Sometimes Less-than-Truckload carriers have to provide unexpected services or accommodations in order to complete your delivery. This results in additional fees. Koho is here to help you avoid unexpected charges. Today, we’re talking about storage fees.Storage fees are charged when freight cannot be delivered and has to be housed by the carrier. This can happen for a variety of reasons. The delivery destination may have been closed, the recipient may have rejected the delivery, or the destination address may have simply been wrong. Generally, if the freight has to be stored for more than 48 hours, the carrier will charge a fee. The amount of the fee typically depends on how long the freight is stored.The key to avoiding storage fees is communication. Make sure the recipient of your shipment knows when it is going to arrive so they can be prepared for it. When you ship with Koho, we keep you informed about any updates to your shipments. If there are any changes to the expected arrival date, let your recipient know as soon as possible.Want to learn more about how to avoid unexpected fees? Go to gokoho.com.
Typically, when you buy a product or service you know exactly how much you’ll be paying. With less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping, that’s not always the case. After your shipment has been completed, additional charges, also known as rebills, can be added to the price you were initially quoted. Because of how complex LTL shipping can be, rebills are a fairly common occurrence in the LTL industry. Delays that keep the driver waiting, inaccurate freight measurements or weights, incorrect paperwork, or unexpected equipment needed to load or unload your cargo can all result in unpleasant surprises on your invoice. And they can be substantial. They can also sometimes be surprisingly confusing, like residential delivery fees.
LTL carriers charge an additional fee for residential pickups and deliveries because they use large semi trucks that are difficult, and sometimes impossible, to navigate around the smaller streets and driveways of residential areas. While it may seem that residential delivery fees would only apply to deliveries made to people’s homes, it can actually apply to businesses in residential areas or businesses run out of private homes as well.
Because this isn’t necessarily clear from the name of the fee, it is not uncommon for people to receive this charge as a rebill. Even worse, when you get a residential fee, you’ll also get a liftgate fee, because residences do not have loading docks. This could result in the further risk of getting yet another fee for redelivery. If the truck that attempts the first delivery doesn’t have a liftgate, then they’ll have to bring your shipment back at a later time or date with the appropriate equipment.
If you get charged for all three of those fees, you could be looking at a surprise addition to your bill of well over $1000.
Despite sounding complicated, it’s usually easy to avoid these fees. Our team at Koho will use common online maps with satellite views to check the conditions at the pickup and delivery locations. If they believe that the delivery will be considered residential, they’ll let the shipper know what the additional fees will be ahead of time so there won’t be any surprises, as well as avoiding costly redelivery fees.
Of course, it’s best for the shipper themselves to know all the details of their pickup and delivery locations. You can use the same tools to check where you are sending your shipment to. If you’re not sure whether it will be considered residential, you can always reach out to the team at Koho and we’ll be happy to help.
