Detention pay in trucking
Detention pay compensates you for being held at a dock past an agreed free window — usually two hours, then $30 to $75 an hour. The convention is well established. Getting paid is not, and it turns almost entirely on what you recorded while you were waiting.
What the wait actually costs
Detention at $50.00 an hour after two free hours, against the hours it burns from your 14-hour window and the miles you could have driven instead:
| Time at the dock | Detention paid | Effective per hour held | Miles not driven |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 hours | $0.00 | $0.00 | 110 mi |
| 3 hours | $50.00 | $16.67 | 165 mi |
| 4 hours | $100.00 | $25.00 | 220 mi |
| 6 hours | $200.00 | $33.33 | 330 mi |
| 8 hours | $300.00 | $37.50 | 440 mi |
An eight-hour hold pays $300.00 and costs you eight hours of a 14-hour clock — roughly 440 miles you cannot now drive, which at $2.40 a mile is $1,056 of revenue you did not earn. Detention rarely makes you whole. It makes the wait survivable.
Get the agreement before the wait
Detention is a contract term, not a right. If the rate confirmation does not say detention is payable, at what rate, after how long, and whether it is capped, then no amount of documentation creates an obligation afterwards. Read that line before you accept, and if it is missing, ask for it in writing — brokers add it more readily than drivers expect, because they can usually bill the shipper for it.
The record that gets a claim paid
- Note the gate time, not the dock time. Arrival is when you reached the facility, and that is what your ELD shows.
- Tell the broker while you are waiting, not afterwards. A message at the two-hour mark saying the clock has started is worth more than a claim three days later.
- Get in and out times on the bill of lading where the receiver will sign them. Many will.
- Photograph the gate, the dock and the clock. Time-stamped and boring beats remembered and confident.
- Invoice it with the load, referencing the ELD record. Separate detention invoices are the ones that sit unpaid.
The hours-of-service side
Sitting at a dock is on-duty not-driving unless you take the sleeper berth, and the 14-hour window runs either way. A long morning detention can turn a legal 600-mile day into a 350-mile day, which costs more than the detention pays — and it is why a receiver with a reputation for six-hour unloads should be priced into the rate before you accept the load, not argued about afterwards.
Lumper fees frequently land on the same stop; those work differently and are claimed differently — see lumper fees.
Questions
What is detention pay?
Money paid for time your truck is held at a shipper or receiver beyond an agreed free period. The usual convention is two hours free, then an hourly rate — commonly $30 to $75 an hour, sometimes capped at a daily figure.
How long before detention starts?
Two hours after the appointment time is the industry convention, not a legal rule. What matters is what the rate confirmation says: if it does not mention detention, there is no agreement to pay it, whatever the convention is.
How much is detention pay?
$30 to $75 an hour is the usual band, with $50 common. Many rate confirmations cap it at $150 to $300 a day, which is why an eight-hour hold can pay less than the hours suggest.
How do I prove detention?
Arrival and departure times from the gate, signed in-and-out times on the bill of lading where you can get them, time-stamped photographs, and your ELD record. The ELD is the strongest evidence you have and it is automatic — it just has to be referenced in the claim.
Does detention count against my hours of service?
Time at a dock is on-duty not-driving unless you go into the sleeper, and either way the 14-hour window keeps running. That is the real cost: detention pay compensates the wait, not the driving hours it consumes.