Detention Calculator: Calculate Detention Pay & Generate Claims

What Is a Detention Calculator?

A detention calculator determines how much a shipper or receiver owes a carrier for holding a truck at a facility beyond the agreed free time. It works off three timestamps — appointment time, driver arrival, and checkout — subtracts the contracted free allowance, and converts the remaining overtime hours into a dollar amount at your detention rate. For dispatchers and ops teams, this turns a vague "we sat there forever" complaint into an exact, defensible number that can be invoiced or disputed with documentation behind it.

How to Use the Detention Calculator

The calculator runs on the same timestamps already on the driver's check-in sheet or BOL. Enter them once and it returns billable hours and the exact amount owed.

Enter your detention rate per hour as set in your contract or rate confirmation.
Enter the free allowance — the hours a shipper is permitted before detention starts accruing.
Enter the scheduled appointment time for the load or unload window.
Enter the driver's actual arrival time at the guard shack or gate.
Enter the checkout time once the BOL is signed and the truck is released.
Review the billable hours and total detention amount, then generate claim text to send to the broker or shipper.

Who This Tool Is For

Built for dispatchers, fleet owners, and back-office staff who file detention claims against brokers and shippers. If your contracts include detention pay but you're currently estimating hours by memory or rounding times by hand, this calculator removes the guesswork and produces a clean, time-stamped breakdown that holds up when a broker pushes back on a claim.

Key Terms Explained

Detention Pay: Compensation owed to a carrier when a truck is held at a shipper or receiver facility beyond the contracted free time. It's typically billed hourly and covers the driver's lost productivity while waiting to be loaded or unloaded.
Free Allowance: The number of hours a shipper or receiver is permitted to hold a truck before detention charges begin accruing, usually set in the rate confirmation or carrier contract. Common allowances range from 1 to 2 hours.
Billable Detention Hours: The total time spent at a facility minus the free allowance. Only the hours beyond the free period are charged at the detention rate — time within the allowance is unpaid by design.
Demurrage vs. Detention: Demurrage typically refers to delays at ports or rail yards involving containers, while detention refers to delays at a shipper or receiver's dock involving the truck and trailer. The terms are often used loosely, but in over-the-road trucking, "detention" is the accurate term for dock wait time.
Claim Text: A formal written record of the detention event — timestamps, free allowance, billable hours, and amount owed — submitted to a broker or shipper to support payment. Clear claim documentation significantly increases the odds of getting paid without a dispute.

Example: Calculating Detention for a Late Unload

A driver has a 9:00 AM appointment and arrives at 8:55 AM, but isn't checked out until 12:40 PM — a total of 3 hours and 45 minutes on site. The contract includes a 2-hour free allowance at a detention rate of $65/hour. Subtracting the 2 free hours leaves 1 hour and 45 minutes billable, or 1.75 hours. At $65/hour, that comes to $113.75 owed in detention pay. The calculator logs the exact timestamps behind that number, so the claim sent to the broker shows precisely when the truck arrived, when it was released, and how the billable time was derived — not just a rounded estimate.

Why Detention Pay Is Often Left on the Table

Detention charges are one of the most under-collected revenue streams in trucking, mostly because tracking wait time by hand is tedious and easy to skip when dispatch is busy moving the next load. Brokers and shippers rarely volunteer detention pay — it almost always has to be claimed, and claims without precise timestamps and a clear hourly breakdown are far easier to deny or delay. A documented, time-stamped detention calculation shifts the burden of proof onto the carrier's side, making it harder for a broker to dispute the charge and faster to get paid. Over a month of regular long dock waits, properly claimed detention pay can add up to a meaningful share of a truck's revenue that would otherwise just be absorbed as lost time.

Related Calculators

01 Break-Even Lane Calculator

Find your minimum rate per mile before factoring in any detention pay owed.

02 Load Comparison Calculator

Compare two load offers side by side, including how detention risk affects each.

03 Take-It-Or-Leave-It Calculator

Get a fast yes/no read on a broker's offer against your real operating cost.

04 Factoring vs. Quick Pay Calculator

See how getting paid faster on detention claims compares to factoring fees.

Frequently Asked Questions

Detention pay is calculated by subtracting the contracted free allowance from total time spent at a facility, then multiplying the remaining billable hours by the agreed detention rate. The free allowance and rate are typically set in the rate confirmation or carrier contract before the load is booked.

Detention rates commonly range from $40 to $75 per hour, though some contracts go higher for specialized freight. The rate is negotiated per contract or rate confirmation, so it varies by broker, shipper, and freight type rather than following one industry standard.

Most contracts grant 1 to 2 hours of free time before detention charges begin accruing. Some shippers negotiate longer allowances for complex loading processes, so the exact number should always be confirmed on the rate confirmation for each load.

Yes. Brokers and shippers generally require documented timestamps — arrival, appointment, and checkout times — before paying a detention claim. Submitting a clear, time-stamped breakdown rather than a rounded estimate significantly improves the odds of getting paid without a dispute.

Detention is typically measured from either the scheduled appointment time or actual arrival, whichever the contract specifies — not simply from when the driver pulled in. Arriving early generally doesn't start the detention clock until the appointment window begins, so check the specific rate confirmation language before filing a claim.

Detention refers to delays at a shipper or receiver's dock holding the truck and trailer, while demurrage traditionally refers to container delays at ports or rail yards. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably in casual conversation, but detention is the correct term for over-the-road dock wait time.