Accessorial Charges
Extra fees beyond the linehaul rate: detention, lumper, layover, TONU, and similar add-ons.
Accessorial Charges in Practice
Know What's Billable Before the Load
Checking the rate confirmation for accessorial terms before a load starts means knowing in advance what detention rate applies, whether lumper fees are reimbursable, and what triggers a layover. Finding out after the fact leaves less room to negotiate.
Document Everything in the Moment
A lumper receipt, a timestamped check-in, or a dispatch text confirming a load was cancelled all serve as the proof needed to bill an accessorial. Waiting until invoicing to reconstruct what happened rarely works out well.
Brokers Don't Volunteer These
Accessorial pay almost never appears on an invoice unless someone requests it with supporting documentation. Carriers who don't ask for detention, layover, or TONU pay they're owed are effectively giving that money away.
Accessorial Charges: What It Means and Why It Matters
Accessorial charges are where a lot of an owner-operator's real earnings get left on the table, since they don't show up automatically on an invoice the way the linehaul rate does. Detention, lumper fees, layover pay, and TONU all compensate for real costs and lost time, but every one of them has to be tracked, documented, and actively billed. Understanding which accessorials apply to a given load, and what triggers them, is part of running the business side of trucking well.
How Accessorial Charges Work
Accessorial charges cover costs and lost time that fall outside the base linehaul rate: a driver held past free time at a dock (detention), a third party loading or unloading the trailer (lumper fee), an overnight wait for a load (layover), or a cancelled dispatch after the truck already committed (TONU). Each one has its own trigger and its own documentation requirement.
Most of these terms are spelled out, or at least referenced, on the rate confirmation for a given load. A carrier that doesn't check those terms before the load starts often finds out the applicable rate or free time window only after a dispute has already begun.
A Practical Example
A driver pays a $150 lumper fee out of pocket to have a grocery DC unload the trailer, gets a receipt, and submits it with the invoice for reimbursement. Separately, the same load sits at the dock 2 hours past its free time, worth another $100 in detention at the rate stated on the rate confirmation.
Submitted together with the receipt and a timestamped BOL, that's $250 in accessorial pay on top of the linehaul rate. Submitted without documentation, or not submitted at all, that $250 simply doesn't get paid, even though the costs and the wait were real.
Why Accessorials Matter for Owner-Operators
Linehaul rates get most of the attention, but accessorial pay can meaningfully change what a load actually earns once fuel, time, and out of pocket costs are accounted for. An owner-operator who tracks and bills accessorials consistently is running a materially different business than one who lets them slide, even if both are hauling the same freight at the same linehaul rate.
Common Mistakes
The biggest mistake is not billing for accessorials at all, either from not knowing they're owed or from assuming a broker will apply them automatically. A second common mistake is losing the receipts or timestamps needed to support a claim, which turns an otherwise legitimate charge into an argument that's hard to win after the fact.
Related Calculators
Related Finance & Rates Terms
Carriers on Accessorial Charges
“I keep a folder on my phone for every lumper receipt and check-in text. Accessorials probably add up to real money over a year, but only if you actually bill them.”
“TONU saved me on a load that got cancelled an hour before pickup. I wouldn't have known to ask for it my first year running.”