Limited Access Delivery

Limited access delivery is a carrier-imposed surcharge triggered when the destination falls outside the definition of a standard commercial address with a loading dock during normal business hours. Carriers maintain lists of location types they consider "limited access," and the classification varies by carrier – what one carrier calls limited access, another may not. Common triggers include construction sites, military installations, mine sites, prisons, schools, churches, country clubs, farms, fairs, and self-storage facilities.

Charges for limited access typically range from $75 to $250 and reflect the additional time, maneuvering, and coordination the driver needs at these locations. The fee often stacks with other accessorials – a delivery to a church might trigger both limited access and liftgate, while a construction site might add limited access on top of a notify-before-delivery requirement. Since carrier definitions of limited access differ, the same delivery address might incur the charge with one carrier but not another.

The unpredictability of limited access fees is the core frustration for shippers. An address that looks commercial on paper – a business operating from a rural property, a food manufacturer in an industrial park with restricted gate access – can be flagged as limited access by the carrier's system after pickup. At that point, the shipper has little recourse beyond disputing the charge. Building a destination database that tags known limited-access locations and factoring those charges into quoting helps avoid the surprise, but it requires ongoing maintenance as delivery destinations change.

Shippers with diverse delivery networks – especially those in food service, institutional sales, or B2B distribution to non-traditional locations – should audit limited access charges quarterly to identify patterns and negotiate carrier-specific exceptions where the classification doesn't match reality.