Detention
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Definition
Detention is pay owed to a carrier when a truck is held at a shipper or receiver beyond an agreed free period, commonly two hours, while waiting to load or unload.
It compensates for time the truck cannot earn elsewhere.
How it works
The rate confirmation sets the terms: when the free period ends, what the hourly rate is, and sometimes a cap. The clock normally starts at arrival, though whether that means arrival at the gate or check-in at the dock is worth establishing before you need to argue about it.
Rates vary widely. What does not vary is that the carrier has to prove the time.
Why most of it is never collected
Detention is rarely lost because a broker refuses. It is lost because nobody can prove it. The driver knows they sat for four hours. There is no record of when they arrived, when the dock released them, or what the load's terms actually said, and by the time anyone looks, the load is delivered and the moment has passed.
The claims that do get filed tend to be for the loads someone happened to be watching, which means the money recovered bears little relationship to the money owed.
What makes a claim stick
Three things: the terms recorded at booking rather than assumed, arrival and departure timestamps from a source that is not memory, and the claim filed while the event is recent.
ELD geofence data provides the second. The first has to be captured when the load is negotiated, which is the part most carriers skip. Which terms to agree up front.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
After the free period set in the rate confirmation, most commonly two hours from arrival.
It is set per load in the rate confirmation and varies by broker and lane. Establish it before booking rather than after waiting.
With arrival and departure timestamps, of which ELD geofence records are the strongest form, alongside the agreed terms for that load.
When it is properly documented and claimed promptly, often yes. Most unpaid detention is unclaimed rather than refused.
Hey Bubba! records detention terms at booking and tracks arrival and departure times from ELD geofence data.
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