TL;DR
Understanding accessorial charges in freight shipping helps you avoid unexpected invoice increases. Accessorial charges are additional freight fees for services, conditions, or changes outside the original linehaul quote — things like liftgates, detention, residential delivery, hazmat handling, and extra stops.
If you deal with truck freight shipping, learning the most common accessorial fees helps you quote more accurately, prepare pickup and delivery sites, and reduce preventable billing surprises.
Accessorial charges are additional freight fees for services, conditions, or changes outside the original linehaul quote. They cover things a carrier didn’t price into the base rate — because the shipper didn’t disclose them, or because they came up mid-shipment — so the carrier adds them to the invoice separately.
Three categories account for most accessorial charges:
Not every condition is known before a shipment is loaded. When that happens, the carrier adds the relevant accessorial charges to your invoice after the load is complete, once it goes through their freight audit process.
By being specific about shipment details and planning ahead, both shippers and receivers can reduce how often accessorial charges catch them by surprise.
Carriers charge many different accessorials, but these 11, in particular, are the most common ones you can plan for. Keep in mind that exact definitions, free-time windows, and charge amounts vary by carrier — always confirm the specifics in your rate agreement rather than assuming one number applies universally.
Detention is an hourly fee charged when a driver is held beyond the shipper’s or receiver’s agreed free time — commonly around two hours — at a single stop. It compensates the carrier for non-productive time spent waiting during loading or unloading rather than moving freight.
This applies when hazardous materials have to be moved. The Department of Transportation has special requirements for these shipments, which increases the costs a carrier has to manage — additional documentation, placarding, and handling precautions — and not all drivers carry the required hazmat endorsement.
This fee applies when a delivery destination changes after the load has already been picked up. If the change happens en route, the driver has to replan the route, which can affect delivery timing for other stops on a multi-stop load.
$100,000 of cargo insurance coverage is a common industry baseline, and it’s often built into the upfront cost. This is a contractual convention between shippers, brokers, and carriers, not a federal minimum — FMCSA’s cargo-insurance mandate under 49 CFR §387.303 applies specifically to household goods carriers, not general freight. Highly valuable commodities often carry $250,000 to $1,000,000+ in coverage instead, and rates vary based on the commodity type, its value, and the miles covered.
These apply when a carrier has to make extra pickup or delivery stops beyond the original load contract, adding time, distance, and routing complexity to the move.
A CDL tanker endorsement isn’t a fee a carrier bills you directly — it’s a driver qualification requirement. Under 49 CFR §383.5, any commercial vehicle fitted with a bulk liquid or gas tank (or tanks) with an aggregate rated capacity of 1,000 gallons or more requires the driver to hold a tanker (N) endorsement, regardless of how much liquid is actually loaded on a given run. Because fewer drivers carry this endorsement, tanker-equipped capacity is tighter and more specialized — which commonly shows up as a higher linehaul rate or narrower carrier options when your shipment involves a bulk liquid load in a tank trailer, even though the endorsement itself isn’t a line-item accessorial.
Lumper fees are more common in the food and grocery industry. These are third-party unloading services paid outside the standard load transport charge. Lumper costs vary based on the specific service provider and facility.
Several kinds of equipment fall into this category, including edge protectors for open-deck flatbed loads and extra straps for van trailers. Both are common, but the amounts on hand at a given facility are often limited, so requesting them in advance avoids delays.
Layover fees are flat daily charges — not hourly like detention — that apply when a truck can’t be loaded, unloaded, or dispatched on the scheduled day at all. Instead of waiting on-site indefinitely, the driver holds overnight or returns later, and the flat fee compensates for the lost day.
Also called tailgating, this charge applies when the driver must physically assist with unloading (or, less commonly, loading) cargo beyond simply operating the truck. Drivers are rarely asked to help with loading, but the fee applies either way when hands-on assistance is required.
TONU applies when a shipper cancels a load or isn’t ready with freight after a truck has already been dispatched or has arrived at the pickup location. It compensates the carrier for the truck, the driver’s time, and the lost opportunity to book another load in that slot.
Freight operations have added a few more accessorial types that shippers should plan for alongside the 11 above. Carrier definitions, free-time windows, and charge amounts vary — treat these as categories to ask about, not universal fees:
How do you get ready for freight broker accessorial fees? There are actually plenty of things you can do!
For dedicated trailer capacity, review Cowtown’s full truckload freight services and request a quote with your shipment details and any appointment, loading, unloading, or special handling requirements. Ask which services are included and which circumstances could lead to additional charges.
Before tendering a load, confirm:
Confirming these details before you book turns this from a glossary of fees you find out about later into a pre-booking checklist that helps you get a quote that actually holds.
Accessorial charges are additional freight fees for services, conditions, or changes outside the original linehaul quote — common examples include liftgate service, detention, residential delivery, hazmat handling, stop-offs, and driver assist.
Accessorial fees can appear after delivery when site conditions, wait time, extra handling, incorrect paperwork, or added services were not disclosed or priced before pickup, or when a carrier’s post-shipment audit finds the actual weight, class, or handling requirements differed from what was booked.
Shippers can reduce accessorial charges by sharing accurate dimensions, weights, delivery requirements, dock conditions, appointment needs, freight class, and special handling details before the quote is finalized — the prevention checklist above covers the details that matter most.
Not directly. A tanker (N) endorsement is a driver qualification required whenever a vehicle’s bulk liquid or gas tank has an aggregate rated capacity of 1,000 gallons or more. It’s not a line-item fee a shipper is billed, but it narrows the pool of qualified carriers for bulk-liquid freight, which can show up as a higher rate or fewer carrier options.
Freight accessorial charges are sometimes things you see coming, but other times they aren’t. While they might be itemized on your invoice, you might not always know what each one is. The more you educate yourself on this, the better prepared you’ll be to see these charges coming — and the more empowered you’ll be to avoid them going forward. Working with a DFW trucking company is a good start. To anticipate charges before they happen, contact us to get a quote for your next shipment.
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