How Detention Pay Actually Works (And Why Most Owner-Operators Never Collect It)
Detention is one of the few things in trucking that is genuinely owed to you in writing, and one of the most reliably uncollected. Not because brokers refuse to pay it — many pay without much argument — but because the claim never gets filed.
This article covers how detention accrues, what documentation actually survives a dispute, and where most claims fall apart.
What detention is
Detention is compensation for time your truck is held at a shipper or receiver beyond an agreed free period. The truck is on site, the driver is on duty, hours of service are burning, and no miles are being covered. Detention exists to make that time cost the facility something.
The critical point: detention terms live on the rate confirmation, not in general industry practice. Free time, hourly rate, and any cap are whatever that specific document says. Two loads from the same broker can carry different terms.
Before you accept a load, know three numbers: how much free time you get, what the hourly detention rate is after that, and whether there is a maximum. If the rate confirmation is silent on detention, you have no contractual claim — and that is worth knowing before the wheels turn, not after.
How free time works
Free time is the window during which loading or unloading is expected to happen at no additional cost. It typically starts at your scheduled appointment time — not when you arrive.
That distinction matters more than most drivers realise. If your appointment is at 08:00 and you arrive at 06:00, free time generally does not begin until 08:00. Arriving early does not start the clock. Conversely, if you arrive at 09:00 for an 08:00 appointment, you have likely forfeited the claim entirely, because the delay started with you.
Being on time is not just professional courtesy. It is the precondition for any detention claim you might make later.
The documentation that actually holds up
Detention disputes are won or lost on evidence. A claim that rests on "we were there about four hours" will not survive a broker who pushes back. What you need is a record that is specific, contemporaneous, and hard to argue with.
- Arrival time, recorded at arrival. Not remembered later. A timestamped photo of the gate, the dock, or the facility sign works. Many ELDs log arrival automatically — know how to pull that report.
- Check-in confirmation. If the facility logs you in, note the time and, where possible, who checked you in.
- Departure time, recorded the same way.
- Signed paperwork showing in and out times. Many bills of lading have fields for this. Ask the clerk to complete them. Some will refuse — note that refusal, with the time.
- The rate confirmation itself, showing the detention terms you are claiming under.
Photographs with embedded timestamps are useful because they are difficult to dispute after the fact. A note written from memory three days later is not.
Notify while you are still sitting there
This is where most claims are lost.
A broker who first hears about detention on an invoice two weeks later is in a strong position to question it. A broker who received a message at the two-hour mark saying the truck is still waiting has already acknowledged the situation, and often has time to intervene with the facility.
Send the notification in writing — email or text, something with a timestamp — while the delay is happening. Phone calls are fine as a supplement, but they leave no record.
A short message is enough: truck number, load number, facility, appointment time, arrival time, current time, still waiting. Send it when free time expires, and again if the delay continues.
Filing the claim
Detention is normally invoiced alongside the load, with supporting documentation attached. Submit it with everything: the rate confirmation showing terms, the timestamped evidence, the signed paperwork, and the written notification you sent during the delay.
Expect to follow up. A first submission that gets no response is not a refusal — it is frequently just an unprocessed email. Most detention that eventually gets paid is paid after at least one follow-up.
Why so much of it goes uncollected
Nothing about the process above is difficult. It is simply tedious, and it happens at the worst possible moment — the driver has just lost half a day, is behind schedule, is tired, and wants to get moving. Documentation is the last thing on anyone's mind.
Then the load delivers, the next one is booked, and the claim quietly never gets filed.
Multiply that across a year of running and the number becomes significant. It is not one large loss anyone notices. It is a steady leak of amounts small enough to shrug at individually.
The same pattern applies to layover pay when a load holds you overnight, and to TONU — truck ordered not used — when you arrive for a load that has been cancelled. Both are contractually owed. Both go uncollected for exactly the same reason.
What to do about it
If you dispatch yourself, build the habit: check detention terms before accepting, timestamp arrival and departure every time, notify in writing when free time expires, and invoice with documentation attached. It takes a few minutes per load.
If someone dispatches for you, ask them directly whether they file accessorial claims, and whether they take a percentage of what they recover. Some do neither. Some file them and keep a cut. Both are worth knowing before you sign.
Note: Detention rates, free time and cap structures vary considerably by broker, region and equipment type. This article describes how the process generally works. Your specific entitlement on any given load is whatever your rate confirmation says.
We file these claims for our carriers
Detention, layover and TONU — documented, filed, and followed up. We take none of the recovery. Every dollar is yours.