Missed Delivery Appointment: Who Pays for Redelivery and Storage
Short answer
When an LTL delivery appointment is missed and the carrier was not at fault, the carrier charges a redelivery fee for the next attempt and, after the free time runs out, storage for every day the freight waits at the terminal. Under carrier rules tariffs, those charges go to the party that pays the freight bill, unless someone else has guaranteed them. If the carrier was the one running late, it is a different story: the appointment clock does not run against the receiver in the same way.
The truck arrived, but the dock was full, the receiver’s contact had gone home, or nobody could start unloading. The freight goes back to the terminal. A few days later the invoice shows a redelivery charge and a storage line. Who actually owes that money, and could it have been avoided?
Carriers answer the first question in their rules tariffs. Here is how two of them, TForce Freight and Old Dominion, handle a missed delivery appointment, what each charge is for, and what changes when the freight rides on a dedicated truck.
Missed appointment charges at a glance
| Charge | Old Dominion (ODFL 100-Q) | TForce Freight (UPGF 102-T) |
|---|---|---|
| Setting the appointment or calling ahead | $30 per shipment for an appointment, $30 for notification (Item 647) | $65 per shipment when the bill of lading requires notification, including a call for an appointment (Item 647) |
| Each extra delivery attempt | $7.20 per cwt, $175 minimum, $580 maximum (Item 830) | $18.00 per cwt, $160 minimum, $1,000 maximum (Item 830-A) |
| Free time before storage | 24 hours for appointment freight (Item 910) | Storage starts 7:00 a.m. on the first business day after notice (Item 910) |
| Storage | $4.00 per cwt per 24 hours, $65 minimum, $225 maximum per 24 hours (Item 910) | $4.75 per cwt per day, $60 minimum per day, $250 maximum per day, $250 minimum per shipment (Item 910) |
| Who is billed | The payor of the freight charges, unless someone else guaranteed payment | Must be paid or guaranteed before the freight is redelivered |
Figures are from the US sections of the ODFL 100-Q rules tariff and the TForce Freight UPGF 102-T rules tariff in the versions online in October 2026. Your own carrier, and your own contract, may differ. Check the current version before you rely on a number.
What counts as a missed appointment
To a carrier, the question is not whether the delivery happened on time. It is whose fault it was that it did not happen. Both tariffs charge redelivery only when a shipment was tendered for delivery and, “through no fault of Carrier,” it could not be delivered.
Old Dominion spells out one case that surprises receivers. Its tariff says that if the consignee “cannot guarantee that physical unloading will commence within 30 minutes” of being told the shipment is there, the carrier may treat the shipment as refused through no fault of its own. From that moment it is subject to redelivery and possible storage charges. The truck was at the door, but a dock that cannot start unloading in half an hour counts the same as a missed appointment.
Paying for the appointment itself
Some of the cost appears before anything goes wrong. Asking the carrier to call ahead or book a delivery time is an accessorial service with its own line on the invoice.
- Old Dominion charges $30 per shipment when it is told to schedule an appointment, a separate $30 when it is told to call before delivery, and $2 more when the receiver’s online appointment system charges the carrier a fee.
- TForce Freight charges $65 per shipment when the bill of lading requires notification, which includes contacting the consignee to set an appointment. It does not apply to shipments to residences or limited access locations, which have their own rules.
If the receiver needs an appointment, put that on the bill of lading at booking. The fee is then on the quote from the start, and the carrier knows to book a time before it sends a truck.
The redelivery charge and who pays it
The second attempt is billed as a new service. Old Dominion charges $7.20 per hundred pounds, with a $175 minimum and a $580 maximum. TForce Freight charges $18.00 per hundred pounds, with a $160 minimum and a $1,000 maximum, for each additional tender to the original destination.
On who pays, Old Dominion’s Item 830 is direct: the charges “will be assessed against the payor of the freight charges unless payment has been guaranteed to the satisfaction of Carrier by the consignor, consignee or a third party.” On a prepaid shipment, the shipper pays the freight charges, so the bill goes to the shipper even when the miss happened at the receiver’s dock. TForce Freight requires the redelivery charge to be “paid or guaranteed to the satisfaction of Carrier before the shipment will be redelivered.”
