By Bernardo Campelo, Forbes Business Council E-Commerce Leader, Amazon SPN Certified provider, Amazon SP-API authorized partner, and Founder of PrepVia.
A detention bill rarely arrives on the day the truck leaves. It shows up weeks later, forwarded by a broker, saying the driver sat at your receiving dock for close to three hours. Somebody at the dock remembers the truck arriving late, without its appointment. Nobody wrote it down, so the bill gets paid.
The fight is old. In 2011 the Government Accountability Office described a carrier that billed more than $4,300 in detention over three months and collected less than $500. That was its example of how hard collection gets when a shipper does not agree with the time. In 2018 the DOT Inspector General recorded the reasons carriers said shippers give for refusing to pay: a truck arriving a minute after its appointment, or a representative refusing to sign a bill of lading noting arrival and departure times. On February 10, 2026, a broker opened a thread titled "Detention claims are becoming a nightmare. Is it just me?" on r/FreightBrokers. It drew 40 comments.
My answer to every one of those threads is the same. The tariff and the contract decide who pays detention. The timestamps decide whether the bill survives, and the receiver's own timestamps exist only at the receiving dock.
The 60-second version
A detention bill is only as strong as the timestamps behind it, and the receiving dock is where those timestamps start. Truck detention runs on the carrier's tariff and your contract: in Old Dominion's published rules tariff, the clock starts at arrival or at the appointment time. Free time runs 20 to 60 minutes by shipments per stop, and each minute after that costs $3.00. Container detention and demurrage run on a federal invoice rule, 46 CFR Part 541. Under it, a billed party need not pay an invoice missing required data or issued more than 30 days after the charge was last incurred. Your dock should record the appointment, gate, door, unload and signature, with a reason code on every delay.
Two Different Charges Share One Word
Truck detention is a motor carrier billing for its tractor, trailer and driver waiting at a shipper or receiver past the free time its tariff or contract allows. You see it counted in minutes or hours, billed by an LTL carrier, a truckload carrier or the drayage company that brought your container from the port.
Container detention and demurrage are different. The definition in 46 CFR 541.3 covers any charges, including per diem, that ocean common carriers, marine terminal operators or NVOCCs assess for the use of terminal space or shipping containers. Freight charges are excluded, and the clock runs in days. When a drayage truck backs a container onto your door for a live unload, both clocks run at once: the trucker's by the hour, the ocean carrier's by the day until the empty goes back.
| Truck detention | Container detention and demurrage | |
|---|---|---|
| Who bills | The motor carrier: LTL, truckload or drayage | Ocean carrier, marine terminal operator or NVOCC |
| Clock unit | Minutes or hours at the facility | Days; the invoice must list the dates charged |
| Where the rules live | The carrier's tariff and your contract | Carrier or terminal tariff or service contract, plus Part 541 for the invoice |
| Dock records that matter | Appointment, gate in, door, unload end, signed receipt, gate out | Container number, arrival, empty and ready time, return notice, refused returns |
Truck Detention Is Written in the Tariff and the Contract
The GAO and the DOT Inspector General both describe detention pay as a matter of contract. The DOT Inspector General's 2018 report ST2018019 found that contracts between shippers, receivers and motor carriers generally limit loading and unloading time, typically to 2 hours. Beyond that, they may entitle carriers to fees. FMCSA wrote in a February 2024 study notice that there is currently no standard definition of detention time. Researchers, it said, have used dwell time over 2 hours as the line. Treat that 2 hours as a research convention. Your carrier's tariff can say something very different.
Here is one that does. Old Dominion publishes its rules tariff, ODFL 100-Q, effective April 14, 2025, item by item. Item 502 covers detention of a trailer with its tractor, and it reads like a list of the records a dock should keep:
- Carrier-caused delay: the item applies only when the delay is not attributable to the carrier.
- Who gets the bill: the payor of the freight charges, unless the consignor, consignee or a third party guaranteed payment.
- When the clock starts: on arrival at the customer's property, or at the appointment time, not before, if one was made.
- Whose clock counts: times in the driver's hand-held device are binding on each party, and the carrier's appointment records are the sole basis for the appointed time.
- When it stops: on a delivery, when unloading is complete and the consignee hands over a signed delivery receipt.
- Free time and price: 20 minutes for one shipment per stop, up to 60 minutes for nine or more, then $3.00 a minute with a $50.00 minimum per shipment.
- Late carrier: more than 30 minutes late for an appointment adds a minute of free time for each minute late.
Two neighbors matter too. Item 501 gives a dropped trailer 24 hours of free time, then $200.00 per 24-hour period. Item 360 says that when a bill of lading other than ODFL's own does not clearly show prepaid or collect, the shipment is handled as collect. This is one carrier's tariff as posted on September 25, 2026, not the market. It is useful because it is explicit about whose clock is official, what starts it and what stops it.
Illustrative example, using the Item 502 numbers. One LTL shipment has a 10:00 appointment. The truck arrives at 9:40 and nothing accrues before 10:00. The last pallet comes off at 10:50, and the desk hands over the signed receipt at 11:05. That is 65 minutes, minus 20 free, so 45 billable minutes, or $135.00. Fifteen of them, $45.00, were created at a desk after the freight was on the floor.
So the signature is a clock event. The appointment confirmation is your evidence. The BOL freight terms decide who gets the first bill. A collect or blank BOL can make the consignee, which can be the prep center itself, the payor of freight charges on your shipment.
