What is tonu?
Also called truck ordered not used
TONU stands for truck ordered not used. It is a flat fee paid when a carrier has been dispatched to a load that is then cancelled, compensating for the trip made and the capacity committed.
A truck that has been booked, routed and sent toward a pickup has already spent fuel and hours by the time a cancellation arrives. TONU covers some of that.
The fee is normally a few hundred dollars and is not automatic. It depends on the broker's agreement and on how far the truck had already committed.
What it means on a dispatch desk
Whether TONU is payable usually turns on documented arrival or documented dispatch, so the claim is won or lost by what the driver recorded before the cancellation, not by the conversation afterwards. A desk that logs dispatch times as a matter of habit collects these; one that reconstructs them later does not.
Related terms
- AccessorialAn accessorial is any charge for work beyond moving the freight from origin to destination. Detention, layover, driver-assisted unloading, extra stops and tarping are all accessorials.
- DetentionDetention is money owed to a carrier when a shipper or receiver holds the truck beyond the free time agreed for loading or unloading, usually two hours. It is billed by the hour after that window closes.
- Rate confirmationA rate confirmation is the document that sets the agreed price and terms for one specific load, issued by the broker and signed by the carrier before the truck moves. It governs that load only.
Knowing the term is the easy half
Knowing which carriers are worth calling this morning is the hard half.
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