How to get detention paid

What detention is and why it matters

Detention is pay for waiting at a shipper or receiver past the free time in your agreement. On a brokered load, that agreement is your rate confirmation and your broker-carrier contract. The amount, the free time and the rules all come from those papers.

Waiting has a real cost. In its 2018 report on driver detention, the U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General estimated that:

• A 15-minute increase in average dwell time (total time a truck spends at a facility) raises the expected crash rate by 6.2%.
• Detention cuts the yearly earnings of for-hire truckload drivers by $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion.
• It cuts truckload carriers' net income by $250.6 million to $302.9 million a year.

The same report found that accurate industry-wide detention data doesn't exist yet, and FMCSA has asked the industry for better data since then.

Get the terms on the rate con first

Ask before you book, then check the rate confirmation for:

• Free time: how many hours before detention starts, and whether it's per stop.
• Hourly rate and the billing increment (full hours, half hours or 15 minutes).
• Any cap on detention per stop or per day.
• When the clock starts: at your appointment time or when you check in.
• On-time rule: whether arriving late cancels detention.
• Notice rule: how and when you must tell the broker.
• Proof required: usually in and out times on the BOL.
• Layover and TONU (truck ordered, not used) if the wait turns into a lost day or a canceled load.

If something you agreed to is missing, ask for a revised rate con before you roll. Our guide on reading a rate confirmation covers the rest of the page.

Document your arrival and departure

• Arrive on time for your appointment and check in at the gate or the shipping office right away. Keep any check-in slip or gate pass.
• ELD: change your duty status when you arrive and when you leave. The ELD records the date, time and location with every duty status change. Under FMCSA rules, waiting at a shipper's facility and time spent loading or unloading are on-duty time, so log them as on duty, not driving.
• BOL in and out times: ask shipping or receiving to write your in and out times on the bill of lading and sign or initial them. This is the proof most brokers ask for.
• Photos: a time-stamped photo of the check-in sheet or the signed BOL helps if the paper copy gets lost.
• Keep it: carriers must keep drivers' logs and supporting documents, such as bills of lading, for at least 6 months. Store your detention proof with them.

Tell the broker while it's happening

1. On arrival: send the load number, your appointment time and your check-in time.
2. Before free time ends: tell the broker you're still waiting and that detention is about to start. Ask them to call the facility.
3. When you leave: send your out time and a photo of the signed BOL.

Do it in writing, by email or the broker's app or portal, so there's a record. If you talk on the phone, follow up with a short email. Ask the broker to confirm detention in writing.

Invoice detention the right way

• Put detention on its own line, with the load number, in time, out time, free hours, billable hours and rate.
• Attach the rate con, the BOL with signed times, your ELD log or a screenshot, and the broker's written approval if you have it.
• Send it with the rest of the load paperwork. Many rate cons set a deadline for accessorial charges, so don't wait.
• If you factor, ask your factoring company how it handles detention that's added after a load is funded.

Work out the billable hours with the detention calculator and build the invoice with the invoice generator.

If the broker won't pay

• Resend the invoice with every document and point to the detention terms on the rate con.
• Under FMCSA rules, each party to a brokered load has the right to review the broker's record of that transaction.
• If a broker doesn't pay what it owes, you can file a claim against its bond or trust. See our guide on freight fraud for how broker bonds work.
• Federal law gives a carrier 18 months after a claim arises to file a lawsuit to collect charges for its service. Don't let it get that far: follow up within days, not months.

Our collections service can follow up for you.

Questions carriers ask