Freight Bill Credit Terms Under 49 CFR 377: The 15-Day Rule

Freight bill credit terms under 49 CFR 377 run on three numbers. The standard credit period is 15 days, beginning the day after the carrier presents the freight bill. A carrier may extend that to no more than 30 calendar days by publishing the longer term in its tariff. And a carrier may assess late-payment or collection charges only if it issues a revised freight bill within 90 days after the authorized credit period expires. Those come from 49 CFR 377.203.

A fourth number sits in front of them. Under 49 CFR 377.205, the carrier must present its freight bill within 7 days of receiving the shipment on a prepaid move, or within 7 days from delivery on a collect move, and the bill itself must state the credit time limit, the late-payment penalty, any service or collection charge, and the discount terms.

Practitioners almost never see these cited, which is why a late-fee demand usually goes unchallenged. It should not. The 90-day revised-bill requirement in particular is a real condition on the carrier’s right to charge you for being late, and most late-fee claims that land months after the fact do not satisfy it.

Where the rule applies, and where it does not

Say this part clearly before using any of it, because the fastest way to lose a billing argument is to cite a rule that does not reach your shipment.

49 CFR Part 377 has two subparts. Subpart A covers C.O.D. shipments, sections 377.101 through 377.105. Subpart B, sections 377.201 through 377.217, is the extension of credit to shippers, and that is where the credit terms live. The part applies to for-hire non-exempt motor carriers and to household goods freight forwarders.

So:

• If your carrier is a for-hire non-exempt motor carrier extending you credit, Subpart B describes the default framework.
• If you are working under a negotiated transportation agreement, your contract’s payment terms are the operative document, and the billing and payment terms clause is the one to read. Net 30 in a signed contract is not overridden by a 15-day default. Argue the contract first.
• If your freight moves under an exemption, or you are a shipper paying a broker rather than a carrier, do not lead with Part 377. A broker invoice is not a motor carrier freight bill.

The honest framing is that Part 377 is a floor and a fallback, not a ceiling on what you and your carrier can agree. It is most useful in three places: where no written payment terms exist, where a carrier’s invoice states no credit terms at all, and where a late fee shows up that the carrier never properly billed.

The timeline, in order

Two mechanics worth noting. The clock starts at presentation of the bill, not at delivery and not at the invoice date printed on the document. On a bill that arrives by email three weeks after delivery, the credit period did not quietly run out while the invoice sat in a carrier’s outbox. And under 49 CFR 377.211, calendar-day time periods under Part 377 are computed per 49 CFR 386.8, so the counting method is defined rather than left to whoever is arguing.

The 90-day revised bill window, and why it matters most

This is the provision worth knowing by heart, because it is the one that most often defeats a fee.

A carrier may assess late-payment or collection charges only if it issues a revised freight bill within 90 days after the authorized credit period expires. Not a dunning email. Not a statement line reading “past due.” A revised freight bill, issued inside that window.

Work the arithmetic on a typical example. Say a collect shipment delivers on March 2 and the carrier presents its bill on March 5. The credit period begins March 6 and, on standard terms, expires 15 days later. The 90-day window for a revised bill assessing late charges runs from that expiry. If the first document assessing a late-payment charge shows up in September, it is well outside the window, and the correct response is not to negotiate the amount. It is to ask when the revised freight bill was issued.

Two practical cautions so you do not overplay it.

Check the tariff term first. If the carrier published a 30-day credit period, the credit period expiry moves and so does the 90-day window. Ask for the tariff item and effective version rather than assuming 15 days.

A blown window does not erase the freight charges. It goes to the late-payment and collection charges, not to the underlying linehaul, fuel and accessorials. Those remain owed, and the carrier retains its 18-month period under 49 U.S.C. 14705 to sue for them. Argue the fee, pay the freight.

The bill has to tell you the terms

377.205 does something quietly useful: it makes the credit terms part of the bill’s required content, alongside the shipment and charge elements set by 373.103. The bill must state the credit time limit, the late-payment penalty, the service or collection charge, and the discount terms.

A carrier that assesses an 18 percent annualized late-payment penalty on a bill that stated no penalty terms has a problem before anyone reaches the merits. Same for a “collection charge” that appears for the first time on a third notice. The question to ask is simple and non-adversarial: which document stated this charge, and when did we receive it?

This pairs directly with the content requirements covered in what must be on a freight bill under 49 CFR 373.103. Between the two sections you get a complete picture of what a compliant motor carrier freight bill on a credit shipment contains: the shipment identifiers, the itemized charges with the nature of each, the routing and remittance details, and the four credit terms.

What happens when you have already paid

Credit terms govern the window before payment. Once money has left, you are in a different regime with different clocks, and mixing them up wastes weeks.

Under 49 CFR 378.8, the processing carrier must pay, decline to pay, or settle each written overcharge claim within 60 days of receipt, absent a written agreement to extend for extenuating circumstances. Under 49 CFR 378.5, the carrier must promptly begin investigating and open a file on receipt of any claim, written or otherwise, but only a written claim starts the 60-day clock. Put the claim in writing. A phone call gets an investigation; an email gets a deadline.

