Glossary term
Accessorial charges
Charges for services beyond simple carriage — waiting time, inside delivery, redelivery — that sit outside the quoted freight rate.
Charges for work a carrier does beyond moving the goods from A to B: waiting time, inside delivery, redelivery after a failed attempt, liftgate use, storage. They are usually absent from a headline freight quote and appear on the invoice afterwards.
They are a common source of dispute precisely because they are conditional. The question to ask when comparing quotes is not what the rate is but which accessorials are excluded from it.