Detention Time in Trucking: Rules, Pay and How to Calculate It

Detention is time a driver spends waiting at a shipper or receiver beyond the free time allowed in the contract. The clock, the hourly rate and who pays are all set by the rate confirmation or broker agreement, so detention time in trucking is a contract question before it is a regulatory one.

This explainer covers what counts as detention, how to calculate it step by step, how it differs from layover, and where carriers lose the money. It also shows why two detention calculators can bill the same wait differently.

What is detention pay in trucking?

Detention pay is the fee a carrier charges, and usually passes in part to the driver, for time held at a facility past the contract limit. The U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General described the standard arrangement in its January 2018 report: contracts between shippers, receivers and carriers generally set limits on time to load or unload and may entitle carriers to fees for time beyond that limit, typically 2 hours. Source: DOT OIG report ST2018019.

Two parts of that description matter. First, the entitlement is contractual. Second, only the time past the threshold is normally written down. The same report gives the example of a driver who waits one hour and then needs one more hour to load under a 2-hour allowance: nobody would document that first hour as detention. Source: DOT OIG report ST2018019.

How common is detention, and why do the numbers disagree?

The DOT OIG cited an FMCSA study from 2014 that defined detention as all time at a stop beyond 2 hours. It found detention at approximately 1 in 10 stops, lasting 1.4 hours on average. Refrigerated trailer drivers saw longer and more frequent detention. Source: DOT OIG report ST2018019.

ATRI's study of 2023 data reports a much larger share. Drivers reported detention at 39.3% of all stops, and refrigerated trailer drivers reported it at 56.2%. It puts direct expenses at $3.6 billion and lost productivity at $11.5 billion, and says drivers were detained 117 to 209 hours a year depending on sector. Source: ATRI detention research.

These two figures use different data and methods, so they are not a like-for-like comparison. The FMCSA study used electronic dwell data from a small carrier sample (31 carriers, stops in 2013), and ATRI's figure rests on driver reports. The OIG itself warned that accurate industrywide data on detention do not exist, because most people only measure time past the contract limit. If you quote either figure to a customer or a lender, say which one. Source: DOT OIG report ST2018019.

How do you calculate detention time in trucking?

The method is short, and every step depends on a timestamp or a contract term you already have or can get.

1. Record the arrival time and the departure time at the facility. The difference is total time on site.
2. Find the free time in the rate confirmation. Many carrier-shipper contracts use a window of about 2 hours before the meter starts. Source: T-Brothers Logistics guide, January 2026.
3. Subtract the free time from time on site. What is left is billable detention.
4. Multiply by the hourly rate in the contract, and check whether time is billed in increments such as 15 minutes. Source: T-Brothers Logistics guide, January 2026.
5. Apply any daily cap and check the late-arrival rule before you send the invoice.

Step 5 is where calculators diverge, and it is the subject of the next section.

Where does the detention clock really start?

Detention rules are less uniform than they look. In carrier data we have looked at, the central question is whether a late arrival forfeits all detention or only affects free time. The two readings can mean the difference between billing a 30-hour hold and billing nothing.

A second trap sits inside the system, not the contract. If a dispatcher edits an arrival time to a round number, the record no longer shows what was measured. In our experience the safest habit is to keep the measured time in one field and any human edit in another, because a carrier that overwrites the measured value loses disputes it could have won.

A worked example with invented inputs

Here is an example with invented inputs. A load has an 8:00 am appointment. The rate confirmation gives 2 hours of free time and $60 an hour. The truck arrives at 8:45 am and leaves at 3:45 pm, so it is on site for 7 hours. The 2-hour window is a common contract term, not a rule. Source: T-Brothers Logistics guide, January 2026.

Rule in the rate confirmation	Free time (T-Brothers guide)	Billable hours	Detention billed
Late arrival only erodes free time (the 2 hours run from the 8:00 appointment, so 45 minutes are gone on arrival)	1 hour 15 minutes left	7 minus 1.25 = 5.75	5.75 x $60 = $345
Late arrival forfeits detention	not applicable	0	$0
Same hold, truck on time at 8:00 am, leaves 3:00 pm (7 hours)	2 hours	7 minus 2 = 5	5 x $60 = $300

The same 7 hours on site produces $345 or $0 depending on one clause. The third row shows an on-time truck for comparison: the wait is identical, but under a forfeiture rule only the late arrival changes the outcome. The two late-arrival rows rest on Hemut carrier data about how rules differ, not on a published standard. Read this clause before you accept a load. Source for the typical terms: T-Brothers Logistics guide.

Is detention time on-duty time for a driver?

For hours of service, waiting to be dispatched and loading time can be. The federal definition of on-duty time counts all time at a plant, terminal, facility or other property of a motor carrier or shipper, or on public property, waiting to be dispatched, unless the driver has been relieved from duty by the carrier. Loading and unloading time counts too. Source: 49 CFR 395.2, definitions.

