Accessorial
An accessorial is any charge for services beyond simple pickup and delivery, such as detention, extra stops, tarping, layover, driver assist or lumper reimbursement.
Last reviewed · by the Fleetchart team
Accessorials are where margin quietly leaks. Each one is small, each one is negotiated separately, and each one requires documentation, so they are the charges most often forgotten at invoicing.
Common accessorials include stop-off pay for multi-stop loads, tarping on flatbed work, driver assist or unloading, layover when a driver is held overnight, and reimbursement of lumper fees.
Because they attach to a specific load, accessorials are also the clearest argument for keeping load-level records rather than monthly totals: a lane can look profitable in aggregate while consistently failing to collect what it is owed.
For example, say a load pays $1,500 line haul, plus $75 for an extra stop, $100 for tarping and $150 of detention. The extras add up to $75 + $100 + $150 = $325. If none of them make it onto the invoice, you collect $1,500 instead of $1,825.
Miss $325 a week and it adds up to $325 × 50 = $16,250 over a year of 50 working weeks. That money is almost pure profit, because the work was already done and the fuel was already burned. Check every invoice against the rate con before it goes out.