Accessorial charges
Accessorial charges are fees carriers add on top of the base freight rate for services or events outside a standard dock-to-dock move: liftgate delivery, residential stops, detention, redelivery, reweighing, storage, and fuel surcharges, among others. Individually small, they accumulate quickly, and because many are assessed after delivery without the shipper's sign-off, they are where freight invoice audits recover the most money.
Examples
Quote versus invoice: An LTL quote of $385 arrives as a $574 invoice: a $95 liftgate fee, a $58 limited-access charge for a job-site delivery, and a $36 fuel surcharge adjustment. The rating tool never asked what kind of site was receiving the freight.
Audit recovery: A machine builder spending $2.1 million a year on freight audits 12 months of invoices and finds $87,000 in errors: duplicate fuel surcharges, detention billed inside the free window, and liftgate fees at docks that own forklifts. Recovery equals about 4 percent of spend.
Negotiating the predictable: A shipper with constant residential deliveries negotiates the $120 per-stop residential fee to a flat $55. Across 800 annual shipments, that single line is worth $52,000.
Definition
A base freight rate assumes a clean move: commercial docks on both ends, a forklift available, freight ready when the truck arrives, dimensions as declared. Anything outside that script triggers a tariff fee. Less-than-truckload tariffs are the densest, with published charges for liftgates, residential or limited-access delivery, inside delivery, reweighs and reclassification, redelivery after a failed attempt, and storage.
Accessorials bite because they are assessed after the fact. The quote said $410; the invoice says $618 because the carrier reweighed the pallet, applied a higher freight class, and added the liftgate the receiver requested at the door. None of that needed the shipper's approval. In container shipping the heavyweights are demurrage and detention, which on a badly delayed box can exceed the ocean freight itself.
Two disciplines keep them controlled. In contracts, negotiate the predictable ones: flat or waived liftgate fees, capped fuel surcharge tables, extended free time on lanes that congest. In accounts payable, audit invoices against quotes line by line; accessorials are the most common source of freight billing error and the easiest money to recover in a freight audit.
Frequently asked questions
What are accessorial charges in freight?
Accessorial charges are fees carriers add on top of the base freight rate for services or events outside a standard dock-to-dock move. Common examples include liftgate delivery, residential stops, detention, redelivery, reweighing, storage, and fuel surcharges. Individually small, they accumulate quickly across a freight budget.
Why do accessorial charges make invoices higher than quotes?
A base freight rate assumes a clean move: commercial docks on both ends, a forklift available, freight ready when the truck arrives, and dimensions as declared. Anything outside that script triggers a tariff fee, and many accessorials are assessed after delivery without the shipper's approval. A $410 quote can become a $618 invoice after a reweigh, a higher freight class, and a liftgate the receiver requested at the door.
How do you control accessorial charges?
Two disciplines keep accessorial charges controlled. In contracts, negotiate the predictable ones: flat or waived liftgate fees, capped fuel surcharge tables, and extended free time on lanes that congest. In accounts payable, audit invoices against quotes line by line, since accessorials are the most common source of freight billing error.
Which accessorial charges are the most expensive?
In container shipping the heavyweights are demurrage and detention, which on a badly delayed box can exceed the ocean freight itself. In less-than-truckload freight, tariffs publish dense schedules of charges for liftgates, residential or limited-access delivery, inside delivery, reweighs, reclassification, redelivery after a failed attempt, and storage.
Are accessorial charges worth auditing?
Accessorial charges are where freight invoice audits recover the most money. One machine builder spending $2.1 million a year on freight audited 12 months of invoices and found $87,000 in errors, about 4% of spend, including duplicate fuel surcharges, detention billed inside the free window, and liftgate fees at docks that own forklifts.
Related Terms
Previous
Next