What are accessorial charges?
What are accessorial charges? They are the add-ons beyond plain dock-to-dock pickup and delivery, and they are the single most common reason an invoice is bigger than the quote.
What are accessorial charges you will actually meet
Liftgate, at either end, whenever there is no dock. Residential pickup or delivery, which applies to a home address whether or not it is a business. Inside delivery, past the threshold. Appointment scheduling, which most large distribution centers require. Limited access, for schools, campuses, storage facilities and job sites. Notify before delivery. Redelivery, when nobody was there the first time. Detention, when the driver waits.
Each one is a fact about the pickup or the delivery, not a surprise the carrier invents. That is the useful part: nearly all of them are knowable before the shipment moves.
How they end up costing more than they should
An accessorial declared in the quote is priced at the negotiated rate. The same service added by the driver at the door is billed after the fact, often at a higher published rate, and it arrives weeks later attached to an invoice you have already forgotten.
So the fix is boring and effective: ask the receiver what the dock looks like before you book.
Related terms
Quick answers
Which accessorial catches people out most?
Residential delivery, closely followed by liftgate. Both are common on e-commerce and small-business shipments, and both are cheap to declare and expensive to discover.
Can accessorials be waived?
Not usually once the service has been performed. They can be avoided by getting the delivery conditions right before the shipment is tendered.
Price it with the add-ons in
Tell us the dock situation at both ends and what are accessorial charges stops being a question you answer after the fact.