How Do Carriers Get Paid for TONU, Layover and Lumper Fees?

When the broker won’t pay a TONU

When a TONU is denied, check it against the gaps below; each one points to its own fix.

• No TONU term on the rate con, or the load was canceled before the rate con was signed.
• No proof the truck was committed: no position record when the cancellation came in, no check-in at the shipper.
• The carrier’s side of the cancellation: the truck was late for the appointment, or it was not the equipment the rate con named.
• The TONU was agreed to by phone with a rep, and the broker’s payables desk has nothing in writing to match.
• It was billed weeks later, or without the load number the payables desk matches on.

The reply to a denial is the same every time: the clause, the cancellation time, the truck’s position and the dollar amount, in one email to the person who denied it, then to the broker’s carrier-relations or payables desk. If the suspicion is that the shipper paid the broker for the canceled load, 49 CFR 371.3 gives each party to a brokered transaction “the right to review the record of the transaction.” The guide to detention billed but not paid covers that right, the contract waivers that limit it, and the broker bond for a broker that has stopped paying altogether.

Layover vs. detention: the difference, and who pays each

Detention pays for hours. The Inspector General’s report notes that carriers and drivers call “time spent at shipping and receiving facilities beyond that which is legitimately needed for loading and unloading” detention time, with waiting in a queue as its example. It is billed by the hour at one stop, after the free time the terms allow.

Layover pays for days. The truck is held overnight or longer: the load is not ready, the receiver moves the appointment to the next day, or the dock closes with the truck still in line. It is billed per day or as a flat amount, and only if the terms provide for it.

Hours of service connect the two. Under 49 CFR 395.3, a driver “may not drive without first taking 10 consecutive hours off duty,” and may not drive after 14 consecutive hours from coming on duty. A wait that uses up the driver’s window becomes a night at or near the dock, so one stop can earn both, when the terms pay both. A rate con can stop detention when layover starts, or cap detention per day, so bill exactly what the clause says.

• Brokered load: the broker pays the carrier under the rate con, for detention and layover alike. What the broker collects from its own customer runs under a separate agreement; read the rate con for any clause that ties the carrier’s pay to that customer paying first.
• Direct load: the shipper or receiver pays under the carrier’s accessorial rules or the transportation contract. Settle in writing which of the two pays, because at delivery the receiver is the one holding the truck.
• Either way, record who held the truck and why: shipper not ready, receiver rescheduled, or carrier late. A layover the carrier caused is not one to bill.

The broker’s side of the same load, where the brokerage pays the carrier and then has to bill its shipper for the same hours, has its own guide.

Lumper fees: the statute, the receipt and the reimbursement

A lumper is third-party labor that loads or unloads freight at the dock, and the driver can be asked to pay before the truck is unloaded. Under 49 U.S.C. § 14103(a), when a shipper or receiver requires that the truck be assisted in loading or unloading, “the shipper or receiver shall be responsible for providing such assistance or shall compensate the owner or operator for all costs associated with securing and compensating the person or persons providing such assistance.” Subsection (b) makes it unlawful to coerce a carrier “to employ or pay one or more persons to load or unload” the freight, with exceptions tied to federal labor law.

On a brokered load the carrier never billed the receiver, so in practice the money comes back through the broker under the rate con. How § 14103 applies to a particular load is a question for a transportation attorney; this section explains the text and is not legal advice. Week to week, payment turns on the rate con’s lumper clause and a receipt that shows, legibly:

• The facility’s name and address, and the date and time.
• The load, PO or BOL number the facility used, so the payer can match it to the load.
• The amount, and how it was paid: company card, a payment code issued for the stop, or the driver’s own cash.
• The lumper service’s name and a receipt number, signed or stamped.
• The approval reference from the broker or shipper, when the rate con requires approval before paying.

The driver gets approval first when the terms require it, photographs the receipt at the dock and sends it before leaving. Billing puts the lumper on the line-haul invoice as its own line, receipt attached, the day the paperwork closes. A driver who paid out of pocket is repaid on the fleet’s next settlement, not on the payer’s schedule. For leased owner-operators, 49 CFR 376.12(e) requires the lease to “clearly specify who is responsible for loading and unloading the property onto and from the motor vehicle, and the compensation, if any, to be paid for this service,” and each party’s responsibility for the cost of “detention and accessorial services.” Under 376.12(d), the pay for the equipment and the driver’s services must be “clearly stated on the face of the lease or in an addendum.” The lease, not habit, should settle who keeps a TONU or layover collected on an owner-operator’s load.

