Pillar 1 — Detention Recovery

The Complete Guide to Detention Pay in Trucking (2026)

Dwell Editorial · Updated 2026-04-24
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The Complete Guide to Detention Pay in Trucking (2026)

Detention pay is compensation owed to a carrier when a truck is held at a shipper or consignee beyond the free time allowance in the rate confirmation. It’s one of the largest sources of uncollected revenue in trucking — the ATRI 2024 Detention Study estimated carriers lose approximately $15 billion annually to uncollected detention — and it’s a problem almost entirely caused by documentation failure, not legal ambiguity.

This guide covers everything: how detention pay works, how to calculate what you’re owed, how to collect it, what evidence survives a dispute, and what to do when a broker refuses to pay.

Table of Contents

  1. What Is Detention Pay?
  2. How Detention Pay Is Calculated
  3. The Detention Problem: Why Carriers Don’t Collect
  4. How to Document Detention the Right Way
  5. How to Submit and Collect a Detention Invoice
  6. What to Do When a Broker Refuses to Pay
  7. Detention by Load Type
  8. Automating Detention Recovery

1. What Is Detention Pay? {#what-is-detention-pay}

Detention pay compensates carriers for time lost when a shipper or consignee fails to load or unload a truck within the contractually agreed free time — typically two hours.

The logic is straightforward: a driver’s time and a truck’s capacity are the product a carrier sells. When a shipper holds a truck for four hours on a two-hour free time allowance, the carrier has lost two hours of revenue-producing time through no fault of their own. Detention pay is the contractual remedy for that lost time.

The money flows through the broker: the carrier invoices the broker, who is the carrier’s contractual counterparty on brokered loads. The broker typically passes the charge back to the shipper.

Key terms:

2. How Detention Pay Is Calculated {#how-detention-pay-is-calculated}

Formula: (Total Time at Facility − Free Time Allowance) × Hourly Rate = Detention Owed

Example

DetailValue
Scheduled appointment8:00 AM
GPS arrival8:05 AM
Free time allowance2 hours
Free time ends10:05 AM
GPS departure1:20 PM
Total billable time3 hours 15 min
Rate per hour$75
Detention owed$243.75

Critical nuances in the calculation:

When does the free time clock start? Read your rate confirmation carefully. Some specify free time begins at arrival; others specify it begins at door assignment. A truck sitting in a staging lot for 90 minutes before receiving a door might have very different detention depending on which clock-start applies.

What if the truck arrived early? In most rate confirmations, free time begins at the scheduled appointment, not at actual arrival. An early arrival doesn’t extend free time. Some RCs specify the earlier of arrival or appointment.

Are partial hours billable? This depends on your rate confirmation language. If the RC specifies hourly rates without fractional billing language, bill by the hour. If there’s no restriction, bill by the minute.

3. The Detention Problem: Why Carriers Don’t Collect {#the-detention-problem}

The data from ATRI’s 2024 Detention Study tells the story:

The gap — 94.5% of carriers billing, fewer than 50% collecting — represents approximately $15 billion in legitimate claims that go uncollected annually.

This isn’t a legal problem. Courts and arbitrators consistently recognize carriers’ rights to detention pay under signed rate confirmations. It’s a documentation and operations problem.

Root cause 1: Weak documentation The typical detention invoice arrives with a timestamp the driver wrote on the BOL and maybe a note from dispatch. Brokers know this is easy to challenge. “Your truck arrived at 1:45, not 11:45” is all it takes. Without GPS-verified evidence, the carrier has nothing to counter.

Root cause 2: Missed claim windows Most rate confirmations require detention claims within 24–72 hours of delivery. Billing teams that are managing dozens of loads at once miss these windows regularly. Once a window closes, the claim is contractually barred regardless of merit.

Root cause 3: No follow-up process Carriers submit invoices and wait. Brokers have large payables queues. Unpursued invoices age out, get deprioritized, or simply never get processed. Without a structured follow-up cadence, good invoices die.

Root cause 4: Fear of broker relationship damage Some carriers hold back on detention claims with regular brokers, worried about losing access to loads. This is usually misplaced — billing what’s contractually owed isn’t adversarial. And brokers who routinely refuse legitimate claims aren’t partners worth keeping.

