Cancellation clause
A cancellation clause says when you may cancel and what part of the money the company keeps. Fees are not standard across the industry. Read the clause in your contract. Do not rely on a number you heard from someone else's shipment.
The cancellation clause is the section of the contract that covers you stopping the order. It should say the deadline, measured from booking, from dispatch, or from the pickup window, and what happens to a booking fee or a deposit. One company refunds the fee before a carrier is assigned and keeps it after. Another keeps a fee in both cases. There is no federal schedule of car-shipping cancellation fees.
What to read before you pay
Find three sentences. When is the cancellation free? Is the fee a flat amount or a share of the price? Does the refund go back to the card you used? Get the answers from the contract, not from a phone summary. If the clause is missing, ask for it in writing before you send money.
How it differs from a missed pickup
Cancelling is your choice, on the timetable in the clause. A missed pickup is the truck arriving and the car not being ready, which many contracts treat as a reason to keep a fee or to re-quote. Those are different paragraphs. RideShipper does not cancel carrier orders and does not hold your freight charges. The company on the contract does.