It is 6:47 AM. Your driver just sent a check-in message. He arrived at the shipper twelve minutes early, backed into door 14, and killed the engine. Everything looks good.

At 7:32 AM, another message comes through. This one is different.

"Load cancelled. They said nobody told them a truck was coming."

Your driver burned 48 miles getting there. He has been sitting for 45 minutes. The next decent load is 90 miles away, and he is already annoyed. Meanwhile, somewhere in an office park, a broker is clicking "cancel" on a load they double-booked, completely unaware that their mistake just cost your company $350.

This is TONU. And it happens thousands of times every single day across the trucking industry.

The question is not whether it will happen to you. It will. The question is whether you will get paid when it does.

TONU: What It Actually Means

TONU stands for Truck Ordered Not Used. Someone booked your truck. You committed equipment and a driver. Then the load vanished for reasons that had nothing to do with you.

The industry has a dozen names for this:

• Dry run - The truck rolled, but hauled air

• Dead run - Same thing, grimmer name

• No-load fee - What you charge to recover costs

• Truck-roll fee - Regional variation

• Cancellation fee - Broader term that includes TONU

Call it whatever you want. The math stays the same. You spent money. You made nothing. And unless you bill for it, you never will.

The Six Ways Freight Disappears

TONU does not strike randomly. It follows patterns. Learn the patterns, and you can see it coming before your truck leaves the yard.

1. The Midnight Cancellation

Broker sends a cancellation email at 11:43 PM. Your dispatcher does not see it until morning. Your driver left at 5 AM. By the time anyone connects the dots, the truck is already at the shipper asking where to dock.

2. The "Freight Wasn't Ready" Classic

Production fell behind. Someone miscounted pallets. The purchase order got delayed. Whatever the excuse, the result is the same: an empty dock and a driver with nothing to load.

3. The Equipment Bait-and-Switch

Rate confirmation clearly said dry van. Driver arrives. Turns out they need a reefer set to 34 degrees. Or the freight weighs 52,000 pounds instead of the 38,000 quoted. Your truck was ordered. Your truck cannot be used.

4. The Paperwork Black Hole

Shipper cannot release freight without a specific PO number. Nobody has it. Or the BOL has the wrong consignee. Or customs clearance did not come through. The freight exists. Your driver can see it. But it is not going anywhere today.

5. The Double-Book Disaster

Your driver arrives to find another carrier already loading. Broker sold the same load twice. Or the shipper scheduled two pickups by mistake. Either way, one truck leaves loaded. Yours does not.

6. The Ghost Facility

Driver arrives at the address on the rate con. Nobody is there. Facility is closed. Security has no record of a scheduled pickup. The shipper gave the broker an old address, or the appointment was never actually confirmed.

Each scenario shares one thing. The carrier did everything right. Someone else failed. And the carrier eats the cost unless they fight for payment.

What TONU Actually Costs You

A cancelled load is not zero revenue. It is negative revenue. Understanding cost per mile means understanding that every mile without freight attached costs real money.

A truck that repositions 50 miles for a cancelled load burns $200-$400 in direct costs. Add the opportunity cost of missing the next available load, and the number climbs fast.

Now multiply that by two or three TONU events per week. Across a 25-truck fleet, you are looking at $50,000 to $100,000 per year in unbilled cancellations. That is not a rounding error. That is a truck payment. That is a dispatcher's salary. That is why carriers fail while wondering where the money went.

Why Most Carriers Never Collect

TONU fees exist. Rate confirmations include them. And most carriers still do not collect.

Here is where the process breaks down:

No terms in writing. The rate con did not specify TONU fees. Now you are negotiating from weakness instead of billing from strength.

Slow communication. Driver waits too long to report the issue. Broker claims they cancelled earlier. Without timestamps, you cannot prove otherwise.

Zero documentation. No photos. No gate receipt. No signature from the facility. The broker says it never happened, and you have nothing to prove it did.

