Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculator
Price a TONU: cancellation fee plus deadhead miles when a booked truck is turned away.
TONU compensates a dispatched truck for a load that evaporated — base fee ($150–$500 typical) plus miles actually driven toward the pickup.
Sources & references
- TIA framework / broker-carrier agreement accessorial norms
- DAT & spot-market accessorial benchmarks (TONU, deadhead)
Demurrage, detention and storage tariffs are set by each carrier, terminal and contract and change frequently. The preloaded figures are editable industry-typical examples, not quotes — always verify against the current published tariff or your service contract before paying or disputing an invoice.
A Truck Order Not Used is the accessorial nobody budgets and everybody eventually owes: the truck was dispatched, the load disappeared — cancelled after dispatch, not ready at pickup, or double-brokered away. TONU compensates the carrier for the committed capacity: a base fee plus the deadhead miles actually burned getting there.
About Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculator
Market norms run $150–$250 for short-notice cancellations and up to $500+ where the truck physically arrived; deadhead conventionally prices at $2–$3/mile. The calculator builds the invoice the way brokers expect to see it: base fee, miles × rate, documented extras (tolls, a reefer washout done for the load) — itemised, not a round number. Collectability is about the timeline: when was the truck dispatched, when did it start rolling, when did cancellation land? A TONU claim with dispatch records and an ELD trace to the pickup gets paid; 'we had a truck for that' does not. Same-day invoicing with the trace attached is the entire collection strategy.
How to use Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculator
- 1Set each input — base tonu fee, deadhead miles driven, rate per deadhead mile, other costs (tolls, washout…) — using your own figures.
- 2The estimate recomputes instantly as you type; no submit button, no waiting.
- 3Review the line-item breakdown to see how each component contributes to the total.
- 4Click “Copy quote” to paste the itemised result into an email, quote or audit note.
Why use Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculator?
- ✓Itemised line-by-line breakdown, not just a single opaque total
- ✓Copy-ready output for emails, quotes and audit notes
- ✓Recomputes live as you type — compare scenarios in seconds
- ✓Free and private — nothing you enter leaves your browser
Frequently asked questions
When is a TONU legitimately owed?+
Once the carrier committed capacity in reliance on the booking — truck dispatched or repositioning toward the pickup — and the load failed for reasons on the shipper/broker side: cancellation after dispatch, freight not ready, appointment refused, or the load given to another truck. Cancellation before dispatch is normally fee-free unless the rate con says otherwise.
What's a fair TONU amount?+
Rate confirmations often pre-agree $150–$300; absent a clause, $250 plus actual deadhead at $2–$3/mile is a defensible market norm. A truck that arrived, waited and left can also reasonably add detention-style time. The strongest invoices itemise exactly as this calculator does rather than quoting one round figure.
Does a TONU need to be in the rate confirmation?+
It enormously helps. A pre-agreed TONU clause converts an argument into arithmetic. Without one you're claiming reliance damages under the booking — still collectable with good records, but slower and more deniable. Carriers should make a TONU clause standard in every rate con; brokers who refuse it are telling you something.
Can I claim TONU if the truck never moved?+
Weakly. The claim's backbone is committed, wasted capacity — a truck that never repositioned and was re-dispatched to another load within the hour suffered little loss. If the truck held for the load and turned down freight (provable from dispatch records), a base fee is arguable; deadhead obviously isn't.
Embed Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculator on your website
Want Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculatoron your own site? Paste this snippet into any HTML page — it's free, with no API key or sign-up. The tool loads in an iframe and keeps working exactly as it does here.
<iframe src="https://tooljolt.com/tools/truck-order-not-used-fee-calculator" width="100%" height="640" style="border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:12px;max-width:680px" title="Truck Order Not Used (TONU) Fee Calculator — ToolJolt" loading="lazy"></iframe>Related Logistics tools
Demurrage Calculator (Ocean Containers)
Work out ocean container demurrage from free days and a tiered terminal tariff — with a per-tier breakdown.
● LiveContainer Detention (Per Diem) Calculator
Calculate detention / per-diem owed on containers gated out but not yet returned empty to the depot.
● LiveTruck Driver Detention Fee Calculator
Price driver detention at the dock by the hour — free window, tiered hourly rates and multi-stop totals.
● Live