Two more from the same part are worth having in mind when the error runs in your favor rather than theirs. 49 CFR 378.2 defines the terms, including a duplicate payment as two or more payments for transporting the same shipment. And 49 CFR 378.9 requires that where the carrier itself discovers an overpayment, duplicate payment or overcollection, it must refund within 30 days. That is a useful thing to be able to quote when a carrier acknowledges a duplicate and then goes quiet. The detection side of that problem is covered in how to catch duplicate freight invoices.

Documentation matters on an overcharge claim, but not as a gate. 49 CFR 378.4 says the claim must be accompanied by the freight bill, the rate, classification, weight or tariff authority relied on, and payment information, and also that inadequate documentation alone cannot disqualify a claim. Send what you have, and do not let a request for one more document stall the clock.

Using the credit period as an AP design constraint

For most operations the regulation is worth more as an explanation than as litigation leverage: it tells you why freight AP is structurally harder than other payables.

A 15-day default credit period, or even a negotiated net 30, is short. Fifteen days is not enough time for an invoice to arrive, get coded, get matched to a rate confirmation and a POD, get an exception raised, get a carrier response, and get approved. That gap is the entire reason freight bills get approved unaudited: the alternative is a late fee and a phone call from a carrier’s collections desk.

Three ways operations close the gap, in increasing order of effort:

1. Pay the undisputed balance and hold the contested line. This is the single highest-value habit in freight AP. It keeps you inside the credit period on everything you agree with, removes the carrier’s past-due leverage, and narrows the argument to one number. It works only if your AP system allows partial payment against an invoice, which is worth checking before you need it.
2. Audit before approval, not after. Recovering money is slower and less certain than not sending it. Front-loading the reconciliation is the difference between a corrected invoice and a claim, and the rate confirmation versus carrier invoice comparison is where most of the findings are.
3. Negotiate the payment term alongside the accessorial terms. Credit period, dispute contact, and response window belong in the same conversation as caps and free time, as laid out in negotiating accessorial charges in a carrier contract. A carrier that will not move on rate will often agree to a longer credit period, which costs it working capital but not margin.

Responding to a late-payment charge

Before you pay a late fee, ask five questions in order.

1. What are our contractual payment terms? If a signed agreement sets net 30, the contract governs and the default is beside the point.
2. When was the freight bill presented to us? Not the invoice date. The date it reached the address or inbox designated to receive it.
3. What credit period applies, and is a longer one published? Standard is 15 days; a tariff can extend it to no more than 30 calendar days. Ask for the item and effective version.
4. Did the bill state the credit terms? Credit time limit, late-payment penalty, service or collection charge, discount terms. If it stated none of them, say so.
5. Was a revised freight bill issued within 90 days after the credit period expired? Ask for the document and its date.

If the answer to five is no, the late-payment charge does not meet the condition in 377.203. If the answer to four is no, the bill did not carry the terms it was required to carry. Either way you are asking about documents, not motives, and that is the tone that gets these resolved.

Subject: Invoice 48213 - late-payment charge, request for supporting documents

Hello,

Statement dated 09/14/2026 assesses a $214.00 late-payment charge against
invoice 48213 (PRO 1234567, delivered 03/02/2026).

Before we process it, please send three things:

1. The date invoice 48213 was presented to us, and the method.
2. The tariff item and effective version establishing the credit period
   you applied, if it is longer than the standard 15 days.
3. A copy of the revised freight bill assessing the late-payment charge,
   with its issue date.

Our records show the original invoice stated no credit time limit,
late-payment penalty, or collection charge terms, and we have received no
revised freight bill for this shipment. Under 49 CFR 377.203 a carrier may
assess late-payment or collection charges only where it issues a revised
freight bill within 90 days after the authorized credit period expires,
and under 49 CFR 377.205 the freight bill must state those terms.

The underlying freight charges on invoice 48213 were paid in full on
04/09/2026 and are not in dispute. This concerns the $214.00 charge only.

Thank you,
[Name]
[Company] | [Phone] | [Email]

The short version

• Credit period: 15 days, starting the day after the bill is presented, extendable to 30 calendar days only by published tariff.
• Bill presentation: within 7 days of receipt of the shipment (prepaid) or of delivery (collect).
• The bill must state the credit time limit, late-payment penalty, service or collection charge, and discount terms.
• Late-payment and collection charges require a revised freight bill issued within 90 days after the credit period expires.
• Your contract, where you have one, governs over the default. Cite the regulation as support, not as a trump card.
• Once you have paid, you are on the overcharge-claim clock: written claim, 60 days for the carrier to pay, decline or settle.
• Every one of these timers, plus the claim and suit deadlines, sits in the freight billing deadlines reference.

Keep the whole thing in perspective. The point of knowing these numbers is that a billing department with a defensible clock in hand approves faster, disputes narrower, and stops paying charges that were never properly billed in the first place.

Sources

• 49 CFR 377.203, payment of freight charges and credit periods (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 377.205, presentation of freight bills and required credit terms (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR Part 377, structure and scope (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 377.211, computation of time periods (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 378.2, definitions of overcharge, duplicate payment and overcollection (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 378.4, documentation accompanying an overcharge claim (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 378.5, investigation of claims (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 378.8, 60-day resolution of written overcharge claims (Cornell LII)
• 49 CFR 378.9, refunds of overpayments and duplicate payments (Cornell LII)
• 49 U.S.C. 13710, billing and contesting windows (Cornell LII)
• 49 U.S.C. 14705, limitation periods for collecting charges and overcharges (Cornell LII)