Detention
Also: Detention time · Waiting time · Dock time
Detention is the charge a carrier bills for time a driver spends waiting at a shipper or receiver beyond the free time allowed, usually two hours, at a rate of roughly $50 to $100 per hour; it is the most common accessorial charge and the most disputed, because it depends on documented arrival and departure times.
Detention exists because a truck that is waiting is not earning. Drivers are limited to 11 hours of driving in a 14-hour window, and every hour on a dock is an hour of that window gone. Carriers price this into contracts as free time (two hours is standard) followed by an hourly rate.
When it is owed. The driver arrived on time or inside the appointment window, waited longer than the free time, and the wait was the facility’s doing. Most shipper contracts also require that the carrier or broker notify them while the truck is still waiting, not afterwards.
What it takes to collect. Times. The facility’s in and out times written or stamped on the BOL are the strongest evidence; ELD data, tracking pings and the driver’s own log are the fallback. Then the paperwork chain: the carrier bills the broker on its invoice, the broker bills the shipper under the shipper’s contract, and each party has a deadline.
Why it is disputed. Because most of the evidence is missing at the moment it is needed. The driver leaves without getting the BOL stamped, the dispatcher finds out about the wait after the fact, the claim goes to the shipper a week late without the times, and the shipper’s accessorial cutoff has passed. Brokers lose more money to undocumented detention than to any other accessorial, and it is rarely because the wait did not happen.
A detention packet that gets paid is short: the rate confirmation showing the appointment and the detention terms, the BOL with the times, the tracking record that agrees with them, and a one-line calculation. Producing that packet the same day is the difference between a paid claim and a written-off one.
Related terms
Guides that use this term
- AscendTMS to LogiPilot Analyst: the export, the upload, the question, the Monday email
- Detention claims that get paid: the packet, the timing, the arithmetic
- Freight audit and payment: what it is, what it checks, in-house or outsourced
- How to audit a carrier invoice against the rate confirmation
- Load tracking options for small brokers: ELD feeds, driver apps, tracking links and calls
- Every field on a rate confirmation, and the ones that start disputes
Updated September 11, 2026 · All terms