Everything About Accessorial & Lumper Fees (20+ Fees & How To Avoid Demurrage & Detention Charges)

Accessorial Fees are charges that are tacked onto your freight bill.

List of Accessorial Fees/Charges

Lift Gate Charge is when the shipper doesn’t have a dock. Since trucks are designed to work with docks, carriers will charge the shipper a fee because they need to use a special hydraulic lift that’s attached to the back of certain trucks to load/unload freight.

If you are booking a truck and need a lift gate, make sure to let your carrier know. Otherwise, if the transport truck they send doesn’t have a lift gate, they will need to return and send out a truck that is equipped with one. This will add another fee to your freight bill.

Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee is when a truck is booked but for whatever reason the booked truck needs to be cancelled due to an issue on the shipper’s side of things. This fee is used by carrier’s as a means to recoup resources from time and opportunity cost the shipper has caused.

If you are a shipper, you should consider negotiating the fee is the truck hasn’t left the carrier center. If the carrier is already en route, negotiate a higher fee than if they hadn’t already left, but less than the full fee.

Redelivery Fee is when the carrier shows up but the load isn’t ready or able to be accepted by the receiver. This causes the carrier to lose money and time while trying wait for the delivery to be accepted by the receiver.

The carrier is forced to wait until the receiver can take the delivery. In the meantime, the carrier may try to recoup loss by taking orders close by that can work with their very limited trailer space.

Detention Fee is when the carrier has arrived to the destination and is stuck waiting (”detained”) to get loaded/unloaded. This fee is usually based on an hourly or per fifteen minute basis and takes effect after the free given time is up.

Shippers can negotiate the detention fee based on whether the carrier truck is attached to the trailer or has dropped the trailer when docked. The dropped trailer should cost the carrier less money and time, allowing the shipper to negotiate a lower detention fee.

Layover Charge is when the truck can’t load/unload and is forced to stay overnight.

Reclassification Fee is when the shipper has to disclose a freight class to their carrier, but due to misclassification, the carrier has to reclassify the freight. This additional service keeps all parties legally safe.

The reclassification fee is entirely avoidable by being thorough and knowledgeable about freight classes. You will save money in the long-run by having a protocol and building a transparent relationship between carrier and shipper.

Oversized/Overweight Charge is when the dimensions, weight, or density for the freight is too excessive and/or non-standard. This is because the carrier has to make the most of their trailer in terms of both weight and space available. Typical truck trailers handle around 45,000lbs and are 53ft in length.

Inside Pickup/Delivery is when the carrier driver must go beyond the loading dock or inside the front door for shipment delivery/pickup.

Advanced Notice is when the carrier uses technology to give the receiver and shipper updates on the freight.

Collect On Delivery (COD) is where the carrier is responsible for collecting the sale price of the freight before delivery.

Oversized Freight is when the freight is greater than the given carrier’s designated set length.

Residential Delivery Fee is charges when commercial vehicles are forced to traverse residential zones for the delivery.

Metro Pickup & Delivery Charge occurs due to commercial vehicles navigating densely populated areas being prone to difficult routes.

Limited Access Charges can be due to location destinations such as military bases, prisons, schools, government buildings, and special conditions like “limited time” access to docks, etc.

Restricted Access Fee is typically government-affiliated.

Fuel Surcharge (FSC) is standard on freight bills and are subject to fuel cost fluctuations. When fuel prices go up, the fuel surcharge goes up (and vice versa).

Diversion Miles Charge is when the shipper is notably sending a carrier out of its way for the delivery.

**Extra Stops** Fee is when the shipper is sending the carrier to multiple stops for various loads/unloads.

Sort & Segregate Charge is when the carrier has to separate and organize the freight upon delivery at the dock. This is usually done when dealing with perishables, lot numbers, etc.

This charge is usually based on Cost Per Piece or Cost Per 100lbs. The former is recommended.

Lumper Fee is a non-negotiable charge where either the carrier driver has to unload the freight or a third-party will unload the freight and charge the carrier, who then passes the fee onto the shipper.

Extra Driver allows for an extra driver to help expedite the delivery since each drive is limited to service hours. From a driver’s perspective, this is “team driving”. The shipper can negotiate cost per mile.

Hazmat Charge happens when dealing with hazardous materials.

Refrigerated Fee is when the shipper’s freight requires refrigeration equipment. The shipper can negotiate cost per mile.

What are Detention & Demurrage Charges?

Demurrage is the cost of storing your container after you’ve used up your free time at the port.

Once the container is brought to the destination, you are given time to get through customs, gather and manage paperwork, and get the trailer managed.

The longer the container is at your port, the more your demurrage charge will be and will increase over time.

Demurrage typically stays at a single rate the first couple of days. But after a set amount of days, demurrage will add up in rate and can get very expensive. This is why you want to minimize the amount of time spent with demurrage.

Detention Fee is issued when equipment or property is used for longer than what’s designated.

For example, a carrier can issue two hours of free time to get a trailer loaded up. But after two hours, if the trailer isn’t finished being loaded up, then the carrier will charge the shipper a detention fee.

What is the difference between demurrage and detention?

