Why was I charged an accessorial fee?
An accessorial fee is billed when a shipment needs a service beyond standard dock-to-dock pickup and delivery, such as a liftgate, residential stop, inside delivery, or driver wait time. Carriers also apply these fees in error, for services that were never requested or never performed, which makes every accessorial line worth checking against your paperwork before you pay it.
LanePilot is a shipper-side rate comparison and invoice audit tool, not a freight broker TMS. The rest of this guide covers the accessorial types you will actually see on an LTL invoice, why carriers charge them, and the specific way to tell a legitimate fee from a billing error you can get refunded.
What counts as an accessorial charge?
Accessorial charges cover anything outside the carrier's default assumption: that freight moves from one commercial dock, with a forklift on each end, straight through with no delays. Step outside that default and a fee gets added. Carriers publish their own accessorial tariffs listing the specific services and charges; Old Dominion's accessorial charge guide, for example, groups them into categories like liftgate service, non-commercial or residential deliveries, inside delivery, detention, redelivery, and charges tied to oversized, overweight, or reweighed freight, all layered on top of the base linehaul rate and fuel surcharge.
None of that makes an accessorial charge inherently wrong. Most are legitimate: the driver really did need a liftgate, the address really is residential, the dock really did make the truck wait. The problem is that accessorial codes get applied by whoever is closest to the freight that day, at the terminal or on the truck, and that process has no built-in check against what you actually requested or what actually happened. The charge lands on your invoice either way.
The accessorial charges that show up most often
- Liftgate service. A hydraulic platform that raises and lowers freight between the truck bed and ground level, used when a location has no loading dock. Carriers generally require it to be requested in advance, and it is billed whether or not the driver ends up needing it once on site.
- Residential delivery. Applied to any address the carrier's system classifies as residential, including home-based businesses and small commercial buildings that get flagged incorrectly. It reflects the out-of-route miles and extra handling a home delivery typically requires (Old Dominion).
- Inside delivery. Charged when freight has to move beyond the truck's tailgate or the building's threshold, for example into a specific room or receiving area rather than being dropped at the dock.
- Limited access delivery. Applied to pickup or delivery locations that are not a standard commercial dock, most commonly residences, schools, construction sites, and military facilities, where a carrier cannot use its normal loading process (Old Dominion's accessorial services brochure lists this as its own charged service, separate from residential delivery and separate from self-storage facility pickup or delivery, which carriers bill under its own line item).
- Detention. Billed when the driver and truck are held beyond the carrier's free time for loading or unloading, typically a window of 30 minutes to two hours before the clock starts running.
- Reweigh and reclassification fees. Not an accessorial in the strict sense, but it shows up the same way: a terminal reweigh or remeasurement can produce a different billed weight or freight class than what was on the original bill of lading, and the carrier recalculates the rate from there. Accurate weight and classification on the bill of lading up front is what keeps this from happening.
- Redelivery. Charged when a shipment cannot be delivered on the first attempt and the carrier has to reschedule and return.
How to tell if an accessorial charge is legitimate
Every accessorial line on an invoice can be checked against two documents you should already have: the bill of lading, which records what was requested at pickup, and the delivery receipt, which records what actually happened at delivery, usually with a signature and timestamp. A legitimate accessorial charge shows up on one or both. A charge with no matching entry on either document is a billing error, not a judgment call.
- Liftgate billed but not requested or used: check the bill of lading for a liftgate request, and the delivery receipt for a note that one was used. No match on either, the charge is disputable.
- Residential fee on a commercial address: pull a business license, property record, or prior commercial delivery history that shows the address is not residential.
- Detention time longer than what actually happened: compare the billed hours against the delivery receipt's arrival and departure timestamps, or your own dock log.
- Inside delivery charged for a standard dock drop: if the delivery receipt shows a normal tailgate or dock delivery with no inside movement noted, the fee has no basis.
This is the same logic a full invoice audit runs on every charge, not just accessorials. If you have not run that comparison on a recent invoice, our guide to auditing an LTL freight invoice walks through the full line-by-line process.
How to dispute a wrongly applied accessorial fee
- Identify the exact line item and dollar amount in question, not the invoice total.
- Pull the bill of lading and delivery receipt for that shipment, along with the original quote if the accessorial was not on it.
- Confirm the mismatch: the service was not requested, not performed, or billed at the wrong rate or duration.
- Write a dispute letter naming the PRO number, the specific charge, the amount billed, the amount you believe is correct, and the document that proves it.
- Send it to the carrier's claims department, not general billing, within 180 days of the invoice date.
Once a claim is properly filed, 49 CFR § 378.8 requires the carrier to pay, decline, or settle it within 60 days, and to explain a denial in writing. If you need the letter structure itself, see our LTL freight dispute letter template, or the fuller process in how to dispute an LTL freight invoice.
Why accessorial errors are easy to miss
Accessorial charges are a small line among many on an invoice that usually arrives weeks after the shipment delivered. By the time it lands, the person who booked the load may not remember whether a liftgate was actually used, and nobody goes back to pull the delivery receipt to check. Multiply that across a month of shipments and the fees that never get questioned start to add up, not because any one of them is large, but because none of them gets checked at all.
LanePilot is a shipper-side rate comparison and invoice audit tool, not a freight broker TMS. It compares every delivered shipment's invoice against the original quote and shipment record, flags accessorial, weight, and classification charges that do not match, and prepares the documentation for a dispute letter. LanePilot does not send, file, or negotiate that dispute with the carrier; you remain the party of record and submit it yourself. You can try a free audit on a real invoice, or read more about how the audit works.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an accessorial fee on a freight invoice?
An accessorial fee is a charge for a service outside standard dock-to-dock pickup and delivery, such as a liftgate, residential stop, inside delivery, limited access location, or detention time. Carriers bill it in addition to the base linehaul rate and fuel surcharge.
Can you get an accessorial fee removed?
Yes, if the service was not requested or not actually performed. Compare the charge against your bill of lading and delivery receipt; if neither shows the service, you have grounds to dispute it and request a credit within 180 days of the invoice date.
Why was I charged a residential delivery fee for a business address?
Carriers classify an address as residential based on their own database, which is not always accurate for home-based businesses, small commercial buildings, or shared-use addresses. If your location has a commercial designation, provide proof (business license, property record, or prior commercial deliveries) to dispute the fee.
Is a liftgate fee always required if I do not have a loading dock?
Only if the driver actually needed the liftgate to load or unload the shipment. If your facility has a dock, a forklift, or another way to handle the freight without one, and the delivery receipt does not show liftgate use, the charge is disputable.