to your business, ask your counsel.
Where Land-Link fits
Land-Link has managed transportation for shippers since 1978. On the freight we manage, that means booking with the right accessorials flagged up front, confirming appointments, and keeping the delivery records a dispute depends on. Our affiliate, Freight Payment Inc. (FPI), audits every freight bill against what actually happened and handles the disputes, on freight we manage and freight we don’t.
To see where you stand, the Freight Exposure Check asks eight questions and scores invoice integrity alongside four other areas of freight risk. Your result shows on screen as soon as you finish. For audit on its own, start with freight audit and payment services.
Frequently asked questions
What are accessorial charges in freight?
Accessorial charges are fees a carrier adds for anything beyond moving freight from one dock to another: a liftgate, a residential or limited-access delivery, an appointment, waiting time at the dock, redelivery, oversized freight, or a reweigh or reinspection. They’re set in the carrier’s rules tariff or your contract and billed after the shipment moves.
Why doesn’t my freight invoice match the quote?
A quote prices the base rate and fuel for the shipment as described. Accessorial charges only apply if something specific happens at pickup, in transit or at delivery, so they’re added once the shipment has moved. Carriers also treat quotes as estimates and bill on the services actually performed.
Why do accessorial charges vary so much between carriers?
Each carrier publishes its own rules tariff, with its own fees, minimums, free time and definitions. For example, the minimum charge for a residential delivery is $75 at one national LTL carrier and a flat $243 at another, and detention free time ranges from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the carrier and shipment size.
How is detention charged on an LTL shipment?
Detention is charged when a truck is held at pickup or delivery beyond the carrier’s free time. At Old Dominion, for example, free time runs from 20 minutes for one shipment to 60 minutes for nine or more, then $3 a minute with a $50 minimum, and the clock starts at the appointment time. Dock logs and time-stamped delivery receipts are the evidence if the charge is wrong.
How do I dispute an accessorial charge?
Match the charge to the shipment record first. If the service didn’t happen, file with the carrier and include the freight bill and your evidence: the bill of lading, the signed delivery receipt with times, and the appointment confirmation. Federal law generally gives a shipper 180 days from receiving the bill to contest it, and some carrier tariffs set shorter claim windows.
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