Detention in Trucking: Why It Results in Additional Charges

Detention in trucking occurs when a driver's route is delayed beyond the agreed-upon 2-hour window at either the pick-up or delivery location, resulting in truck detention and additional charges validated by time-stamped documents. The drivers have their documents time-stamped when they arrive to validate the time that will be charged. 

The purpose of detention in trucking is to compensate the driver and or carrier when they are held up. In most detention cases when the driver is set back and not loaded promptly, a snowball effect takes place. Examples are as follows:

• The driver runs out of legal driving hours and cannot move the goods from origin to destination in a timely manner.

• The driver may not be able to reach the destination if there is an appointment due to hours of service rules. This causes added detention if the driver cannot meet his next appointment and is told to wait to get unloaded.

• The driver may miss his next pick-up and lose his next load if he is not unloaded promptly as the next shipper may use another carrier to move the load.

As you can see, when trucks are not loaded or unloaded timely, it does affect the process of FTL shipping down the line. The cost of detention varies based on the company, the equipment, and the geography. Rates range from $50 an hour to $100 an hour.

The best ways to avoid truck detention and keep your costs down are:

1. Ensure the goods are ready for loading before scheduling the truck.
2. Advise the warehouse that the truck must be loaded within a given timeline such as 2 hours or less.
3. Space out the appointments so that you have time to unload the truck.
4. Add warehouse staff to be able to unload the truck promptly. ($75 an hour detention adds up quickly so it is cheaper to add more labor to load - and unload the truck than to pay detention).
5. Keep in mind that when you hold up the truck, you're delaying your delivery as well. This may cost your company future sales if items get delivered late consistently.
6. Ensure you have forklifts (the proper equipment in good working order) to unload the truck promptly.
7. Stagger your warehouse labor so people can unload through lunch. (Remember this avoids detention saving shippers and receivers monies.)