LTL accessorial charges glossary

The floor price a carrier will bill for any LTL shipment, no matter how little it weighs or how short the lane. The rated charge can never fall below it.

Triggers when: Applies automatically whenever a shipment's calculated freight charge would come out lower than the carrier's stated minimum, so a very small or very short move is billed up to that floor.

Avoid or dispute: Not usually a billing error, it is a published tariff floor. It is worth knowing so a tiny shipment's price does not look like an overcharge when it is really just the minimum.

A fee for any service beyond the standard dock-to-dock move that a base LTL rate already covers (the pickup, the linehaul, and the delivery). Accessorials pay for extra equipment, labor, access, time, or documentation a specific shipment required.

Triggers when: One is added whenever a shipment needs something outside the standard move, either because the shipper asked for it or because the carrier encountered the condition at the stop.

Avoid or dispute: Match every accessorial line on the invoice against the original quote. A charge that was not quoted, and whose trigger condition did not actually happen, is the one to question.

A flat fee for coordinating a delivery window or calling ahead before the truck arrives.

Triggers when: Fires when the bill of lading asks the carrier to schedule or call ahead, or when the consignee's own standing policy requires an appointment regardless of the bill of lading.

Avoid or dispute: Check the bill of lading for the actual request. A charge with no notation and no standing requirement on file is worth challenging.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 647

A fee for keeping the shipper's and consignee's identities hidden from each other, using two separate bills of lading, when a third party (a broker or distributor) controls the move.

Triggers when: Must be requested before pickup. The same request made after pickup is handled as a reconsignment instead, which is usually more expensive.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 1020

A re-rating rule for a shipment that is very light for the space it takes up, so it is billed on a minimum density rather than on its actual weight.

Triggers when: Fires when a low-density shipment occupies a disproportionate share of trailer space, below a stated pounds-per-cubic-foot threshold set in the carrier's tariff.

Avoid or dispute: Measure your actual cube and weight at booking and check them against that carrier's specific density thresholds.

Source: XPO CNWY 199 (Item 233)

A fee for collecting payment from the consignee at delivery and remitting it back to the shipper.

Triggers when: Requested on the bill of lading. Whether a carrier even offers COD is not universal: some accept it as a standard accessorial, others refuse COD shipments outright and only bill the fee if one is taken by mistake.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 180; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 429)

A charge for pickup or delivery at an active construction or wrecking site.

Triggers when: Fires when the stop is a construction site. Some carriers price it as its own line; others fold it into the broader limited-access charge, so the same site can be billed two different ways depending on the carrier.

Source: XPO CNWY 199 (Item 201); Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 755 (referring to Item 756)

A flat fee for processing a corrected bill of lading submitted after the original one.

Triggers when: Fires when a corrected bill of lading changes the freight-charge collection status or the shipment's described weight, density, or commodity. Because it corrects paperwork filed after the fact, it can never appear on the original quote.

Avoid or dispute: Confirm a corrected bill of lading was actually submitted, by whom, and with the required backup. A charge with no submitted correction behind it has no basis.

Source: Dayton Freight Lines Rules Tariff 19-K, Item 646

A per-day charge for freight or equipment held at a rail ramp, port, or intermodal terminal beyond the free time allowed to load, unload, or retrieve it. It is the rail-and-port cousin of detention: a facility clock, not a driver clock.

Triggers when: Fires when a container, trailer, or railcar sits at the facility past free time. In pure LTL, the same kind of equipment hold at a customer's own dock is usually billed as detention without power rather than under the word demurrage, but it works the same way: equipment held on a daily clock, not a driver waiting.

Avoid or dispute: Do not confuse it with detention (a driver and truck waiting) or storage (freight in the carrier's own possession). See the three-clocks note above.

Source: See detention without power on the trigger reference: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 190

A charge for holding the driver and truck at the shipper's or consignee's dock beyond the free time allowed for loading or unloading.

Triggers when: The driver and tractor wait, through no fault of the carrier, past free time. The clock runs from arrival on the premises until loading or unloading is done and the driver has a signed bill of lading in hand, and it is billed in short increments (commonly every 15 minutes).

Avoid or dispute: The arrival and departure timestamps on the signed delivery receipt or dock log support or contradict the charge. A dock log showing a shorter wait than billed is a provable dispute.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 190; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 500)

A per-day charge for leaving a trailer, without its tractor, at the dock past free time so the customer can load or unload on their own schedule.

Triggers when: The carrier spots (drops) the trailer and free time runs by the day rather than the minute. This is the LTL charge that functions like demurrage: equipment, not a driver, held at a facility on a daily clock.

