Roughly 94% of fleets bill for detention, but fewer than half of those invoices ever get paid — and the gap is bleeding an estimated $15 billion a year out of the trucking industry. For an independent dispatcher, detention and accessorials are the closest thing to free money on the board: the miles are already run, the truck is already sitting, and the charge is contractually owed. The problem is almost never the rate — it’s the documentation. This is a process playbook, not a pep talk. Run these steps on every load and you will collect on detention that you are currently writing off.
Step 1: Set the Terms Before the Truck Rolls
Detention you didn’t negotiate up front is detention you’ll fight to collect. Before you accept the load, confirm three numbers in writing on the rate confirmation: the free-time window (industry standard is typically two hours at both pickup and delivery), the detention rate per hour, and any cap. Rates in 2026 run $25–$50 per hour for company freight, $50–$100 for owner-operators, and $75–$150 for specialized or hazmat, with the all-carrier average landing between $50 and $90. If the broker won’t put a detention line on the rate con, that is your first red flag and your first negotiation.
Step 2: Timestamp Everything at the Dock
The invoice that gets paid is the one with a clean, independent time record. Detention claims die when the only evidence is the driver’s word. Build a standing rule that the driver captures arrival and departure the same way on every stop, so the paper trail is identical across your whole book.
- Capture in-and-out times from two sources: the driver’s ELD/GPS geofence stamp plus a photo of the check-in window or gate ticket. Two independent records beat one every time.
- Get the signed BOL with times noted: ask the driver to have the shipper/receiver write arrival and departure on the bill of lading whenever possible.
- Log the delay reason: “dock closed,” “no lumper,” “product not staged” — a documented cause makes the charge stick.
- Notify the broker in real time: a text or email while the truck is still sitting (“we are now in detention as of 14:05”) creates a contemporaneous record that is very hard to dispute later.
Step 3: Invoice Fast, Clean, and Complete
Speed and completeness are what separate the fleets that collect from the ones that don’t. Submit the detention charge inside the same invoice packet as the linehaul, not as an afterthought weeks later. Attach the signed BOL, the timestamped photos, the notification message, and a one-line calculation the payables clerk can verify in ten seconds: free time, total time on site, billable hours, rate, total. The accessorial revenue most carriers leave on the table is lost here — not because the charge was wrong, but because the packet was incomplete and the clerk had an easy reason to deny it.
While 94.5% of fleets charge detention fees, they collect on fewer than half of the invoices they submit — a gap the American Transportation Research Institute pegs at roughly $15.1 billion a year.
Fintruck — Detention Pay in Trucking
Step 4: Build a Follow-Up Cadence That Doesn’t Quit
A detention invoice with no follow-up schedule is a donation. Put every accessorial claim on a simple aging cadence: confirm receipt at day two, escalate to the broker’s carrier-rep at day fifteen, and escalate to a manager or dispute channel at day thirty. Track your detention collection rate as a KPI the same way you track deadhead or revenue per mile — if you don’t measure it, you won’t defend it. The dispatchers who consistently collect are the ones who treat the follow-up as part of the job, not a favor.
Put the Framework to Work This Week
Pick your five worst-offending consignees — the ones where your drivers routinely sit — and run this framework on them first. Add the detention terms to the rate con, standardize the driver’s timestamp capture, tighten the invoice packet, and set the follow-up cadence. Then watch your collection rate over the next 60 days. Detention is not a windfall you hope for; it’s a receivable you engineer. In a market where van margins are softening, the accessorial dollars you already earned are the easiest raise you’ll get all quarter.
