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Revenue leak estimator: detention, lumper, TONU and short pay

Only you know your real numbers. Start from published industry figures, each shown with who published it, the year and how strong the source is, or switch to My numbers and type your own. The result is a range of money not collected per month and per year, worked out only from the numbers in the form.

Read this first

Benchmarks are figures other organisations published. They are not our statistics and we did not measure them. Some reach us through trade press rather than the original report, and some are vendor price ranges with no survey behind them; the strength tag says which. Where no published figure exists we leave the field empty and do not guess. The result is an estimate from the inputs shown, not a finding and not a promise of what can be recovered. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Start from

Industry benchmark fills the shares, rates and amount ranges with figures other people published, each with its source. My numbers clears them so you type your own. You can edit any field in either mode.

Your fleet
Only your own records can tell.
No published figure. Only your own records can tell.
Our default is 2: one pickup, one delivery. Change it to your own average.
Detention
Share of stops where the truck waits past free time. The benchmark is per stop, not per load.
No published figure. Only your own records can tell.
Of the events with detention, how many you actually bill.
Of the detention invoices you send, how many the customer pays.
What your rate confirmations pay or what you bill.
Leave empty if you have one rate.
Other extras you were owed and did not collect
No published figure. Only your own records can tell.
From your receipts.
Leave empty if one amount.
No published figure. Only your own records can tell.
From your rate confirmations.
Leave empty if one amount.
No published figure. Only your own records can tell.
No published figure. Only your own records can tell.
Leave empty if one amount.

Estimate from inputs shown Arithmetic on the numbers in the form, not our statistic

Money not collected, per month

Per year (12 months)

Check my real loads, free

The free audit replaces this estimate with your own recent loads and shows the formula for every line.

Line by line

Money not collected, by line, from the inputs above
LinePer monthPer yearHow it was worked out
Detention
Lumper not reimbursed
TONU not paid
Short pay

A line with missing inputs is not counted and is never filled with a guess. The total adds only the lines that have every input.

In your own load file

What to check to replace a benchmark with your number

  • Detention. Pick 20 recent loads. For each stop compare arrival and departure times on the bill of lading or proof of delivery with the free time in the rate confirmation. Count stops that went past free time, then how many you put on an invoice, then how many the customer paid. Those three counts are your share with detention, your share invoiced and your share paid.
  • Hours and rate. Add the billable hours past free time on those stops and divide by the number of events. The rate is the hourly figure in your rate confirmations, or what you bill.
  • Lumper. Match every lumper receipt to a reimbursement line on the invoice. Count receipts with no matching payment, and use the receipt amounts.
  • TONU. List loads cancelled after your truck was sent. Check the rate confirmation for a TONU term, then whether the payment arrived.
  • Short pay. Compare each invoice total with the money received. Count the invoices that paid less and note the size of the gap.

Have us check my last 20 loads, free

Method

How the numbers are worked out

Detention, per month: stops (trucks x loads per truck x stops per load) x share of stops with detention x share not collected x billable hours x hourly rate. The share not collected is 1 minus (share invoiced x share paid). Low and high use your low and high rate. The other three lines are your monthly count times your low and high amount. All arithmetic is done in whole numbers (per mille, tenths of an hour and cents) and rounded half up once at the end. The money for detention uses the exact count of events; the counts shown are rounded for display.

Per stop, not per load

The 39.3% detention figure is the share of stops, not of loads. A load has at least two stops, so the share of loads with at least one detention event is higher. This estimator multiplies stops, never loads, so it does not convert one into the other.

Sources

Every default, with source, year and strength

All pages were accessed on 2026-10-10. Strength: primary means we read the original publisher's page or document; secondary means a trade-press relay of a study we did not read ourselves; weak means a vendor blog or price list with no survey behind it; derived is our arithmetic on published figures; assumption is ours and is not a statistic.

