Detention in trucking is the time a truck waits at a shipper or receiver beyond the free time written into the contract. That free time is often two hours. After it runs out, the rate confirmation or shipper agreement may set an hourly detention charge. Who pays depends on those contract terms.
How detention is defined
Detention is waiting time. A driver arrives for a pickup or delivery, and the dock is not ready. The truck sits. Once the wait passes the free time in the contract, the extra time is detention.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General notes that most of the industry measures only the time a truck spends at a facility beyond the limit set in shipping contracts, often two hours. FMCSA has described the same threshold: dwell time (the total time a truck spends at a facility) above two hours is what the industry, government, and academic research have typically used to define detention.
Two terms matter here. Free time (sometimes called free hours) is the window with no charge. Detention is what starts after it ends. Neither is set by law. Both come from your contracts.
Free time and how detention pay is structured
There is no single national rate. The pieces below show up in most rate confirmations and shipper agreements. Check yours, because any of them can differ by customer, lane, or load type.
When FMCSA asked for public input on detention in 2023, some commenters asked for two free hours followed by a charge of $100 per hour. That was a proposal from commenters, not a rule. Your real terms are whatever you and the other party signed.
- Free time: the number of hours before the clock starts, often two.
- Hourly rate: the amount charged for each hour after free time.
- Increments: whether time is billed by the hour, half hour, or minute.
- Cap: a maximum per stop or per day, if the contract has one.
- Notice and proof rules: when and how a claim must be submitted.
What detention costs the industry
The Office of Inspector General estimated that detention is associated with a reduction in annual earnings of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion for for-hire truckload drivers. It also estimated that a 15-minute increase in average dwell time raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent, using 2013 data.
The same report says accurate industrywide data on detention do not exist. One reason is that drivers and carriers often do not record the time spent waiting before the contract threshold is reached. If the clock was never recorded, the claim is hard to prove later.
How to document detention
Detention disputes are rarely about whether the truck waited. They are about proof. The side that kept clean records usually has the easier conversation. Capture these five items on every stop where a wait is possible.
- Record the appointment time and the actual arrival time. Use a gate stamp, a check-in message, or an electronic log timestamp.
- Tell the broker as soon as free time is about to run out, not after the truck leaves. Put it in writing, by text or email.
- Record the time the truck was loaded or unloaded and the time it left.
- Get the in and out times on the bill of lading or proof of delivery, with a signature where the facility will give one.
- Send the claim with the supporting records inside the window your rate confirmation sets.
How brokers handle detention
A broker sits between two contracts. The shipper agreement says what the customer owes the broker. The rate confirmation says what the broker owes the carrier. Those two sets of terms do not always match.
A common workflow looks like this. The carrier reports a delay and sends its times. The broker confirms the times with the facility. The broker bills the shipper or receiver under the customer contract, then settles with the carrier under the rate confirmation. If the customer disputes the time, the broker needs the records to back the claim.
This guide takes no side on who should pay. Contracts decide. If the paperwork is silent on detention, expect an argument, so settle the terms before the load moves.
How to reduce detention disputes
Most disputes come from missing terms or missing proof. You can fix both before the truck arrives.
- Put free time, hourly rate, cap, and claim deadline in every rate confirmation.
- Match those terms to the shipper agreement so you are not paying one side and unable to bill the other.
- Ask for appointment times in writing and confirm them again the day before.
- Get arrival and departure times while the driver is still at the dock, not days later.
- Ask carriers for notice early. A warning at hour one is easier to act on than a claim a week later.
Where software can help
Detention paperwork is mostly email and text. Clyde Track checks on drivers by text and voice on a schedule, logs location and ETA, and sends exceptions to a person, which helps capture timestamps while the truck is still waiting. Clyde Collect requests and chases PODs and BOLs and builds rate confirmations from the email thread, so the signed times and the agreed terms stay together.
A person still decides what to claim and what to pay. Book a demo at the link below to see how it works on your own freight email.