LTL Re-Delivery Charges Are No Longer Being Overlooked

When carriers make an attempt to deliver a shipment but are denied or can’t perform the delivery because of no fault of their own (i.e. inaccurate information and / or lack of equipment) they will take it back to the terminal, put it on a different truck or get the correct information, and then attempt delivery of the original shipment. LTL carriers will charge a re-delivery fee for this should something similar occur. The ltl re-delivery charge is a fee that the carriers charge to help them recoup the costs incurred to perform the additional requirements necessary to deliver the shipment.

When the recession hit back in ’08-’09, all of the ltl carriers began vying for market share with a rate war of sorts, and they would often overlook or waive this charge in order to win or maintain business. During that time some ltl carriers were even hauling freight that resulted in a net loss just to keep employees and equipment employed. Now they are struggling to keep supply in line with demand. In some instances they are even turning down profitable business in favor of higher margin business, which is leaving some shippers with freight that isn't getting picked up or that is picked up days and even weeks later than originally scheduled.

Carriers may have overlooked these fees in the past at times, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have charged for them. Today’s market is somewhat unprecedented in terms of the driver shortage, high volume of freight, recent hours of service rule changes (government restrictions), aging fleets, and other factors. The market is terribly short on drivers right now and demand is high. In most cases the carriers can no longer afford to turn their heads to the redelivery charge as a result.

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