Two exceptions in the TForce tariff are worth knowing. There is no redelivery charge if the consignee picks the freight up at the destination service center instead. And on a shipment to a residence, redelivery is charged only after the carrier and the consignee agreed on a date or time and the delivery failed through the consignee’s fault.
Whether the shipper can pass that charge on to the receiver is a matter between the two of them. The carrier bills the party on the freight bill.
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Freight that could not be delivered goes back to the terminal, and the terminal charges rent.
Old Dominion gives shipments with a scheduled delivery appointment 24 hours of free time. After that, storage runs at $4.00 per hundred pounds for each 24 hours, with a $65 minimum and a $225 maximum per 24 hours. Storage charges have to be “prepaid or guaranteed to the satisfaction of Carrier” before the freight is released.
TForce Freight starts storage at 7:00 a.m. on the first business day after notice of arrival is given. Its rate is $4.75 per hundred pounds per day, with a $60 minimum per day, a $250 maximum per day and a $250 minimum per shipment. While the freight sits in storage, TForce limits its liability to $1.00 per pound per package. Freight that stays unclaimed long enough can be sold under the tariff’s rules.
The storage line is the one that grows. A receiver who reschedules for next week, not tomorrow, turns a single redelivery charge into a week of rent.
When the carrier is the one who is late
Appointments cut both ways. Old Dominion’s detention rule (Item 502) says that when an appointment has been made, the detention clock “begins at the set appointment time, not before.” If the carrier “is more than 30 minutes late for an appointment then 1 minute of free time will be added for each minute Carrier is late.” A late truck does not start billing the receiver for waiting.
The redelivery and storage charges above also apply only when the carrier was not at fault. If the truck missed the window, ask the carrier to remove those lines before you pay the invoice.
Temperature sensitive freight
A missed appointment can cost more than fees. TForce Freight’s tariff (Item 166) says the carrier has no liability for a failure of temperature protection when it results from “a delay in delivery because of the need for a delivery appointment, notification prior to delivery or any other delay not attributable to the negligence on the part of the Carrier.” If a heat or freeze protected shipment sits an extra two days because of an appointment, the risk of that delay stays with the cargo owner.
What changes on a dedicated truck
The tariff charges above come from how an LTL network works. A missed appointment sends your pallet back into a terminal full of other freight. It waits there for a slot on a later delivery route, and the terminal charges for the space.
On a dedicated truck, your shipment is the only one on board, and there is no terminal in the middle. If the receiver is not ready, the question is how long the driver can wait and what that waiting costs, which you can agree on before pickup. The truck does not have to go back to a terminal and come out again on another day. The receiver’s hours, the appointment time and who signs for the freight still need to be right on the order, because a dedicated truck that arrives at a closed dock is still a missed delivery.
What you can control
- The bill of lading. Put the appointment requirement, the receiver’s hours and a working phone number on it at booking.
- The receiver’s readiness. Confirm the dock can start unloading when the truck arrives, not just that someone will be on site.
- Who pays. If the miss is likely to be on the receiver’s side, agree in advance who covers redelivery and storage. The carrier will bill the payor of the freight charges either way.
- The reschedule. Book the next attempt for the earliest day the receiver can take it. Storage runs every day in between.
- Pickup at the terminal. If the receiver can collect the freight, TForce Freight waives the redelivery charge.
- A change of address. If the freight needs to go somewhere else instead, that is a reconsignment, with its own rules. See what reconsignment is and what it costs.
If the receiver refuses the freight outright, or holds it, that is a different problem with its own steps. We covered it in emergency cargo recovery after a refused transfer. For how guaranteed LTL and dedicated service compare on time sensitive freight, see expedited LTL vs guaranteed LTL vs dedicated.
One missed appointment is a line on an invoice. On freight that has to land in a narrow window, the redelivery, the storage and the lost day add up. If your receiver runs on tight appointments, Vic’s runs cargo vans to straight trucks across the US and Canada, one shipment per vehicle, with dispatch that answers 24/7. Get an instant quote and tell us the pieces, the receiver’s hours and the appointment you need to hit.