How to bill accessorials to a direct shipper so they get paid

With no broker in between, the carrier writes the terms. Under 49 U.S.C. § 13710(a)(1), a motor carrier of property must give the shipper, on request, “a written or electronic copy of the rate, classification, rules, and practices” its rate is based on. The working version is a one-page accessorial schedule the shipper acknowledges before the first load: detention free time, when the clock starts and the hourly rate; layover per day; TONU; lumper reimbursement and the receipt required; extra stops; and who at the shipper approves each one.

A written contract can change the defaults. Under 49 U.S.C. § 14101(b), when a shipper and carrier “in writing, expressly waive any or all rights and remedies” under that part of the statute, the transportation the contract covers is not subject to the waived rights. A shipper’s contract or routing guide can set shorter billing windows, approval steps or caps; read it before the first load.

For a for-hire, non-exempt carrier’s freight bill, 49 CFR 373.103 requires “total charges due, including the nature and amount of any charges for special service and the points at which such service was rendered.” Bill each accessorial as its own line, with the stop and the backup: ELD times for detention, the reason for a layover, the cancellation email for a TONU, the receipt for a lumper. Send it with the line haul. Under 49 U.S.C. § 13710(a)(3), a carrier “must issue any bill for charges in addition to those originally billed within 180 days of the receipt of the original bill in order to have the right to collect such charges,” and a shipper has 180 days to contest a bill; a contract can set other terms. How these texts apply to one shipper contract is for a transportation attorney.

Carriers and owner-operators interviewed for the Inspector General’s report said shippers refused detention fees for reasons “such as a truck’s arrival a minute later than its scheduled appointment time or shipper representatives’ refusal to sign bills of lading noting trucks’ arrival and departure times.” Both are answered before the invoice goes out: the appointment time on the load record, and arrival and departure times from the ELD whether or not anyone signs the BOL.

Count last quarter: accessorials earned, billed and collected

The count takes an afternoon or two from records the fleet already keeps: ELD stop times, dispatch notes, rate cons, driver expense reports and lumper receipts, invoices, and remittances or factoring statements. One row per accessorial event, not per load:

• Load, customer, and whether the load was brokered or direct.
• Event: detention, layover, TONU or lumper, with the stop and the date.
• Earned under the terms on file: yes; no, with the reason (late arrival, no notice, no clause); or no terms on file.
• The amount the terms set, from the rate con or the accessorial schedule.
• Billed: invoice number, date and amount, or blank.
• Collected: amount and date from the remittance or factoring statement, not the billing status.
• Paid out: the lumper the driver or company paid, and any share passed to a driver or owner-operator.

Illustrative example: a hypothetical 25-truck fleet goes through last quarter’s delivered loads. The records show 140 stops past free time with the terms met, 22 overnights the terms pay as layover, 9 canceled dispatches under a TONU clause and 61 lumper receipts. Billed: 95 detentions, 12 layovers, 4 TONUs and 58 lumpers. Collected: 60, 9, 1 and 55. The 45 detentions, 10 layovers, 5 TONUs and 3 lumpers never billed are a fix inside the building. The 35 detentions, 3 layovers, 3 TONUs and 3 lumpers billed and not collected are conversations with named customers. Priced at each rate con’s terms, the two groups are the quarter’s figure in dollars. After that, one named person reads the open rows weekly: canceled dispatches with no TONU decision, lumper receipts not invoiced, and payments short an accessorial line but posted as paid.

When this is not worth chasing, and where the Review fits

A small TONU from a broker that pays everything else on time, a layover the carrier’s own late arrival caused, or a lumper the rate con said was included in the rate are lines to record and fix on the next rate con, not invoices to fight.

For a fleet where nobody can say what last quarter’s accessorials earned, billed and collected, the Revenue Review counts this under the Delivery → Invoice hand-off. From read-only exports of dispatch, the ELD, driver expenses, invoices, remittances and factoring statements, it lists every accessorial the records show was earned, billed and collected, with the reason for each gap, by customer and in monthly dollars wherever the records support one. It does not file claims or give legal advice. It takes two weeks and ends in a written report the fleet keeps.

It is not worth buying for a fleet that already runs the count above every quarter, or for a one- or two-truck operation where the spreadsheet is the whole job. The next step is a free 20-minute call, where we say whether the Review fits, including when it does not.