Shipment services are the extra carrier services that go beyond standard pickup and delivery. In the freight industry, these are often called accessorials. In Descartes Pacejet, they help define the real handling needs of a shipment so the quote, shipping documents and downstream charges better match what the carrier will actually do.
In earlier versions of Pacejet, you may have seen this concept labeled Special Service. Pacejet now uses Shipment Service, which better matches current carrier and ERP terminology.
Overview
A shipment service applies when a shipment needs something beyond a standard commercial dock-to-dock move during normal business hours. Common examples include residential delivery, liftgate service, inside delivery, appointment scheduling, hazardous materials handling, freeze protection and signature requirements. Each of these creates added labor, time, equipment needs or risk for the carrier, so it is usually priced separately from the base transportation charge.
For Pacejet users, shipment services matter because they affect rating accuracy, carrier selection, shipping documents and invoice reconciliation. If the right services are selected before you rate and ship, the quote is more likely to reflect the actual carrier charges.
View available Shipment Services in your Pacejet setup under Setup --> Shipment Services. Click on the link icons for any shipment service to view carrier support.
Why Shipment Services Matter
Carriers build their base rates around a standard shipment profile: business-to-business delivery, normal dock access, routine handling and no special time or liability requirements. Once a shipment falls outside that profile, the carrier may apply one or more shipment services. That is why shipment services are one of the most common reasons a final freight invoice is higher than the original quote.
They also matter for customer communication. If your team plans to recover those costs on a customer invoice, the shipment services need to be identified early and passed through accurately. Pacejet helps by carrying those selections from rating through shipment processing and into ERP-connected workflows.
How Many Shipment Services There Are
There is no single master list that applies to every carrier. Each carrier publishes its own service catalog and pricing rules, and those catalogs vary by mode and integration. Across the Pacejet carrier network, the total number of supported shipment services runs into the thousands when counted carrier by carrier. In practice, though, most shippers use a much smaller working set.
Carrier Type |
Typical Number of Common Services |
Examples |
|---|---|---|
Parcel |
About 30 to 50 per carrier |
Signature options, declared value, residential surcharge, Saturday delivery, additional handling, oversize |
LTL |
About 40 to 80 or more per carrier |
Liftgate, residential pickup or delivery, inside pickup or delivery, limited access, appointment, freeze protection, hazmat |
3PL |
Often hundreds across a full network |
Broker-normalized services that represent multiple underlying carrier options |
Most Pacejet customers actively use around 3 to 5 shipment services on a regular basis. The exact list depends on what you ship, where you ship it and which carriers or 3PLs you work with.
How Shipment Services Work in Pacejet
Shipment services move through the shipping process in three stages. Understanding those stages makes it easier to see why selecting the right services up front matters.
Quoting. When Pacejet sends a rate request to a carrier, the selected shipment services are included in that request. The carrier may return the charges as part of the total or as separate rated line items, depending on the integration.
Execution. Once the shipment is processed, the selected services are reflected in the shipping output. For parcel shipments, that usually means service codes or indicators on the label. For less than truckload, or LTL shipments, it usually appears on the bill of lading or related shipment documents.
Invoicing. After the shipment moves, the carrier bills the actual charges. If a required shipment service was not included at quote time, the carrier may still add it later based on what was required in the field, such as a residential stop, a reweigh or a limited-access location.
This is one of the main reasons invoice differences happen. If the quote did not include the right shipment services, the invoice may be higher than expected.
How Pacejet Uses Shipment Services
Pacejet maps shipment services for each carrier integration so users can work with a more consistent internal set of service options. That matters because carriers often use very different labels for similar services. One carrier may call a service Inside Delivery, another may return a short code, and a third may combine pickup and delivery language differently. Pacejet normalizes those differences, so you do not need to memorize each carrier's terminology.
In the User Interface, users can review and apply shipment services in the Shipment Services section of a shipment. From there, Pacejet supports four common use cases.
Manual selection on individual shipments. Users can apply shipment services during quote or ship processing when the shipment needs special handling.
Automatic selection through rules. In the Rules Library, the Set Shipment Service rule can apply services automatically based on shipment data such as warehouse, customer type, item class or destination characteristics.
Rate shopping with consistent assumptions. When shipment services are included during rating, carrier comparisons are more meaningful because each quote reflects the same service requirements.
ERP charge recovery. Shipment service data can flow into connected ERP processes so shipping charges billed to the customer better reflect what was actually used.
If a shipment service is needed but not selected before rating, the carrier may still perform the service and bill for it later. That creates avoidable invoice variance and can make charge recovery harder.
Standard Install and Activation
A standard Pacejet installation does not automatically activate every shipment service that may be supported by a carrier integration. This helps simplify initial setup and keeps the visible service list focused on the options most customers are likely to use first.
Some carriers and 3PLs support very large service catalogs, and not every supported option is needed in every environment. If your team needs a shipment service that is not currently available in your Pacejet configuration, some services can be activated on request through Descartes Customer Support. Support can review the carrier integration and confirm whether the service is available for your account and setup.
If you are unsure whether a service should be activated, start by reviewing the carrier's own tariff or service documentation and comparing it with your shipping workflow. That helps confirm whether the service is operationally required, billable or both.
Pacejet users can make a request through support to add a Shipment Service to carrier setup if it is not configured by the standard installation. The Pacejet support team has access to a carrier-specific setup menu to add a shipment service to your carrier configuration, if it's supported by the carrier.
Best Practices for End Users
The goal is to identify shipment services before you ship, not after the invoice arrives. When your team builds the right logic into shipment entry and automation rules, Pacejet can help reduce rating surprises and improve margin recovery.
Review the shipment details for conditions that commonly trigger added charges, such as residential destinations, liftgate needs, appointments and hazardous materials.
Use automation rules wherever possible for repeatable cases rather than relying only on manual selection.
Make sure rate-shop comparisons include the same shipment services across carriers.
Confirm that customer-facing charges and ERP workflows reflect the shipment services your team actually uses.
Periodically review invoice variances to find services that should be added to rules or activated in your environment.
Summary
Shipment services are the carrier add-ons that define what makes a shipment more complex than a standard move. Pacejet helps by presenting those services in a consistent way, passing them to supported carrier integrations during rating and shipping, and helping that data flow into invoicing and audit processes. Most users only need a small subset of the full supported service universe but knowing how these services work is important for accurate quoting, cleaner billing and fewer surprises.