Demurrage charges occur at the port and is at a graduating fee rate schedule based on how long you extend the time you store the container at the port. This can be seen as a “storage fee” where the flat rate increases on a schedule.

Detention fees occur when you extend past your allotted free time you’re given to use the carrier’s equipment/property. This can be seen as a “late fee” where you are charged by the hour for not returning property/equipment.

How To Avoid Demurrage & Detention Charges

For smooth operations, carriers don’t want their containers sitting. So users get a certain amount of “free” days or time to move the carrier-owned container in and out of the port.

Any delay means a slower turnaround for the carrier. To make up for money lost due to slow turnaround and surpassed allotted free time—the carrier issues demurrage or detention fees.

Here are some general tips to avoid charges for detaining a carrier-owned container:

• Make sure you have a dedicated and well-trained teams that knows how to clear warehousing space efficiently to save valuable time.
• Extend docking hours to give drivers more flexibility when it comes to adjusting delivery and pickup times.
• Add or open up more docks to decrease congestion and allow for more trucks to be loaded/unloaded.
• Offer extra amenities, on top of smoother loading processes. This stronger relationship between carrier and shipper can be helpful and even leveraged.
• Inspect loading equipment regularly to prevent an unexpected delays.
• Have paperwork reviewed and prepared before the carrier arrives.
• Consider drop loading, since swapping trailers allows for shorter delivery time.
• Negotiate for more time after the freight is picked up. This consideration can give the carrier more time to plan so can are likely to be more flexible.
• If you’re shipping high-risk freight or anything customs will want to inspect, then consider asking or negotiation for more free days than you usually get. Have an idea of what times and days your ports are most and least busy.

How Do You Calculate Demurrage?

According to a 2021 report, the cost of demurrage and detention charges has doubled.

Here’s a simple to calculate demurrage charges if a container was in demurrage for 10 days:

What Are Lumper Fees in Trucking?

A Lumper Fee is the charge that comes from a shipper’s third-party service that is used to unload trucks.

Typically, a driver will be told by their broker that there is a lumper at a receiver destination. At the receiver destination, the broker/shipper will provide the driver a form of payment for the driver to give the lumper to unload.

In other cases, a driver will need to take pictures of a lumper fee receipt and send it to the shipper/broker, who will send them compensation.

How Do Lumper Fees Work?

Distribution centers have a (1) dock and a (2) warehouse. A person who works as a picker will grab the necessary amount of goods for a given destination. For example, a grocery store made need 10 cases of bananas instead of an entire pallet. This picker will fill up their pallet with whatever goods that the grocery needs, then the pallet will be shipped off to it’s destination.

However, let’s say the grocery store will only accept pallets that are three feet tall, but you have them double-stacked stacked to six-feet because the distribution center wanted to save money on transport. The grocery receiver won’t accept the load because they can’t touch six-foot tall stacked pallets.

The lumper is a third-party service that will re-organize, sort, unstack, and unload the freight, so that money can still be saved on transportation costs, and the lumper is paid only a fraction of what would have been a much higher cost.

Why are lumper fees legal?

Title 49 of the United States Code, § 14103, prohibits forcing a carrier to pay for unloading without reimbursement. If they aren’t given the option without compensation, the law has been violated. The shipper or receiver is the one to be responsible for all costs associated with compensating the lumpers.

How to pay lumper fees?

Drivers who are instructed that the lumper fee will be covered will usually receive a check, or other form of payment, from the broker that will be used to compensate the lumper. After the lumper is paid and the driver is given a receipt, they will take a picture and send it to the broker.

Do brokers pay lumper fees? Yes, brokers pay lumper fees unless the driver has already discussed and agreed on using a lumper out of his own pocket.

How To Avoid Lumper Fees

When you book a load, ask the broker if there will be any lumpers. Then ask the broker about how they will handle the lumpers because it is against your company policy to handle lumpers fees. The driver does not carry any form of payment.

In a case where a broker offers a driver a compensation check to pay for a lumper who is ready to unload at the destination—this is good.

In a different scenario, a driver can get to a destination to find a lumper with his hand out and demanding $300. The driver can call the broker and tell him there’s a lumper waiting to get paid. The broker suggests the driver pays out of his own pocket and he’ll get reimbursed later. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t.

In an even worse scenario, the goods are found to be damaged and the broker denies payment for the load altogether, on top of the lumper fee he just shelled out.

The Lesson: A driver should not be paying out of pocket for a load that the broker hasn’t paid them for. Insist that this is the brokers problem. You were not informed. You don’t have the money to pay (no matter how many dollars, credit cards, etc., is in your wallet).

Stand your ground. Deny the load until the broker solves the problem. This is the broker’s problem. Nobody else’s.

Either you’re taking the load back to your hub and charge them in the meantime, or the broker gets the lumper fee handled.

How are lumper fees calculated?

Lumper fees are determined by factors such as the cargo’s weight, the duration of loading or unloading, and the hours spent on the task. Lumper’s may impose fees based on weight (per pound or ton), per load irrespective of weight, or hourly rates covering tasks like unloading, sorting, and repacking. The total fee is calculated after the unloading process concludes.

What is the average lumper fee?

The average fee is about $300 based on a range of $25 to $500. This depends on the type of freight and work hours.