Accessorial Charges

Accessorial charges are supplemental fees added to the base freight rate for services or circumstances beyond a standard pickup and delivery. In refrigerated transportation, accessorial charges can represent 10 to 20 percent of total shipping costs, making it essential for shippers to understand what triggers these charges and how to manage them.

Common accessorial charges in reefer shipping include detention fees for excessive loading or unloading time, lift-gate charges when the delivery location lacks a dock, inside delivery fees when freight must be moved beyond the tailgate, residential delivery surcharges, appointment or notification requirements, hazmat handling for certain pharmaceutical shipments, and reefer fuel surcharges for the additional diesel consumed by the refrigeration unit.

Temperature-specific accessorials include charges for continuous temperature monitoring with real-time tracking, multi-temperature loads requiring zone management, temperature printout or data download at delivery, and pre-cooling the trailer before pickup when the shipper's facility cannot provide dock-side pre-cooling.

Managing accessorial charges starts with understanding your shipping profile and communicating clearly with your carrier or broker about what services will be needed at each pickup and delivery location. Unexpected accessorials often result from incomplete information at the time of booking. ArrowLane provides transparent pricing that includes estimated accessorial costs upfront, so there are no surprises on your invoice. We also work with shippers to identify opportunities to reduce accessorials through operational improvements.