Common Less-than-Truckload Accessorial Charges Explained
Common Accessorial charges you may see:
Fuel surcharge (fsc) : Every carrier freight tariff has one negotiated in it. How it works is whatever the U.S. diesel average cost is per week, the carrier will put a percentage of cost onto that.
- This is negotiable in that you can negotiate what the percentage of that fuel surcharge fee is going to be.
Notify charge/appointment charge/call before delivery charge: all charges surrounding appointments - each are slightly different but essentially the same.
Documentation charge: this means you are still in a paper environment - this should no longer apply to you as you should be in a digital environment with your carrier. If your carriers have to send you a paper version of an invoice and you request that the bill elating and the POID be attached to that invoice they are going to charge you a documentation fee to do it.
Weight and inspection (W+I): This will be listed on the invoice when it comes over - what weight and inspection does is they reweigh your shipment when it arrives and if it does not match what the original invoice shows they are going to send you a new invoice with the new weight and they are going to charge you a flat fee just because they had to perform the weight and inspection. Freight class also falls under this area of weight and inspection.
Not-so-typical Accessorial
HAZMAT: If you are shipping hazardous material you are going to get hit with a flat HAZMAT fee. The key to this is how much HAZMAT you are shipping - this should be a negotiation rather than waving a fee as the carrier will hit you in freight costs.
Lift-gate: If you ship to a customer who does not have a dock you are going to need a lift-gate - this is a flat fee and can be negotiable.
Sort and seg: An additional fee you are going to pay in the event that the customer requires the driver to break down boxes or shipments and put them in order. It will either be cost by case or cost per hundredweight charge.
- Lumper charge: Often associated with sort and seg - the customer has their own staff to do the work of sort and seg but they bill the carrier for it and then they bill you.
California compliance surcharge: It is a new mandated charge that can be from 5$ to 15$ - if you do not have a lot of it you should wave it and if you do then negotiate.
We hope that helps clear up some LTL accessorial charges!



