The paperwork that decides who pays
Accessorials you can prevent
An accessorial is anything the carrier does beyond driving from A to B. Most of them are legitimate charges for real work. Most of them are also preventable, and preventing them is almost entirely a matter of describing the shipment accurately before it moves.
I handle these for the shippers I work with, so this list is not theoretical — it is the set of charges I see argued about most.
Detention
What it is: the driver waited beyond the free time, typically one to two hours, at pickup or delivery.
Why it exists: drivers run on a federal clock. Hours spent at your dock are hours not spent driving, and they can cost the driver an entire day.
Prevention: have the freight ready before the appointment, not at it. If your dock genuinely runs slow, say so up front — a provider who knows can build the window in. Detention that was disclosed in advance is a planning item. Detention that was a surprise is a dispute.
Layover
What it is: the driver is held overnight — arrived for a delivery that cannot be received until the next day.
Prevention: confirm receiving hours and appointment requirements at booking, not in transit. A surprising number of layovers trace to a receiver who only takes freight during a narrow window nobody checked.
TONU — truck ordered not used
What it is: a truck was dispatched and the load was not there. A flat fee for a wasted trip.
Prevention: cancel early. A cancellation with real notice usually costs nothing. A truck already at your gate is a TONU. This one is pure communication.
Liftgate
What it is: a hydraulic platform to lower freight to ground level, needed where there is no dock.
Prevention: confirm dock access at both ends. Not "do they have a dock" as an assumption — ask. This charge appears constantly on deliveries to sites everyone assumed had a dock.
Residential and limited access
What it is: delivery somewhere hard for a 53-foot trailer — a home, but also schools, churches, military bases, construction sites, storage facilities, farms, many strip malls.
Prevention: know that "limited access" is much broader than "residential." A business address can absolutely be limited access. If the destination is anything other than a standard commercial dock, flag it.
Reconsignment
What it is: the destination changed after the freight was in motion.
Prevention: confirm the delivery address against the receiver's actual instructions before pickup. Corporate headquarters on the purchase order and the warehouse that actually receives are frequently different places.
Inside delivery and sort-and-segregate
What it is: carrying freight past the threshold, or separating a shipment into groupings at delivery.
Prevention: establish what the receiver expects. Standard delivery means to the dock or the tail of the truck. Anything beyond that is a service, and it is billable.
The pre-booking checklist
- Dock or no dock — both ends, confirmed, not assumed.
- Receiving hours and whether an appointment is required.
- Is either location limited access by any definition?
- Actual delivery address, confirmed with the receiver.
- Realistic load and unload times, stated honestly.
- Accurate weight and palletized dimensions.
- What the receiver expects at delivery — dock, inside, sorted?
Two minutes. It prevents the large majority of accessorial disputes.
When a charge shows up anyway
Ask what triggered it and ask for the documentation — arrival and departure times for detention, the delivery receipt for a liftgate or inside delivery. Legitimate charges come with a paper trail. If the charge contradicts what was disclosed at booking, that is a real dispute and it is worth making.
But be fair about it. A driver who genuinely sat for four hours at your dock earned that detention. Disputing charges you caused is how you become an account carriers decline.
Questions welcome
Ask me anything in here — joseph@thesupportedshipper.com. No charge, no follow-up sequence.