A truck is booked for tomorrow at 07:00. At 16:00 today your customer moves the order to next week. You cancel. What does the carrier get to charge?
Most operations answer this one job at a time, by phone, and the answer depends on who is angrier. This article gives you a way to work out a fair fee before the first cancellation, so the number is on paper when you need it.
Why a cancelled truck costs more than it looks
A truck that does not go is not a trip lost. It is a day lost.
The carrier held that truck and that driver for you. The fixed part of a truck's cost runs whether it moves or not, and the driver's day cannot be stretched, because Thai law caps it at ten hours and sets a ten-hour gap before the next one. What the carrier can do in the time left is the whole question:
- Enough notice: the carrier gives the truck to another customer. Its loss is close to zero.
- Too late to resell, truck still in the yard: the day is lost, but the fuel, tolls and any trip allowance are not spent. The loss is the price minus those savings.
- Truck already on its way to you: some of the fuel is spent as well. The loss is larger.
- Truck loaded, then stopped: a different rule applies. See below.
So a fair fee is not a flat penalty. It rises as the notice shrinks, and it is never the whole trip price unless the truck has already left empty.
A fee worked out from the carrier's loss
An illustration with made-up numbers, not market prices.
- Price of the trip: 4,200 baht
- Costs the carrier does not spend if the truck stays in the yard (fuel, tolls, driver trip allowance): 1,500 baht
- Loss if the day cannot be resold at all: 4,200 − 1,500 = 2,700 baht (64% of the price)
Now add a guess of how likely the carrier is to refill the day at each level of notice. The probabilities below are invented to show the method. Ask the carrier for its own.
| Notice given | Chance carrier refills the day | Expected loss | As a share of the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48 hours or more | 80% | 0.20 × 2,700 = 540 | 13% |
| 24 hours | 50% | 0.50 × 2,700 = 1,350 | 32% |
| 4 hours | 20% | 0.80 × 2,700 = 2,160 | 51% |
| Truck already left the yard, empty | 0% | 4,200 − 1,000 saved = 3,200 | 76% |
For the last row, the carrier has spent about 500 baht of fuel and tolls getting there, so only 1,000 of the 1,500 is saved. The row is not 100%, because a truck that has been turned back still did not run the loaded leg.
Two things follow:
- A flat 100% on every cancellation is not a fair fee. It charges 48 hours' notice like a no-show, and it gives you no reason to warn early.
- No fee at all is not fair either. The carrier prices its trips on the assumption that booked days are mostly used. Free cancellation is paid for somewhere, usually in a higher rate on everything.
Once the goods are loaded, the Code has a rule
Section 626 of the Civil and Commercial Code, read in Thai, covers a stop after the goods are in the carrier's hands. While the goods are still with the carrier, you (or the holder of the consignment note) may tell it to stop, bring the goods back or do something else with them. The carrier is then entitled to:
- freight in proportion to the distance already carried, and
- the other expenses it had because of the stop, the return or the new instruction.
On the illustration: the route is 120 km, and you stop the truck at 45 km. The distance share is 45 ÷ 120 = 37.5%, so 37.5% of 4,200 = 1,575 baht, plus costs such as a return leg or a wait while you decide. The section does not say what "other expenses" includes, so it is better to write a rate for the return leg into the booking than to argue about it on the road.
Before the goods are loaded, it is your booking terms
Section 626 begins with the words "so long as the goods are in the carrier's hands". It sets no fee for a booking cancelled before that. In that gap, what you owe is what you agreed. If you agreed nothing, the carrier has to show its loss, which is slow and sours the relationship. That is the whole case for a written table.
Where the evidence stops: no Thai study of how often bookings are cancelled or what carriers charge was found, and no published standard fee. The percentages above are an illustration of the method. The method is arithmetic you can check, but the probabilities are the carrier's to tell you.
What to write into the booking terms
Put these on one page, agreed before the first job.
| Item | What to settle |
|---|---|
| Free cancellation point | A time, such as 12:00 the day before. Say whether it counts calendar hours or working hours, and what happens when a holiday falls in between |
| Fee steps | Two or three steps that rise as notice shrinks, as a share of the trip price, matching the carrier's real loss |
| Truck already on its way | A separate line: the cost of the empty run, not the whole price |
| What counts as "arrived" | Gate time at your site, recorded by the guard or the journey recorder, so nobody argues about it later |
| Move instead of cancel | A move to another day within a set number of days with no fee, or a reduced one. This is cheap for you and keeps the truck busy for them |
| Stop after loading | A rate for the return leg and for waiting, so Section 626's "other expenses" has a number |
| The carrier's side | What the carrier pays you if it does not show, such as the cost of finding another truck. A one-way clause is the first thing a careful buyer notices |
| Weather and floods | Say who bears a cancellation caused by a road closure. See flood season routes |
The wider clause list is in what a road freight contract should say.
Cut the cancellations, not only the fee
A fee table prices the problem. It does not shrink it. Do this on Monday:
- Pull the last eight weeks of bookings.
- For every cancelled or moved one, note the hour you told the carrier and the reason: customer changed the order, stock not ready, weather, dock not ready, wrong truck type.
- Count by reason. Usually one or two reasons make most of them, and most sit on your side of the fence, not the carrier's.
- Fix the biggest. A customer who changes orders late may need a cut-off that is set earlier, or a charge of their own.
If you can name your own cancellation rate, you can also tell a carrier honestly what to expect, and ask for a better rate in return.