Free detention calculator
Detention pay calculator for carriers and small fleets
Enter when the truck arrived and left, the free time and your hourly rate. The calculator shows the billable time and what the stop is owed. The math runs in your browser.
How the math works
- Time on site runs from arrival to departure at the shipper or receiver.
- Free time comes off first. Use the free time in your rate confirmation.
- What is left is billed in whole minutes at your hourly rate. A partial minute is dropped, and the amount is rounded to the nearest cent.
What detention is
Detention is what a shipper or receiver pays the carrier when a truck waits at the dock past its free time. The rate confirmation sets the free time and the hourly rate. Collecting it takes times the customer can check.
The American Transportation Research Institute found that 94.5 percent of carriers charge detention, but they end up paid for fewer than half of their detention incidents. ATRI, September 2024
Detention pay questions
When does detention pay start?
When the free time in your rate confirmation runs out. Check whether your contract starts the clock at arrival or at the appointment time. This calculator starts it at the arrival time you enter.
How much is detention pay for truckers?
Whatever your rate confirmation or contract says. Rates are agreed per load or per customer, so the calculator doesn't fill one in: enter the hourly rate you agreed.
How do I get paid for detention?
Bill the broker or shipper with the arrival and departure times, the free time and rate from your rate confirmation, and the billable time. Times they can check, on a signed BOL or from GPS, make the claim easier to accept. Your rate confirmation decides what gets paid.
SpatialFlow does this math from your drivers' phones.
Draw a geofence around each shipper and receiver. The driver's phone stamps arrival and departure, and the Detention report prices every stop with the same rule as this calculator, then exports CSV.
Free for up to 5 phones. No credit card.
