Invoice decoder
Accessorial charges explained
Once the box leaves the terminal, the billing changes hands. Chassis pools, motor carriers, railroads and yards each add their own daily rates and one-off fees, and on many US inland moves those accessorials cost more than the linehaul. These references decode the lines and show where each one goes wrong.
Chassis & per diem
Chassis rental and container per diem
The two inland clocks on every drayage invoice — what each one bills for, and where they get double-charged.
How to read an accessorial line
- Identify who owns the charge. Chassis, box and facility time are billed by different parties, and the same day is frequently paid twice across two invoices.
- Free time comes from the contract, not the tariff. A negotiated extension is worthless if the billing engine prices off the tariff in force at invoicing.
- Days blocked by the terminal or railroad are not billable. No empty appointment, gate closure or a refused return stops the clock — if you can date-stamp it.
- One-off fees describe an event. Pre-pull, split, dry run and layover each claim a specific movement happened; the gate and trip records either show it or they do not.
Publishing next
Detention
Driver detention and layover
Free time at the facility, how the clock is evidenced, and where the two-hour window is misapplied.
Storage
Terminal and yard storage
Demurrage’s inland cousin — port, rail ramp and yard storage tiers, and the closure days that should be excluded.
Pre-pull
Pre-pull and dry run
When a second move is legitimately billable, and how to prove it never happened.
Fuel
Drayage fuel surcharge
Index-linked fuel on inland moves and the stale-index problem.
Holding a drayage invoice?
Send it over with the interchange records. We rebuild both clocks day by day, strip the days that were never billable, and file what is recoverable. The audit is free and our fee is 20% of what actually comes back.
Get a free invoice audit