Trucking company owners and truck drivers deal with detention almost every day: the wait time at a shipper or receiver to get loaded or unloaded. A freight broker books a load with a trucking company, and the driver shows up at the shipper to load. When that wait goes past the agreed free time, often 2 hours, it becomes detention. Many trucking companies lose real money to detention time they never get paid for.
Who is affected by detention?
Trucker detention is a delay at pickup or delivery that runs longer than the agreed free time. In many cases, carriers allow two hours of free time at pickup and two hours for unloading.
Some brokers don't pay the trucking company for detention because they're reluctant to ask the shipper for more money and risk the account. The result is that the trucking company loses time and income to the delay. Drivers held at a dock for 12 hours without detention pay is not unusual.
What is the purpose of detention pay?
A detention or waiting time charge compensates the carrier for being held beyond the free time. Time spent waiting to load or unload also counts against the driver's hours of service, which can cost the next load. If a driver is held too long, he or she may not be able to reach the next pickup without first taking a 10-hour break. See how many hours a truck driver can drive for how the hours of service rules work.
The U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General has studied detention and found that it reduces the earnings of for-hire truckload drivers and the net income of truckload carriers (DOT OIG).
What is fair compensation for detention?
Many carriers set an hourly detention rate that starts after the free time ends. Many also report collecting only part of what they billed, or nothing. The real question is what fair compensation looks like and how a driver or carrier can make sure they receive it.
That second part is hard for small fleets and owner-operators, who rarely have the bargaining power of a large carrier. Social media is full of drivers who say they leave if detention isn't paid, and stories of companies that refuse to deliver. Those tactics carry their own risks. In the end, brokers need to work with shippers so carriers are paid fairly for their time. A trucking company can't sit idle for 12 hours for free.
How to secure detention pay
The first step is a written agreement. Your rate confirmation or hauling contract should spell out detention terms, including the free time and the hourly rate, so you have a clear basis to collect.
Trucking company owners should make sure drivers get timestamped in when they arrive at the shipper or receiver and timestamped out when they leave. Without that record, the detention claim is hard to support.
If you'd like help reviewing rate confirmations and following up on detention and other accessorials, see our dispatch services and back-office services.
