You booked the load, you turned down other freight, your driver deadheaded forty miles to the shipper — and the load canceled. In trucking, that’s when the phrase TONU comes out. If you run trucks, you need to know how to bill one. If you’re a broker or shipper, you need to know when you legitimately owe one.
What Is a TONU in Trucking?
TONU stands for Truck Order Not Used. It’s a fee paid to a carrier when a booked load is canceled after the carrier has committed the truck — typically after dispatch, and especially after the driver has already arrived at the pickup or repositioned equipment for the load. The fee compensates the carrier for the time, fuel, and — most importantly — the opportunity cost of the freight they turned away to cover the load.
When Does a TONU Apply?
There’s no federal statute setting TONU rules — it’s contractual. In practice, a TONU is generally payable when:
- The load cancels after the driver is en route or on-site at the shipper.
- The truck arrives and the freight isn’t ready, doesn’t exist, or doesn’t match what was booked (wrong equipment requested, overweight, not palletized as described) and the load can’t move.
- The load cancels inside an agreed cancellation window spelled out in the rate confirmation or broker-carrier agreement.
What it’s not: a penalty for loads canceled well in advance, before the carrier committed equipment. A load canceled the night before with no deadhead usually doesn’t earn a TONU (unless the contract says otherwise).
How Much Is a TONU in 2026?
Typical TONU fees run $150 to $500, with $250 the most common round number on rate confirmations. The amount scales with circumstances: local dray TONUs sit at the low end, while a truck that deadheaded 100+ miles, burned hours-of-service, or was ordered for specialized equipment (reefer pre-cooled, flatbed tarped and ready) justifies the high end. Some agreements also add a per-mile deadhead reimbursement on top of the flat fee.
How Carriers Should Handle TONUs
- Get the TONU term on the rate con. Before you dispatch, your rate confirmation should state the cancellation window and the TONU amount. If it doesn’t, negotiate it in — brokers expect the ask.
- Document everything. Dispatch records, ELD ping showing arrival at the shipper, gate or lumper receipts, timestamps of the cancellation call. A TONU claim with an ELD trail gets paid; a verbal claim gets argued. (Your ELD is more useful than you think — we built a whole ELD cheat-sheet episode around it.)
- Invoice it like a load. Send the TONU invoice with backup the same day, referencing the load number and the rate con clause.
- Track repeat offenders. A broker or shipper who TONUs you twice a month is telling you something about their freight. Price it in or stop covering it.
How Brokers and Shippers Avoid Paying TONUs
TONUs are almost always a communication failure, and they’re avoidable:
- Confirm freight readiness before dispatch. The single biggest cause of TONUs is booking a truck for freight that wasn’t actually ready.
- Cancel early, in writing. The difference between a free cancellation and a $350 TONU is usually a few hours and a timestamp.
- Describe the load accurately. Weight, equipment, and loading requirements — a truck that shows up and can’t legally load is a TONU you caused. Our carrier-hiring guide works in reverse too: good carriers are vetting you.
- Have a backup plan for known-flaky freight. If a pickup falls through 20% of the time, book it with a carrier who agrees to a standby arrangement, not one discovering it live.
TONU vs. Detention vs. Layover
These three get mixed up constantly. TONU: the load never moved — flat cancellation fee. Detention: the load moved, but the driver waited beyond free time at a dock — hourly. Layover: the driver was held overnight (or a full day) waiting for freight — a daily fee, typically $150–$350. A bad pickup can generate more than one: a driver who waits five hours and then has the load cancel may fairly bill detention and a TONU, if the paperwork supports it.
The Bottom Line
A TONU — Truck Order Not Used — is fair compensation for a truck that showed up when the freight didn’t. Carriers: put it on the rate con, document with your ELD, and invoice fast. Brokers and shippers: confirm readiness before dispatch and cancel in writing, early. Everyone saves money when trucks and freight only meet on purpose.
Want more real-world trucking operations knowledge? Subscribe to The Freight Guru podcast. And if you need dependable drayage and truckload capacity in South Florida, our family runs Go Freight out of Miami — trucks that show up, for freight that’s ready.
