Free · No login required # Detention Pay Calculator How long was the truck held at the dock, and what can you bill for it? Enter the times from the stop and your detention terms. ## Times at the facility Appointment Leave empty if there was none Arrival (check-in) Out time Loaded or unloaded and released. Earlier than arrival means the next day. ## Detention terms Free time h 2 hours is the common default Detention rate $/h Per hour --- Clock starts at Billing increment Partial increments ## Detention Billable detention $150.00 2h 00m at $75.00/h Time at facility 4h 40m Clock started 08:00 Free time ended 10:00 Past free time 2h 10m Billed time 2h 00m You arrived before the appointment, so the clock started at the appointment time. Detention terms are set by your rate confirmation or tariff, not by federal rule. Use the free time, rate and rounding your contract names. ## Appointment or arrival: when does the detention clock start? Some rate confirmations start free time at the appointment (or at arrival if the truck is late), so arriving early does not add billable time. Others start it at check-in, so every minute on site counts. The choice changes the result whenever the truck arrives early: in the example, arriving 30 minutes early adds 30 minutes to the bill only when the clock starts at arrival. Whatever the contract says, keep paperwork that shows your in and out times. ## Layover and TONU Layover: a separate accessorial charge for a truck held over to another day, for example when a load can’t be picked up or delivered as scheduled. It is billed on the terms in your rate confirmation, not as hourly detention. TONU (truck ordered not used): a fee paid when a booked load is canceled after the truck has been dispatched. It is often quoted at about $150 to $300 for standard equipment, but the amount is negotiated per load. ## Detention pay: frequently asked questions ### What is detention in trucking? Detention is the extra time a truck and driver are held at a shipper or receiver beyond the agreed free time, for delays that are not part of the loading or unloading itself. FMCSA notes that there is no standard definition, but that the industry and researchers generally treat time at a facility beyond 2 hours as detention. ### How much free time do shippers get before detention? Two hours is the common convention: detention usually starts after the first 2 hours at the facility. It is an industry norm, not a regulation. Your rate confirmation or tariff sets the actual free time, and some contracts give more or less, so enter the figure your contract uses. ### How is detention pay calculated? Take the time from when the clock starts (appointment or arrival) to the out time, subtract the free time, round what is left to the billing increment in your contract, and multiply by the hourly rate. Example: appointment 8:00, out 12:10, 2 hours free: 2 hours 10 minutes past free time, billed as 2 hours in 15-minute increments rounded down. ### Is detention pay required by federal law? No. There is no federal rule that requires shippers or brokers to pay detention or sets a rate. Detention is a contract term: the free time, hourly rate, increments and paperwork needed to claim it are agreed in the rate confirmation or the carrier’s tariff. ### Does detention time count toward hours of service? Usually yes. Waiting at a shipper’s facility to be dispatched and attending a truck while it is loaded or unloaded are on-duty time under 49 CFR 395.2 unless the carrier relieves the driver from duty. That time runs down the 14-hour window and the 60/70-hour limit, even though it is not driving time. ### What does detention cost the industry? A 2018 report by the DOT Office of Inspector General estimated that detention reduces the annual earnings of for-hire truckload drivers by $1.1 to $1.3 billion and the net income of truckload carriers by $250.6 to $302.9 million a year, and that each 15-minute increase in average dwell time raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent. [Detention eats into your 14-hour window: check your hours of service](/en-us/tools/hours-of-service-calculator) ### Stop reconstructing dock times from memory Transportial can log arrival and departure at each stop from ELD and telematics geofences, so dwell time is on record when you invoice detention. [Start free →](https://portal.otms.transportial.com/auth/register) [← Back to all free tools](/en-us/tools) --- Canonical page: https://transportial.com/en-us/tools/detention-calculator