That matters for pay as well as compliance. A driver sitting in the yard is working under the federal definition unless the carrier has released him, which is one reason a driver detention fee is worth documenting (49 CFR 395.2). Check how your own settlement rules treat this time, because the definition does not tell you what a driver is owed.

Layover vs detention pay: what is the difference?

Detention is measured by the hour at the dock after free time, and is invoiced to the facility that held the truck. Layover is a daily payment for an unplanned overnight or longer delay between scheduled loads. One published guide quotes detention at $25 to $75 per hour and layover at $100 to $250 for the first 24 hours, with smaller amounts for each extra day. Source: T-Brothers Logistics guide, January 2026.

That guide describes the two as paid by different parties: the facility for detention, and the party that controls load planning, usually the carrier or broker, for layover. Those dollar ranges come from one carrier's blog and are not a standard. The practical rule is that a rate confirmation which mentions only one of them does not cover the other, so write the handoff point, for example when a long hold turns into a layover day, into the agreement.

A West Coast carrier we work with adds extras such as layover, detention and stop-off on top of its base driver pay, so it helps to be clear which one applied to which load.

Why do carriers collect so little detention?

ATRI found that 94.5% of fleets charge detention, yet fees are paid on fewer than 50% of invoices. The gap is a collections problem, not a pricing one. Source: ATRI detention research.

Some causes are simple. The in and out times were never recorded, or were recorded hours later. The OIG noted that carriers and drivers rarely track the wait before the contract threshold. And the rate confirmation language was not read until after the stop.

One cause we have seen in carrier data is the timing of data entry. In a two-week sample of 520 loads for a West Coast carrier, 63% had no tracking ping before pickup, and in nearly all of those the arrival time was typed into the TMS more than two hours after the truck got there. A detention claim built on an arrival time typed later invites exactly that argument.

Departure times are the other half. Across two weeks of delivered loads for one carrier, fewer than half sent a delivery complete status to the broker, mostly because nobody keyed the departure time. Without an out time, there is no detention to bill.

Does detention affect safety and driver income?

Using 2013 data, the OIG estimated that detention is associated with reductions in annual earnings of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion for for-hire truckload drivers, or $1,281 to $1,534 per driver. It also estimated that a 15-minute increase in average dwell time raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent. Source: DOT OIG report ST2018019.

ATRI reported that detained trucks drove 14.6 percent faster on average than trucks that were not detained. ATRI also found trucks drove faster on trips to facilities where they were detained, which it reads as drivers knowing which facilities tend to detain them. Source: ATRI detention research.

These are estimates from models and surveys, not a count of incidents, so treat them as direction rather than a forecast for your fleet. The OIG also cited a 2015 ATRI survey in which about 60 percent of responding carriers reported passing some portion of detention fees to drivers, which means the pay a driver sees depends on your own policy. Source: DOT OIG report ST2018019.

How Hemut fits into detention records

Hemut Command is a TMS built for asset-based trucking carriers. For detention, the useful piece is the stop record. Hemut reads truck position from Samsara, Motive, Geotab and Omnitracs to show ETAs and arrival times on loads, which gives you a position-based arrival time to compare with a typed one. Our own data suggests a good precedence rule is that what a dispatcher typed wins, then the TMS, then GPS, with GPS only filling a blank, and you should set your own rule before a dispute, not during one.

Hemut also includes playbooks such as "Capture detention while the driver is still sitting there". We do not claim results from it, and the contract terms are still yours to negotiate and read. If your invoicing runs through the load record, see how it works in our trucking TMS software overview and the load tracking software page, or read how AI check calls record driver answers on the load.

What should you do about detention this week?

1. Pull the last 10 rate confirmations and write down the free time, hourly rate, daily cap and late-arrival clause for each.
2. Check whether any of them forfeits detention for a late arrival, and flag those customers.
3. Make sure every stop has an arrival and a departure time, entered the same day.
4. Keep the measured time separate from any edited time.
5. Decide how much of each detention fee goes to the driver, and write it into the pay plan.
6. Send the detention invoice with the rate confirmation clause attached, not weeks later.

Frequently asked questions

What is detention pay?

Detention pay is the fee charged for time a driver is held at a shipper or receiver past the free time in the contract. The amount and the free time come from the rate confirmation.

What is the usual free time before detention starts?

Many contracts use about 2 hours, but it is a contract term. Read each rate confirmation (DOT OIG).

Is there a detention calculator I can use?

You can use arithmetic: time on site, minus free time, times the hourly rate. The only part a calculator cannot know is your late-arrival clause, so check it first.

Is layover the same as detention?

No. Detention is hourly and measured at the dock, while layover is a daily payment for a longer hold between loads.