Avoid or dispute: The trailer spot and pickup timestamps in the carrier's own dispatch or activity log, checked against the free-time window.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 190; Dayton Freight Rules Tariff 19-K, Item 500

The allowance of loading, unloading, or terminal-retrieval time included before detention, demurrage, or storage begins to accrue. Free time is the window; the charge starts the moment it expires.

Triggers when: Carriers commonly tie free time at a dock to shipment weight and start the clock when the driver arrives or when a trailer is spotted. The specific allowance is carrier-specific.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 190

A percentage added to the linehaul charge, indexed to a national diesel-price benchmark and updated weekly. It is not a requested service; it applies to essentially every shipment.

Triggers when: The percentage steps up as the underlying diesel index rises, and it applies to linehaul charges only, not to the accessorial charges themselves.

Avoid or dispute: Check the shipment's actual pickup date against the carrier's published fuel table for that specific week. A fuel surcharge billed at the wrong week's percentage, right at a weekly changeover, is a real and common error.

Source: ArcBest Fuel Surcharge Index (EIA National Average Diesel Fuel Index)

A flat fee for handling a commodity the Department of Transportation classifies as hazardous under 49 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49).

Triggers when: The DOT hazard classification itself is the trigger, not a carrier judgment call. Some categories (explosives, radioactive materials, hazardous waste, infectious substances) are not surcharged but refused outright.

Avoid or dispute: The commodity's actual DOT hazard classification (or lack of one) under 49 CFR confirms or contradicts whether the charge applied correctly.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 994; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 540)

A pricing unit equal to 100 pounds. Many accessorials priced per cwt scale with the shipment's weight, subject to a flat minimum and maximum, which is why the same service can cost different amounts on two different shipments.

A charge for moving freight past the point immediately next to the truck: through a doorway, past a threshold, or to a floor reached by elevator.

Triggers when: Fires when freight has to be carried beyond the standard adjacent loading or unloading position, applied per stop when a shipment is split across several stops.

Avoid or dispute: Separate from liftgate, which only covers lowering freight to ground level. A delivery receipt showing freight left at the adjacent, standard position contradicts an inside-delivery charge.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 566

A fee for using the truck's own hydraulic gate to raise or lower freight where the site has no loading dock and no forklift.

Triggers when: Fires when the pickup or delivery point has no dock and no forklift, so the driver raises or lowers the freight with the gate. It is usually a judgment call at the stop, or a service the shipper requests in advance, priced per cwt with a minimum, a maximum, and a per-pallet weight cap.

Avoid or dispute: Easier to prevent at booking than to fight afterward: once freight is unloaded there is rarely an independent record either way. A delivery receipt or a bill of lading that never requested the service is what disputes it.

Source: R+L Carriers Liftgate Service page (Rules Tariff Item 520); Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 571

A charge for pickup or delivery at a site the general public cannot freely enter, or that requires inspection of the driver or vehicle before granting access.

Triggers when: Fires when the stop is a site type named on the carrier's own limited-access list. Those lists are long and carrier-specific (schools, universities, military bases, prisons, self-storage facilities, farms, churches, and more) and typically close with a broad catch-all for any site requiring driver or vehicle inspection.

Avoid or dispute: The hardest of this group to win after delivery, because the tariff language is written broadly on purpose. The stronger move is to check the named carrier's limited-access list before booking to a site that might qualify.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 756; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 751-10)

The base transportation charge for moving a shipment between two points, before fuel surcharge and accessorials. Most accessorials, and the fuel surcharge, are calculated on or added to the linehaul charge.

A charge for loading or unloading labor beyond simply driving the truck, done either by the driver or by a third-party lumper crew the carrier arranges.

Triggers when: Fires when the shipper or consignee has no dock crew or equipment of their own and the carrier supplies the labor. Driver assist is usually priced hourly with a minimum; a lumper reimbursement passes through the lumper's own charge plus a flat processing fee.

Avoid or dispute: A time log (for driver assist) or the lumper's own receipt (for a lumper reimbursement), compared against what was billed.

Source: XPO CNWY 199 (Item 214, Item 242); Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 560)

A charge for labeling, marking, or tagging freight, most often applying store, PO, or routing labels the shipper did not already apply.

Triggers when: A requested service. Several carriers bill it under the exact same tariff item as sort and segregate; others price the two separately, so an invoice showing one does not rule out the other.

Avoid or dispute: Whoever requested the marking or tagging, and in what form, is the record that matters, the same as sort and segregate.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 581; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 580)

A charge for a single piece that meets or exceeds a length threshold, based on the piece itself rather than the trailer space it occupies.

