I’m Always in Detention With Reefer Freight
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You’re not unlucky. Grocery distribution centres and produce facilities detain reefer carriers more than any other segment, for structural reasons: appointment-heavy scheduling, inspection at receiving, and product that gets checked before it’s accepted. It’s predictable, which means it’s priceable.
Why reefer sits longer
Product gets inspected. Temperature checks, quality checks, count verification. Dry van freight rarely gets examined the same way.
Receiving windows are tight and overbooked. Grocery DCs run high volumes through limited doors.
Rejections happen at the dock. A partial rejection turns a two-hour unload into a half-day negotiation.
Many run first-come-first-served regardless of the appointment. More on FCFS.
Establish it before you accept
Four questions, at booking:
- Is the facility FCFS or appointment-enforced?
- When does detention start: gate arrival or check-in?
- What’s the hourly rate, and is there a cap?
- What’s the typical dwell at this facility?
Brokers usually know the answer to the fourth and rarely volunteer it. Asking changes both the rate conversation and whether you take the load at all.
The reefer-specific documentation problem
Standard detention evidence is arrival and departure timestamps. On reefer you want more, because rejections and temperature disputes get entangled with detention claims:
- Continuous temperature logs through the wait: proving the load stayed in spec while you sat
- Time of any inspection, and who performed it
- Any partial rejection, with reason given
- Fuel burned by the unit during the wait, if you’re claiming it
That last one is worth knowing about. Running the unit for six hours has a real fuel cost that standard detention rarely accounts for, and it’s negotiable at booking on facilities known for long waits.
Track the facilities
The same receivers detain everyone, consistently. Keeping a list turns detention from bad luck into a pricing input: a facility with a six-hour reputation gets quoted higher, or declined.
That’s the actual fix. Claiming detention recovers some of the cost; pricing it avoids the loss.
Where Hey Bubba! fits
Hey Bubba! is an AI back-office automation platform for fleets. Detention terms and facility policy are confirmed with the broker at booking, dwell is tracked from ELD geofence data, and the claim is filed with timestamps attached: on every load, including ones you booked yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Product inspection at receiving, tight and overbooked windows at grocery DCs, dock-level rejections, and widespread FCFS policies.
Not automatically; it’s a term to negotiate at booking, particularly on facilities known for long waits.
Arrival and departure timestamps, continuous temperature logs, inspection times, and any rejection with the reason given.
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