On-Hand Freight: Notice Before You Store It

What on-hand means

On-hand is a status, not a mood. The freight did not complete delivery. It is stopped. Someone who can decide what happens next has been told, in writing, that it is stopped, where it sits, and why. Until those facts are in a message you can retrieve, you have a trailer with a problem. You do not have an on-hand file.

The reasons are ordinary. The consignee refused. The address was wrong. The appointment was canceled and nobody gave a new one. The seal problem put the unload on hold. The reason changes the next instruction. It does not change the need for the notice. Write the reason in their words when you have them, and in your words when you do not: refused for temperature, no one on site, address vacant. Vague "problem at delivery" is how the notice fails to tell the owner anything they can act on.

This is one shipment. It is not a plan to open a warehouse, buy racking, or solicit storage from other carriers. If that is the business you want, it is a different business, with different insurance and different rules. Do not use a refused load as the first customer of a warehouse you do not have.

Who gets the notice, and what it has to say

Send it to the broker and the shipper. The broker arranged the load. The shipper owns or controls the goods, or can reach the person who does. Telling only the driver group chat is not notice. Telling only the consignee who already refused is not notice to the people who must decide.

The writing says the freight is stopped, the location in words a stranger could use, and the reason. Include the bill number, the trailer number, and a phone that works. Ask for an instruction: redelivery, return, or a hold at a named place. Attach the POD if it says refused. Send it the day the freight stops. A next-week summary is a late story about freight that has been sitting unnamed.

Keep the sent message. If it bounces, send it to the address on the rate confirmation and the bill and keep the bounce. A call is fine as a courtesy after the writing, or before it if someone is about to make a decision in the next ten minutes. The call without the writing is not the file. Follow the call with the same facts in writing the same day.

A reasonable place to hold it

The place you name has to be a place you can actually keep the freight safe. A consignee lot that has ordered you off the property is not a hold location. A shoulder is not a hold location. Your yard, a terminal that has agreed to take the trailer, or a truck stop space you can identify is a location. If you move it, the notice includes the move. An old notice that says the freight is at the receiver, after you have left, is a false location.

Reasonable also means fit for the freight. Dry freight stays dry and closed. Refrigerated freight stays at setpoint. Hazmat stays under the rules that already applied to the trip. You do not "store" a placarded load in a place those rules do not allow and call the notice complete. If you do not have a legal place, say that in the notice and ask for an instruction before you improvise.

When storage charges are collectible

Storage is a charge when something the parties agreed to says it is a charge. That something is the rate confirmation, a tariff or rules the shipment incorporated, or a new written confirmation after the freight went on hand. It is not a number you announce because you are tired of waiting. Accessorial charges describes the kinds of extra charges. It does not price this night, and this page will not price it either.

If the contract has a storage term, follow the term, including any free time it states. If it has no term, ask for a written rate before you treat storage as owed. You may still hold the freight. Holding is the duty. Billing a made-up rate is the dispute. Do not let the dispute decide where the freight sleeps. Do not refuse to protect the freight until someone agrees to your number.

A confirmation that arrives later can cover storage going forward. It does not have to be retroactive, and you should not assume it is. Ask the writing to say the dates it covers. If it is silent, you have a forward agreement and an argument about the days before it. Keep both facts straight.

Reefer fuel while you wait

A reefer setpoint does not end when the consignee refuses the load or when the notice goes out. Run the unit at the instructed setpoint until the shipper or the broker gives a lawful instruction to change it. Fuel used while you wait is a cost you record: dates, hours, gallons or receipts. Whether that fuel is reimbursed depends on the same kind of writing as storage. Record it even if the writing is not in hand yet. A unit you shut off to save fuel, or to pressure the broker, turns a commercial delay into a temperature claim.

The pulp-temperature page is about why a rejection happens. The breakdown page is about a unit that failed. This page assumes you can still run the unit and tells you to keep running it. If the unit cannot run, say that in the on-hand notice immediately. A temperature problem hidden inside a storage argument is how both files get ruined.

Mitigation runs in both directions. You limit the loss by protecting the freight. The owner limits the loss by taking it back or giving an instruction when you have told them where it is. Letting product spoil to teach the broker increases the claim against the carrier. It does not create a cleaner storage bill.

Do not sell it as step one

Sale and salvage come after notice and after a real opportunity for someone entitled to the freight to take it back. They are not the first afternoon. They are not a way to clear a trailer door for the next load without a writing. Salvage value is the later page: written authority, bids, and the credit against the claim. Food, drugs, and hazardous materials are not a cash market you enter from the truck stop. Follow destruction instructions when those are the instructions, and do not freelance a sale.

If you need the trailer, say so in the notice and ask for a transfer to another trailer or a location, with the cost agreed in writing before you do the extra work. Swapping trailers without notice is how freight goes missing inside your own fleet. The goal of on-hand is that a stranger can find the goods from the message you sent. Everything that hides the goods fails the status, even if you meant to protect them.

The claims process starts if the freight is actually lost or damaged. On-hand notice is how you keep a delay from becoming that claim.

Update the notice if the trailer moves. A correct notice that becomes stale is a wrong location. The owner should be able to find the freight from the last message you sent, without calling the driver.

Frequently Asked Questions