Glossary
Fuel surcharge
A fuel surcharge is an adjustable fee added to freight rates that rises and falls with fuel prices, protecting carriers from volatility without renegotiating every contract.
What is Fuel surcharge?
Because fuel is a large, fluctuating share of transport cost, carriers apply a surcharge tied to a published fuel price index. When fuel rises, the surcharge rises automatically; when it falls, so does the charge — keeping base rates stable.
A TMS pricing engine can manage fuel surcharges as a dynamic price index that auto-updates across all affected calculations, so a single index change flows through to every relevant quote and invoice.
Frequently asked questions
How is a fuel surcharge calculated?
Typically as a percentage of the base rate or a per-kilometre amount tied to a fuel price index. When the index crosses defined thresholds, the surcharge adjusts. A pricing engine can automate this across all calculations.
See Fuel surcharge in a real TMS
Transportial puts these concepts to work in one operational platform — planning, tracking, documents, and finance.