Detention Evidence in 5 Minutes at the Dock

Why this matters. Detention is pay for waiting past free time, and most of it is lost in the first hour of the wait, when nobody writes down a time. Brokers deny it for the same few reasons again and again, and nearly all of them come down to a missing record. Collecting five small pieces of proof at the dock takes a few minutes. Rebuilding a gate time a month later is often impossible.

The five records

A detention claim is a short timeline. Each line needs a record that someone other than your own driver created, or at least one the other side cannot easily dispute.

Source: our detention pay guide and detention evidence page. Which records a given broker accepts varies.

Minute by minute

• Before the truck rolls. Find the detention clause and copy the free time and the rate into the load notes, so the driver sees them.
• On arrival. The driver texts dispatch one line with the arrival time. The message carries its own timestamp and costs ten seconds.
• At check-in. Ask the guard or clerk to write the in time on a slip, then photograph it.
• When free time runs out. If the rate con asks for notice, send it now and name the arrival time. Save the message.
• Before leaving the lot. Get the out time written on the BOL, then photograph the page. The out time is the one drivers most often forget.

Work out the amount before you bill it

The arithmetic is short:

Check your own numbers in the detention calculator, with the exact terms, including any rounding step or cap. Free time applies at each stop separately.

A worked example

Example data. The terms on a made-up rate con with Broker A: the clock starts at the appointment, 2 free hours, $60 an hour, billed in half-hour steps.

The early arrival at 08:30 adds nothing under these terms. A claim for 6 hours, from 08:30 to 14:30, would be wrong, and it would hand the broker a reason to deny the whole line. Bill what you can prove.

Who does what

The routine only works if it is split between two people. The dispatcher owns the paper before the truck leaves: the clause, the free time, the rate and the notice rule, all copied into the load notes. The driver owns the dock: one text on arrival, one slip at check-in, one photographed BOL on the way out. Neither task is long. The failure is almost always that nobody was told which one was theirs. If a driver is unsure what counts, give them the five records above on a card for the cab, and ask them to send a photo of anything that has a time on it.

Keep the broker's answer too, including a denial and the reason given. A partial payment with a stated reason tells you how that broker reads its own terms, and the next claim to that broker can be written to fit.

Why claims get denied

• No written times. The BOL has a date and a signature only.
• Arrived outside the appointment. A late arrival usually resets the clock.
• No notice, when the rate con required it.
• Billed too late, when the terms set a deadline measured from delivery.
• Not in the rate con. A verbal promise does not survive a signed rate confirmation that says nothing about detention.
• Overlap. Detention and layover claimed for the same hours.

Waiting also eats the driver's day. Under federal hours-of-service rules the 14-hour window keeps running while the truck waits, so a long dock delay can cost a second day. That cost is only recoverable if your terms say so, for example as layover.

Send it with the invoice

Keep it factual. State the times you can prove, do not blame the receiver, and if a time is missing, say so and bill only what you can support.

Next step

The detention pay guide covers the step-by-step process, and detention evidence lists what actually gets paid. Unsure how much has gone unbilled? Send us your last 20 loads and we will check them for detention that was never billed.