Triggers when: Fires when the longest piece hits a banded length threshold, with charges rising as length rises. Some carriers add a separate fee when the overlength piece was not declared as such on the bill of lading, so an undeclared long piece can draw two charges.

Avoid or dispute: The actual measured length of the longest piece, against the declared length on the bill of lading.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 670; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 670-10)

A charge for protecting freeze-sensitive freight from freezing in transit. It is seasonal and geography-gated, not automatic.

Triggers when: Fires only when the service is requested and documented in advance: endorsed on the bill of lading and physically labeled, within a defined season and a named list of states. Miss the notation or the label and the carrier carries no liability for freeze damage.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 810

A correction that changes the NMFC class a shipment is rated under, after the carrier remeasures and reweighs it at the terminal and calculates a different density than was declared.

Triggers when: Fires when the carrier's measured density maps to a different class than the one declared. Under NMFTA's density-based scale (expanded to 13 bands under Docket 2025-1, effective July 19, 2025), density is the primary classification factor for most general commodities with no unusual handling, stowability, or liability characteristics.

Avoid or dispute: Recalculate the density yourself (actual weight divided by cubic volume) and compare it to the billed class. LanePilot's free freight class calculator runs this exact calculation from a shipment's dimensions and weight.

Source: NMFTA density-based classification, Docket 2025-1

A charge for changing a shipment's destination, consignee name, or delivery point after it has already been tendered.

Triggers when: Cost depends on timing. A change made before the shipment departs origin is usually a flat fee; a change requested after it is already moving is billed at a full new linehaul rate from where the shipment currently is to the new destination, not just a service fee.

Avoid or dispute: The written reconsignment request and its timestamp, against when the shipment actually departed. A reconsignment fee with no written request behind it has no basis.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 820

A charge for a second delivery attempt after a first attempt failed through no fault of the carrier.

Triggers when: Fires on the second trip, and applies again for each additional attempt. If a shipment still cannot be delivered after redelivery, it can convert to storage instead.

Avoid or dispute: The delivery receipt or dock log for the first attempt: whether it shows a genuine attempt during business hours, or a reason the carrier can fairly bill for.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 830

A charge for pickup or delivery at an address the carrier classifies as residential rather than a commercial dock, which can include a business operated out of a private residence.

Triggers when: The carrier classifies off the address itself, not off the shipper's description of the business, so a home-run business can qualify even though it is a business.

Avoid or dispute: Evidence that the address is a commercial dock (a business license, a photo of the loading dock, or the carrier's own address classification) is what overturns a residential charge billed by mistake.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 753; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 751)

A charge for putting a shipment on a certified terminal scale and correcting the billed weight to match the actual weight.

Triggers when: Fires when the scaled weight comes back different from the weight declared on the bill of lading and the carrier corrects the billed weight, often assessed as a flat fee on top of the corrected linehaul charge.

Avoid or dispute: A weight and inspection (W&I) certificate or scale ticket tied to the specific PRO number, showing a certified weight, date, and terminal. Your own shipping-scale ticket from pickup is the strongest counter-evidence.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 996; Dayton Freight Rules Tariff 19-K, Item 1015

A flat charge on a small shipment picked up alone, with no other freight from the same shipper at the same pickup site at the same time.

Triggers when: Fires when a small shipment (a common threshold is 500 pounds or less) is picked up unaccompanied by any other shipment from the same site. It is typically not eligible for discounts.

Avoid or dispute: The pickup manifest for that stop, showing whether another shipment from the same shipper actually moved on the same pickup.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 1032; XPO CNWY 199 (Item 230)

A charge for separating freight by SKU, PO, store, or destination on delivery, rather than delivering it as one undifferentiated shipment.

Triggers when: A requested service. Several carriers bill it under the same line item as marking and tagging, so it is worth knowing which convention the specific carrier on the invoice uses.

Avoid or dispute: Whoever requested the sort, and in writing: a charge with no request behind it (verbal or on the bill of lading) is the one to challenge.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 581; Estes Accessorial Charges (Item 886)

A per-day, per-hundredweight charge for freight sitting in the carrier's own possession, usually at its destination terminal, because nobody has picked it up or accepted delivery.

Triggers when: A different clock and a different location from either detention charge. It starts a set time after the arrival notice, a disposition request, or a refused delivery, not because a driver or trailer is waiting anywhere.

Avoid or dispute: The carrier's own arrival notice and the date disposition instructions were given (or the date a delivery was refused) set when the storage clock legitimately started.

Source: Pitt Ohio Rules Tariff Item 910