Giving up too fast. Broker pushes back on a $250 charge. Carrier decides it is not worth the argument. Fee gets written off. Broker learns they can cancel without consequences.

Every breakdown point is fixable. Carriers who collect TONU consistently are not more aggressive. They are more prepared.

How to Actually Get Paid for TONU

Collecting requires systems, not luck. Here is the playbook.

Lock Down Terms Before Dispatch

Every rate confirmation should include:

• TONU fee amount ($200-$400 is standard)

• Cancellation window (within 2 hours of pickup triggers the fee)

• Per-mile charge for repositioning ($2.50-$3.50/mile)

• Documentation requirements

Sample language: "Cancellations within 2 hours of scheduled pickup or after truck dispatch incur a $300 TONU fee plus $3.00 per mile for repositioning."

When terms exist in writing, billing becomes arithmetic, not argument.

Track Everything Automatically

ELD and telematics integration proves exactly when and where your truck moved. GPS does not lie. If a broker claims they cancelled before dispatch, your data shows the truth.

Carriers using a TMS built for carriers can pull dispatch times, route history, and arrival timestamps instantly. This turns TONU claims from "he said, she said" into documented fact.

Arm Your Drivers

When a TONU situation happens, drivers need to capture evidence immediately:

• Photo of facility with visible signage and timestamp

• Gate check-in receipt if available

• Name of whoever confirmed the cancellation

• Check-in through driver mobile app with GPS stamp

The more documentation, the stronger the claim. Brokers dispute charges they think they can beat. They pay charges backed by evidence.

Notify the Broker in Writing Immediately

The second a TONU situation becomes clear, dispatch should email the broker:

"Driver arrived at [facility] at [time]. Load not available due to [reason]. TONU fee of $[amount] will apply per rate confirmation dated [date]."

Email creates a paper trail. Same-day notification eliminates any claim that the broker was not informed.

Invoice Fast with Documentation Attached

Your TONU invoice should include:

• Original rate confirmation with TONU terms highlighted

• Dispatch timestamp showing when truck committed

• Arrival confirmation at facility

• Written communication record

• Mileage calculation for repositioning

When document processing is automated, this package assembles itself from data already in your system.

Know Your Repeat Offenders

TONU is not distributed evenly. Some brokers cancel constantly. Others almost never do.

Carriers with strong analytics can identify which brokers generate the most cancellations. Armed with that data, you can:

• Require higher TONU fees from problem brokers

• Demand payment history verification before accepting loads

• Refuse freight from chronic cancellers entirely

• Negotiate premium base rates to offset cancellation risk

PAVA Logistics runs 200 trucks with discipline built on data. Knowing which partners respect carrier commitments and which treat them as optional shapes smarter dispatch decisions.

The Mindset Shift

Here is the thing about TONU that most carriers get wrong.

It is not a favor you are asking for. It is not an inconvenience fee. It is not something you bill only when you are feeling bold.

TONU fees are compensation for real costs. Your truck moved. Your driver worked. Your fuel burned. Someone else's mistake caused all of it. Payment is not optional. It is owed.

The carriers who collect consistently have internalized this. They do not apologize for TONU fees. They do not negotiate them away to preserve relationships. They bill them like any other charge, because that is exactly what they are.

Ray Cargo scaled from 50 to 350+ trucks by eliminating revenue leaks. Every billable event gets billed. Every cost gets recovered. That discipline compounds over years into the difference between struggling and scaling.

Stop Subsidizing Someone Else's Mistakes

Every time you eat a TONU, you are paying for a broker's overbooking, a shipper's poor planning, or a warehouse's scheduling failure. Your operating margin funds their inefficiency.

That ends when you decide it ends.

Clear terms. Automatic tracking. Bulletproof documentation. Persistent follow-up. These are not aggressive tactics. They are professional standards.

Datatruck is the carrier-first TMS that tracks every dispatch, documents every arrival, and connects operations directly to billing. When loads fall through, the data to collect TONU is already captured.

Your truck showed up. The freight didn't. Make sure you still get paid.