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How to Support Freight Accessorials on BigCommerce and Shopify

This article explains how ShipperHQ handles freight accessorials like liftgate, inside delivery, and white glove service on BigCommerce and Shopify, and what limitations exist on those platforms.

Prerequisites:

  • Active ShipperHQ account with freight carriers enabled

  • BigCommerce or Shopify store connected to ShipperHQ

Current Behavior

BigCommerce and Shopify do not natively support accessorial freight options in checkout. This means:

  • Customers cannot manually select options like liftgate or inside delivery during checkout.

  • These surcharges are not shown separately or as toggles.

However, ShipperHQ can still apply accessorial charges automatically, based on how you've configured your carriers.

How It Works

  1. You'll need to duplicate your LTL carrier, navigate to your ShipperHQ dashboard, go to carriers > duplicate the carrier you'd like to show liftgate, inside delivery etc. 

  2. Rename the carrier - e.g. LTL w/ liftgate and the other will remain LTL.

  3. ShipperHQ includes these charges in the total shipping rate sent to BigCommerce or Shopify.

  4. These charges are not broken out or selectable - they’re embedded in the rate.

  5. You could also use tooltips as an alternative to duplicating the carrier. 

Important: The customer won’t know that these services are included unless you call them out in the shipping method name or elsewhere in your checkout messaging.

Why Duplicate Carriers Appear

If you're seeing multiple versions of the same carrier (e.g., multiple "Estes" or "R&L" entries), this is likely due to a workaround:

  • Merchants often duplicate carrier setups to simulate different rate combinations — e.g., one with liftgate, one without.

  • This allows some level of accessorial control, but it’s clunky and hard to manage.

What’s Coming

We’re actively tracking interest in a new feature that would allow:

  • Displaying multiple rates per carrier (e.g., with and without accessorials) without needing duplicates.

Note:

  • This feature is not yet available.

  • If you or your customers are interested, please add your request to our feature tracker by contacting the support or customer success team.

Troubleshooting / FAQ

Q: Can I show a checkbox for liftgate in checkout? A: Not currently. BigCommerce and Shopify don’t support manual, selectable freight accessorial inputs.

Q: How do I avoid showing duplicate carriers? A: Right now, there’s no platform-supported alternative.