Detention pay: when the clock starts and why the claim gets denied

Detention is not owed to you by law. It is owed because your rate confirmation says so — and it is paid only if you can prove the hours the way that document demands.

There is no federal detention rule

Nothing in the regulations requires a shipper or a broker to pay you for waiting. Detention is a contract term, and the contract is the rate confirmation you signed. If it says nothing about detention, the default is that you wait for free.

The two free hours you may hear quoted are a convention, not a law. Some rate confirmations give one hour. Some give ninety minutes. Drop-and-hook loads sometimes give more. The only number that governs your load is the one printed on your load.

What has to be in the rate confirmation

Three things decide whether a detention claim survives. Find them before you accept the load, not after you have been sitting for four hours.

• The rate. Dollars per hour, or a flat amount after a threshold. “Detention paid per shipper policy” is not a rate — it is a way of saying no later.
• The free time. How many hours before the clock starts, and whether it starts at your appointment time or at arrival. Arriving early does not necessarily start it earlier.
• The proof required. Signed in and out times on the bill of lading, a check-in app record, or timestamped photos. Whatever it names is the only thing that will count.

Why claims get denied

• No documented arrival. The gate log says one thing, your memory says another, and the broker pays the gate log.
• No notice while it was happening. A contract can require you to tell the broker you are being held, in writing, before the free time runs out.
• Invoiced too late. Your rate con may set a window of 24 or 48 hours after delivery, and if it does, it counts.
• A cap you did not notice. “Detention $50/hr, maximum $200” means the fifth hour is free whether you like it or not.

What a fair rate is — and what we will not tell you

We do not publish an average detention rate, because we have not measured one we would stand behind. What we can do is compare the rate on the document in front of you with the floor you set for yourself.

That floor is not a guess either. Work out your cost per mile once — truck payment, insurance, fuel, tires, repairs — and you know what an hour of your truck sitting still actually costs. A detention rate below that is not compensation; it is a discount you are giving away.

The reader pulls out detention pay, free hours, TONU, late fees and payment terms, and quotes each one from your own document. Set your floor first in the cost per mile calculator and the reader will compare the two for you.