Every driver has sat four hours at a dock for free. Detention is the most complained-about and least collected money in trucking. The difference between drivers who collect and drivers who vent is not luck. It is process. Here is the process.
Detention is won before pickup, not after delivery
Detention terms live in the rate confirmation. If the rate con is silent, you are negotiating from zero after the fact. Before booking, get the answer in writing: how much free time, what hourly rate after, and any cap. Two hours free and $50 to $75 per hour after is the common shape. If a broker refuses to put detention terms in writing on a facility known for long docks, that silence is your answer about how the load will go.
Build the evidence trail in real time
Collectable detention is documented detention. The habit takes two minutes:
- Timestamped arrival: note the exact in-time, get it on the BOL or gate ticket if possible, and photograph it.
- Notify at the free-time line: when hour two hits, message the broker in writing that you are still in the door. Silence looks like consent; a timestamped message starts the clock in everyone’s mind.
- Timestamped departure: same routine on the way out.
ELD data backs all of it, but do not make anyone dig for proof. A tidy one-page trail gets paid; an argument does not.
Invoice it like freight, not like a favor
Detention goes on its own invoice line with the arrival and departure times, the free-time terms from the rate con, and the math spelled out. Send it with the POD, not weeks later. Money asked for immediately, with evidence, gets paid at a completely different rate than money grumbled about on a phone call.
Track facilities and vote with your truck
Keep a simple facility log: address, in-time, out-time, detention paid or refused. After a few months you know exactly which shippers eat your clock. Then price them accordingly: demand detention terms upfront for those facilities, ask more per mile to swallow the risk, or decline the freight. Chronic detention facilities only change when trucks get scarce or expensive.
When brokers stiff you anyway
Some will. Escalate politely once with the paper trail attached, involve the broker’s carrier relations line if they have one, and remember the outcome in your broker bench notes. A broker who will not honor written detention terms has told you what every future dispute with them looks like.
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