Detention Pay in Trucking — How to Track and Bill It Correctly

Detention is the difference between a driver doing their job and a driver sitting still. When a shipper or receiver holds your truck past the agreed appointment window, the truck stops earning revenue, the driver stops accumulating drive time, and the next load starts slipping. Detention pay exists to make all of that whole — but only if you actually document it, bill it, and recover it. The carriers that don't track detention give away thousands of dollars a year to facilities that have learned which fleets won't push back.

What is detention pay

Detention pay is a per-hour charge billed to the broker (or direct customer) for time the truck spends at a facility beyond a contracted free-time window. It compensates the carrier for the truck's time, the driver's time, and the cascading impact on the next dispatch. Detention is separate from layover, which covers a multi-day delay; separate from TONU (truck ordered, not used), which covers a load that cancels after dispatch; and separate from accessorials like lumper fees, which pay third parties for service.

Detention is normally invoiced as a line item on the rate confirmation invoice — the broker pays it through the same channel as the linehaul. The amount is per hour, billed in 30-minute or 1-hour increments, and capped at a daily maximum. Typical rates run $50-$100 per hour at the time of writing, with $75 being the most common median for dry van.

Industry standard free time — the two-hour rule

Industry convention is two hours of free time per stop, measured from the scheduled appointment time. The shipper or receiver gets two hours to load or unload at no charge — anything past that is detention. Some brokers negotiate three hours of free time on hard-to-load freight (refrigerated, oversize, hazmat); a few specialty lanes operate on a one-hour window. Whatever the contracted free time is, get it on the rate confirmation in writing before the load dispatches.

Detention starts when free time expires. If your appointment is at 09:00 and free time is two hours, the clock starts at 11:00 and you bill from 11:00 forward — not from when the driver actually backed into the dock. Drivers who arrive an hour early do not get an extra hour of free time; the contract is tied to the appointment, not to dwell.

How to document detention properly

Detention claims that lack documentation get denied, and brokers know this. The minimum a dispatcher needs to bill detention cleanly:

• Driver-confirmed arrival time at the gate or yard (not the dock)
• Driver-confirmed departure time from the gate or yard
• Bill of lading or signed delivery receipt with the in/out times printed by the facility
• Geofence breadcrumbs from the ELD or load-tracking app proving dwell at the facility
• Photographs of the dock, gate sign-in sheet, or driver's hand-written log if the facility refuses to print times
• Any text messages or app updates from the driver flagging the delay

Brokers will ask for at least two of those — usually the BOL with stamped times plus a tracking record. If the receiver refuses to print arrival/departure on the BOL (which happens), the geofence record from the ELD becomes the primary evidence. This is why every load should have a tracking session active from dispatch through delivery — not because the broker demanded it, but because it's the only objective record that survives a dispute.

How to bill brokers for detention

Submit detention as a separate line item on the invoice, with the documentation attached. Include the appointment time, the calculated free-time end time, the actual departure time, the hours billed (rounded per the rate confirmation rules), and the per-hour rate. Many brokers require a separate detention form — fill it out, attach the BOL, and email it to the address on the rate confirmation, not to the dispatcher who booked the load. Detention disputes go to a dedicated A/R team.

Don't wait. Most brokers have a 24-48 hour window for detention claims; a few will accept up to 7 days, but that's already pushing it. Submit while the load is still in the broker's system — the longer you wait, the more documentation you'll need to find.

Driver detention share — paying the driver their cut

The driver was the one sitting in the truck for four hours; some of the recovery should go to them. Industry convention is to share 30-50% of the recovered detention with the driver, depending on driver type and pay structure. Owner-operators on percentage typically take a higher share (50%) because their truck cost is unaffected by sitting; company drivers on per-mile pay take a smaller share (typically 30-40%) because the carrier is also covering trailer rent, fuel cost while idling, and lost dispatch capacity.

Whatever percentage you pick, write it into the driver's pay agreement so there's no surprise. The detention line on the settlement should show the gross detention recovered, the driver's share percentage, and the dollar amount paid out — three numbers, no rounding tricks. Drivers who can't audit their detention math leave for fleets that show their work.

How CloudTMS automates detention

CloudTMS computes detention from the load's appointment times and the actual arrived/departed timestamps captured by the driver app. Free-time rules are configured per company; the system flags loads that crossed into detention, surfaces them on the dispatch board, and rolls the calculated charge into the broker invoice with one click. The driver's share auto-applies to their next settlement using the percentage on the driver record. The same data feeds the per-load profitability report so you can see which lanes and which receivers are eating your free time.