Glossary · Trucking Operations
Accessorial Charges.
Additional fees on a freight bill beyond the base line-haul rate — detention, lumper, layover, fuel surcharge, tolls, etc.
What it is
Accessorial charges are any line item on a freight invoice beyond the base "line-haul" rate — the fee structure for everything the load requires that isn't just driving from A to B. Common accessorials include detention, layover, lumper, fuel surcharge, tarp fee, hazmat fee, oversize/overweight permits, tolls, scale tickets, redelivery, residential delivery, after-hours delivery, and inside delivery.
Each accessorial is documented separately on the invoice, and the carrier needs supporting evidence: timestamps for detention, receipts for lumpers and tolls, photos for tarp work, scale tickets for overweight permits. Contract carriers operating on dedicated lanes have standardized accessorial schedules built into the master agreement. Spot-market loads negotiate accessorials at booking time, ideally written into the rate confirmation.
On certain lane mixes — grocery, JIT manufacturing, flatbed project work — accessorials can be 5–20% of total revenue. On clean dry-van runs with cooperative shippers, accessorials may be near zero.
Why it matters for trucking finance
Accessorials are often the difference between a load being profitable or a loss-maker on the actual P&L. Many owner-operators undercharge or fail to collect accessorials they're contractually entitled to — leaving 5–10% of revenue on the table annually.
Factoring companies handle accessorials differently. Some advance them on the same invoice as the line-haul (cleaner cash flow); others require separate billing (slower, more paperwork). Tracking accessorial-collection rates by broker reveals which broker relationships are actually profitable vs. which look good on paper but bleed margin through unpaid extras. On a single-truck operation, a 5% lift in collected accessorials can translate into thousands of additional dollars per year — without driving a single extra mile.
Related terms
- Detention Pay — Compensation paid to a carrier when loading or unloading takes longer than the contractually free time (typically 2 hours).
- Lumper Fee (Lumper) — Fee paid for third-party labor that unloads or loads a trailer at a warehouse or dock; common at grocery DCs and large retailers.
- Truck Order Not Used (TONU) — Compensation paid to a carrier when a load is cancelled after the truck is dispatched but before pickup; partial payment for the trip.
- Fuel Surcharge (FSC) — Variable line item on a freight bill adjusting compensation for fuel price fluctuations; calculated from the DOE national diesel price benchmark.
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