Benchmark defaults used in the estimator
NumberWhat it measuresSourceYearStrengthRead this before using it
39.3%Stops with detention (more than 2 hours at the customer)ATRI, relayed by FreightWaves2023 data, published Sep 2024secondaryPer stop, not per load. ATRI study itself not read; sample size not stated on the pages we read.
75%Detention events the carrier invoicedATRI carrier survey, relayed by FreightWaves and PrePass and a second relay2023 datasecondaryTwo trade-press relays agree. ATRI PDF not read.
55%Detention invoices the customer paidATRI carrier survey, relayed by FreightWaves and PrePass and a second relay2023 datasecondarySame study and caveats as the invoiced share.
$50Detention rate per hour, lowOOIDA Foundation detention survey (n=1,202)2019 surveyprimaryAbout $50 an hour for members who usually or occasionally try to collect. Drivers and owner-operators, not fleet billing data.
$76Detention rate per hour, highOOIDA Foundation detention survey (n=1,202)2019 surveyprimaryAverage collected by owner-operators under their own authority, among those who are paid at all.
$150Typical lumper fee, lowO Trucking (dispatch service) guide2026weakVendor blog, no survey behind it. Lumper fees are often reimbursable with a receipt.
$400Typical lumper fee, highO Trucking (dispatch service) guide2026weakVendor blog, no survey behind it.
$150Typical TONU (truck ordered not used), lowO Trucking (dispatch service) guide2026weakVendor guide. TONU is a term negotiated in each rate confirmation.
$500Typical TONU, highO Trucking (dispatch service) guide2026weakVendor guide, no survey behind it.
2Stops per loadOur assumption: one pickup and one deliverynoneassumptionNot a statistic. Change it to your own average.
58.75%Detention events not collected: 1 - invoiced share x paid shareOur arithmetic on the two shares above2023 dataderivedOur arithmetic on two secondary figures: 1 - 0.75 x 0.55. Not a published statistic. Applies to detention only.

Caveats that apply to the table

  • Per stop, not per load. The ATRI detention share counts stops. Detention here means waiting more than 2 hours at a customer facility.
  • Secondary relay. The ATRI figures come from FreightWaves and PrePass. We did not read the ATRI report. The pages we read do not give sample sizes, so we do not state one.
  • Includes events you already collected. The 39.3% counts every stop with detention, paid or not. The share not collected handles that, which is why the estimator multiplies by it.
  • Who was asked. The OOIDA rates come from a 2019 survey of 1,202 members, mostly owner-operators and drivers, not from fleet billing records. Leased-on owner-operators in the same survey reported about $66 an hour and company drivers about $32, so the $50 to $76 range is not a guarantee for your lanes.
  • Vendor ranges. Lumper and TONU ranges come from a dispatch service's guides. They show what is commonly quoted, not what is typically paid, and many lumper fees are reimbursable with a receipt. Their strength is weak.
  • Contracts decide. Free time, detention rates, lumper reimbursement and TONU are terms of each rate confirmation, so your own documents outrank any benchmark.

Figures we found and did not use as defaults

Context only
NumberWhat it measuresSourceYearStrengthRead this before using it
$63.71 an hourAverage detention fee charged by fleetsATRI carrier survey2023secondarySeen only in a search summary; the page itself was not readable. Not used as a default.
3% of carriers; pay $30 to $50 an hour when paidCarriers paid on 90% or more of detention claimsDAT Solutions survey (257 carriers, 50 brokers)2016primaryTen years old. Shown for context, not used as a default.
18%Members who collect no detention pay at allOOIDA Foundation detention survey (n=1,202)2019 surveyprimaryDrivers and owner-operators, not carrier billing data. Not used as a default.

What we could not source

Fields left empty on purpose

We searched for each of these and found no published figure we could stand behind. The estimator leaves the field empty. Only your own records can tell.

Searched for and not found
FigureWhy it is empty
Average rate per loadNo published figure for small fleets. Linehaul per mile exists, haul length does not.
Loads per truck per monthNo survey found. Miles per year exist for owner-operators, loads per truck do not.
Average detention hours per eventNo current figure. Only the 2-hour threshold that defines detention.
Unbilled extras as a share of revenueNo study found. Vendor claims of 3 to 8% name no dataset.
Average days to payNo survey of broker days to pay carriers. Only vendor guides.
Share of invoices short-paid or disputedNo carrier-side figure found from any publisher.
How often lumper, TONU and short-pay events happenNo survey of frequency per load.

If you know a published source for any of these, tell us through the contact page and we will check it and add it with its strength tag.