4. How to Document Detention the Right Way {#documenting-detention}

The evidence that wins detention disputes comes from hardware, not humans.

The Evidence Hierarchy

GPS + ELD Dual-Source (Strongest)

A package that includes GPS-verified arrival/departure timestamps from your telematics system, corroborated by ELD data showing the truck stationary at the facility address, is the standard accepted in TIA arbitration and FMCSA dispute processes.

Two independent data streams, both hardware-timestamped, leave brokers with nothing plausible to dispute.

Single-Source GPS Telematics (Strong)

A telematics export from your ELD provider showing geofenced arrival and departure is solid evidence on its own. Most brokers won’t dispute a clean GPS report from a recognized provider.

Facility Gate Tickets / Check-In Records (Moderate)

Some facilities issue timestamped gate tickets or check-in receipts. These corroborate your telematics data and can be decisive in borderline cases.

BOL With Driver-Noted Times (Weak)

Useful as supporting context, but easily disputed as primary evidence. A driver-written timestamp is a human record subject to error and challenge.

What to Capture at Every Stop

  1. GPS-verified arrival time (automatically logged by telematics)
  2. Appointment time (from load tender or confirmation email)
  3. Door assignment time if relevant to your RC’s free time language
  4. GPS-verified departure time
  5. Any unusual circumstances (facility closed, no doors available, appointment pushed)

5. How to Submit and Collect a Detention Invoice {#submitting-collecting}

Build the Invoice Package

A complete detention invoice includes:

Submit Within the Claim Window

Check your rate confirmation before every load for the submission deadline. Set a default of same-day submission for all detention events — this eliminates window risk entirely.

Follow Up on a Fixed Cadence

Document every communication. Paper trails matter if the dispute escalates.

6. What to Do When a Broker Refuses to Pay {#broker-refuses}

When a broker refuses a legitimate claim, you have a structured escalation path:

Request the dispute reason in writing. Many brokers will pay rather than commit to a written dispute position.

Resubmit with stronger documentation. If the dispute is about timestamps, upgrade your evidence package and resubmit.

Escalate within the brokerage. Go above the billing department to your account manager. Most disputes resolve at this level.

TIA Arbitration. The Transportation Intermediaries Association offers binding arbitration for payment disputes. If the broker is a TIA member, they’re required to participate. GPS + ELD documentation consistently wins these proceedings.

FMCSA Complaint. File through the FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database. Free, fast, and creates a formal record that affects the broker’s complaint history.

Surety Bond Claim. Brokers are federally required to carry a $75,000 surety bond. For unpaid legitimate claims, you can file directly with the bonding company. Find the bonding company through the broker’s FMCSA SAFER record.

7. Detention by Load Type {#detention-by-load-type}

Detention rates and detention frequency vary by freight type:

Load TypeEst. Detention RateAvg. Detention Frequency
Refrigerated (reefer)$75–$100/hr56.2% of stops (ATRI 2024)
Dry van$50–$75/hr~36–40% of stops
Flatbed$50–$75/hrVaries by facility type
Hazmat / specialized$75–$150+/hrVaries

Refrigerated carriers face the highest detention frequency by a significant margin. A 100-truck reefer fleet running 12 loads per month per truck could see 672 detention events per month — and at under 50% collection rates, that’s hundreds of invoices going unpaid every single month.

8. Automating Detention Recovery {#automating-recovery}

For carriers running more than 50 trucks, manual detention management is a leaking bucket. The volume of potential detention events exceeds what a billing team can consistently track, document, and submit without a dedicated system.

The workflow that produces 80%+ collection rates:

  1. Automatic detection from GPS geofence data
  2. GPS + ELD evidence package built at time of event
  3. Invoice populated automatically
  4. Submission deadline tracked from rate confirmation terms
  5. Follow-up triggered automatically at 7, 15, 30 days

Dwell delivers this workflow for carriers using Motive telematics. No new hardware. No driver or dispatch process changes. Detection and documentation happen automatically in the background.

Join the Dwell waitlist and see what your fleet is currently leaving on the table.

Automate what you just read about.

Dwell connects to your Motive account, detects detention automatically, and builds the evidence package before a dispute happens. No new hardware. We make money only when you do.