How to Get Paid for Detention Time (Trucking)

2026 GUIDE · UPDATED JUNE 2026

Detention is real money — and most of it goes uncollected

Driver detention isn’t a rounding error. The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) found the trucking industry lost $3.6 billion in direct costs and $11.5 billion in lost productivity to detention in 2023, with drivers detained on 39.3% of all stops (ATRI, 2024). The catch: while 94.5% of fleets charge detention, fewer than half of those invoices actually get paid. The money is owed — it just doesn’t get collected, usually because no one has time to chase it.

What counts as detention time

Detention is the time your truck is held at a shipper or receiver beyond the agreed free time for loading or unloading. Don’t confuse it with two neighbors:

Detention vs. demurrage: demurrage is a charge for holding railcars or ocean containers past their free days — a different mechanism with its own tariffs. Detention vs. layover: layover covers an overnight or multi-day delay, not the per-hour wait at a dock. This guide is about over-the-road detention: the hourly wait at the dock.

When detention pay starts (the “free time” window)

The long-standing industry standard is two hours of free time before detention charges begin, though some rate agreements allow up to four. The FMCSA’s research on detention uses that two-hour benchmark, and found that medium-sized carriers get detained roughly twice as often as large ones (FMCSA).

Important: two hours is a convention, not a rule. The free time and rate that actually apply to your load are whatever your rate confirmation says. Read it before every load and bill to it.

How much detention pays

There’s no legal rate — you bill what your rate confirmation specifies. As an anchor, ATRI’s research put the average detention fee at $63.71 per hour (ATRI via CCJ), and many carriers bill in the $50–$100/hour range depending on freight type and lane. The figure that matters is the one on your rate confirmation — confirm it’s there before you accept the load.

The evidence you need to win the claim

Detention disputes are won on documentation. Assemble:

• ELD arrival and departure timestamps — the single most credible record of how long you sat. This is exactly the dwell data your ELD already captures.
• Signed bill of lading with check-in and check-out times.
• The rate confirmation showing the free-time window and detention rate.
• Gate logs or facility check-in records, where available, as corroboration.

When detention is calculated straight from ELD timestamps and the invoice ships with that proof attached, disputes drop sharply — there’s little left to argue about.

How to invoice a shipper or broker for detention

Step by step:

1. Confirm the free-time window and rate on the rate confirmation.
2. Calculate billable detention: total dwell minus free time, times your hourly rate.
3. Build an invoice that states the load, the stop, the timestamps, and the math — and attach the ELD evidence.
4. Send it to the broker or shipper’s accounts-payable contact promptly, while the load is fresh.
5. Follow up on a schedule (e.g., reminders at 7, 30, and 45 days) until it’s paid.

What to do when they won’t pay

If a clean, evidence-backed invoice goes unpaid, escalate in order: a firm reminder, then a formal dispute with your documentation, then — for aged or flatly refused claims — a demand letter or a transportation collections agency. Freight detention is a commercial debt, so it isn’t governed by the consumer-focused FDCPA, which gives you more latitude to pursue it. (See Akru vs. a collections agency for when to escalate to one.)

Do it yourself, or hand it off?

You can do everything above yourself and keep 100% of what you recover — if you have the time. The reason most detention goes uncollected is simply that pulling timestamps, building evidence, invoicing, and chasing AP is nobody’s job at a small carrier. That’s the honest trade-off:

• Do it yourself: no software fee, full control — but it only works if you actually find the hours for every claim.
• Automate it: a tool like Akru reads your ELD, auto-detects detention via geofence, builds the evidence invoice, and alerts you while it’s accruing — a flat $39/mo, and you stay the creditor and keep 100% of what you recover. For a carrier on Samsara or Motive, it catches the claims you’d otherwise never bill.

We lay out the full time-cost comparison in Akru vs. chasing detention yourself.

Detention pay FAQ