Detention Pay: How to Actually Get Paid
TruckMars Editorial · June 25, 2026
What to Know Before You Act on This
Know Your Free-Time Terms Before You Arrive
Free time, commonly one to two hours, should already be stated on your rate confirmation. If it isn't, get it confirmed before you accept the load, because an unwritten term is one you can't enforce.
Document Arrival and Departure Every Time
A time-stamped signature, photo of the dock clock, or check-in confirmation at both arrival and departure is what actually holds up. Memory alone rarely wins a dispute against a broker's own internal records.
Submit Claims Fast and Follow Up Politely
File your detention claim within the window stated in your rate confirmation or the broker's standard terms. Persistent, documented follow-up collects far more often than a single angry call.
Detention Pay: How to Actually Get Paid
Detention pay exists on paper for almost every load, but actually collecting it comes down to documentation, not entitlement. A driver who sits at a dock for four hours past their free time and simply remembers it happened is in a far weaker position than one who has time-stamped proof of exactly when they arrived and left. Brokers aren't being unreasonable when they ask for documentation before paying; they're protecting themselves from claims they can't verify, and the carriers who understand that get paid far more consistently than the ones who treat detention as something owed automatically. Building a habit around documenting every dock visit changes detention from a frustration into predictable income.
Understand Your Free-Time Terms Before You Ever Arrive
Free time is the window a shipper or receiver gets before detention charges start accruing, and it's commonly one to two hours, though it varies by broker and by load. This term needs to be stated on your rate confirmation before you accept the load, not assumed based on what's typical in the industry. If it isn't listed, ask the broker directly and get it added in writing, because you can't enforce a term that was never actually agreed to, no matter how standard it might be elsewhere.
Documentation Is the Entire Game
The single biggest factor in whether a detention claim gets paid is whether you have real documentation of your arrival and departure times. A time-stamped signature from dock staff, a photo of a dock clock or your phone's timestamp next to a visible landmark, or a check-in confirmation through a broker's tracking app all count as solid proof. Get this at both arrival and departure, every single time, even on loads where you don't expect to sit long, since you often don't know you're going to be detained until you already are.
Verbal recollection alone rarely holds up. Telling a broker 'I was there for four hours' means very little against their own internal records showing something different, and brokers have no obligation to take your word over their paperwork. The driver who shows up to a dispute with a time-stamped photo and a signed BOL annotation wins that conversation almost every time, while the driver relying on memory usually doesn't.
Submit the Claim Promptly, Not Whenever You Get Around to It
Most rate confirmations or broker standard terms specify a window for submitting detention claims, often somewhere in the 48 to 72 hour range after delivery, though this varies. File within that window every time. Waiting weeks to submit a claim gives a broker an easy, legitimate reason to deny it outright, since by then the paper trail has gone cold on their end too and the claim starts to look like an afterthought rather than a real charge.
What a Strong Detention Claim Actually Looks Like
A strong claim includes the rate confirmation showing the agreed free-time terms, a time-stamped arrival record, a time-stamped departure record, and a clear calculation of the hours beyond free time multiplied by the agreed detention rate. Put this together as a single, clean submission rather than a vague message saying you sat too long. Brokers process a high volume of claims, and one that's already organized and easy to verify tends to move through their system faster than one that requires back-and-forth just to understand what's being claimed.
When Brokers Push Back
Pushback is common, even on well-documented claims, simply because some brokers test whether a driver will follow up. A documented arrival and departure time paired with a rate confirmation showing the free-time terms is the strongest position you can be in when this happens. Respond with persistent, polite follow-up, restating the documentation you've already provided rather than escalating to frustration. An angry phone call without paperwork behind it rarely moves a claim forward, while calm, repeated follow-up backed by real documentation collects far more often.
Building Detention Documentation Into Your Routine
The carriers who collect detention pay consistently are the ones who've made documentation automatic rather than something they remember to do only when a wait feels unusually long. Snap a photo the moment you check in at a dock and another the moment you're released, every load, regardless of how the wait looks in the moment. This habit costs almost nothing in effort and means you're never caught without proof on the one load where the wait turns out to matter.
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What Carriers Say
“I started taking a photo of my phone's clock next to the dock door every single stop, whether I expect to sit or not. It's paid off more times than I can count.”
“A broker denied my first detention claim because I submitted it two weeks late. I never make that mistake anymore, I file within a day now.”