TONU stands for truck ordered not used: an accessorial charge a carrier bills when a truck is dispatched for a load that cancels before pickup. It compensates the carrier for a driver and equipment that were committed and then sent home empty.
TONU is one of the most bounded charges in freight. Whether it applies comes down to a small set of facts: was the truck dispatched, when did the cancelation arrive, and what does the rate confirmation say about the fee. For a broker the charge cuts both ways: carriers bill the broker, and the broker either passes it through to the shipper who canceled or absorbs it as margin. Each one arrives as an email thread, and the settlement or ops desk has to reconstruct the timeline from dispatch records and message timestamps before anyone can say who owes what.
The approach that fails here is treating TONU disputes as free-text arguments. A knowledge-base bot cannot resolve one, because the answer never lives in an FAQ; it lives in the rate confirmation and the timestamps of a specific load. And an improvised human reply carries its own risk: a sympathetic sentence that concedes fault can turn a bounded fee into an open liability question.
TONU vs detention at a glance
| Dimension | TONU | Detention |
|---|---|---|
| When it applies | the load cancels after a truck is dispatched | the truck waits at a facility beyond free time |
| What triggers the charge | dispatch plus a late cancelation | dock time past the agreed free window |
| Typical structure | a flat fee named in the rate confirmation | an hourly rate after free time expires |
| What settles a dispute | dispatch records and the cancelation timestamp | arrival, gate, and departure timestamps |
Aide, the agentic AI platform for customer experience, treats a TONU dispute as its own intent with a defined resolution path. It pulls the rate confirmation terms, dispatch record, and cancelation timestamp into one place, drafts the response from approved language, and never concedes liability without human sign-off. Every automated step is recorded in the Action Trace, which matters in a vertical that audits accessorials and litigates claims. See Aide for logistics and freight for how the rest of the freight inbox gets the same treatment.
Frequently asked questions
- Who pays a TONU charge?
- The party responsible for the cancelation, as governed by the rate confirmation. The carrier bills the broker that ordered the truck; the broker then passes the charge to the shipper who canceled or absorbs it, depending on the customer agreement.
- How is a TONU dispute resolved?
- With documents, not arguments: the rate confirmation naming the fee, the dispatch record showing the truck was committed, and the timestamp showing when the cancelation arrived. If those three line up, the charge stands; if they do not, it is reduced or withdrawn.