Why the Dock Holds the Deciding Record
The carrier arrives with evidence. Under 49 CFR 395.26, an electronic logging device records date, time, location, engine hours, miles and identifiers at every duty status change. Industry stakeholders also told the OIG that large and medium carriers generally track dwell time with GPS. A carrier with that data can show the truck sat at your address from 9:40 to 11:05.
What it cannot prove is why. The OIG put it plainly: available electronic data cannot readily separate detention from legitimate loading and unloading. A geofence does not know the driver came without an appointment, that the paperwork was missing a PRO number, or that your dock had no open door. Only the receiver knows. And only if someone wrote it down at the time.
The bill of lading will not do that job. The federal content rule, 49 CFR 373.101, requires consignor and consignee, origin and destination, package count, freight description and weight or measurement when it drives the rate. Arrival and departure times are not on the list. When they appear, a driver wrote them and asked for a signature, and the OIG reported that representatives do not always sign. A time you sign is a time you agreed to, so sign the ones you agree with and write your own beside the rest. The same logic runs through the BOL and POD paper trail with Amazon.
The Driver Is Watching the Same Clock
Under 49 CFR 395.3, a property-carrying driver may not drive beyond 14 consecutive hours after coming on duty following 10 hours off. Every minute waiting at your dock runs inside that window. In September 2025, FMCSA proposed a Split Duty Period pilot for about 256 participating drivers. It would let them extend the window with one break of 30 minutes to 3 hours at a pickup or delivery, including what is sometimes called detention time. FreightWaves reported on August 27, 2026 that FMCSA had completed pre-tests and plans a full launch in 2027, with 256 drivers in each pilot. The pilot changes how a participating driver's hours count. It does not change who pays for the wait.
The Minimum Dock Record
This is the first instrument. Every inbound and outbound truck gets one row, captured by system time in the moment, not typed up at the end of the shift. If a prep center cannot produce these fields for a truck from three weeks ago, it cannot help you fight that truck's bill.
| Field | Captured when | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment ID, confirmed time, written confirmation | At booking | Whether the clock starts at arrival or at the appointment |
| Gate in | Truck enters the property | Early or late against the appointment |
| Carrier, PRO or BOL number, trailer or container, seal, shipments on the stop | Driver check-in | Ties the truck to your freight; shipments per stop can set free time |
| Freight terms and bill-to on the BOL | Check-in, before signing | Who the carrier bills first |
| Truck at door, unload start, unload end | On the floor | Waiting for a door against working time |
| Exceptions with timestamped photos | During the unload | Time spent on a problem someone else created |
| Delivery receipt signed, times written on it | At the desk | The event that stops the clock in tariffs like Item 502 |
| Gate out | Truck leaves | End of dwell |
| Delay reason code and owner | Whenever the truck waits | The why, which no geofence records |
| Containers: empty and ready time, notice to drayage, refused returns | After the unload | Per diem exposure once the box is empty |
Keep your reason codes short, each with an owner: dock not ready, carrier outside the window, carrier paperwork missing, shipper paperwork missing, load pattern, exception handling. A code with no owner is a note. A code with an owner is an answer. The count side of the same record, cartons against the packing list, is in real counts versus said-to-contain receiving.
24 to 36h prep. 35-hour end-to-end guarantee or the prep is free. Net-30 terms. From 50 units to full truckloads.
Who Pays: The Scenario Table
The second instrument maps each dock scenario to the first bill, where it can travel next and the record that decides it. The second column follows a tariff built like Item 502. The third is contract territory: your agreements decide who owes what, and a disputed amount worth fighting is worth showing to whoever wrote them.
| Scenario | Carrier bills first | Where it can go next | Record that settles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truck on time, dock not ready | Payor of freight charges on the BOL | The receiver, if your agreement makes dock delays its cost | Confirmation, gate in, door time, code: dock not ready |
| Truck more than 30 minutes late for its appointment | Payor of freight charges | Disputed with the carrier, since Item 502 adds free time for each minute late | Appointment confirmation against gate in |
| Truck arrives with no appointment | Payor of freight charges, clock from arrival | Your receiving agreement decides who carries unscheduled waits | Proof no appointment existed, first door offered |
| BOL terms blank or collect | The consignee, where unclear terms mean collect | The brand or supplier, under the receiving agreement | BOL as presented, flagged at check-in |
| Outbound pickup waits on staging or paperwork | Payor named on the outbound BOL | The prep center, if the delay was its dock | Pickup appointment, gate in, time the signed BOL was handed over |
| Container live unload | Drayage: its customer, for waiting. Ocean carrier or NVOCC: the billed party, for per diem | Between importer, forwarder and receiver, by contract | Container number, arrival, unload end, empty-ready notice |
Two rows surprise brands. Outbound: in Item 502, loading time ends when the driver gets a signed bill of lading, so wrapped pallets with unfinished paperwork are still on the clock. Collect: a supplier who ships with blank freight terms can move the first bill to the consignee on the BOL, which can be the prep center. Check terms at the desk before the driver leaves.
Container Detention and Demurrage Run on Federal Invoice Rules
Ocean detention and demurrage come with a federal rule written for the invoice itself. The truck freight bill rule, 49 CFR 373.103, never mentions detention. The FMC adopted billing requirements in February 2024 under the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. They now sit in 46 CFR Part 541 and cover invoices from ocean common carriers, marine terminal operators and NVOCCs. Section 541.6 requires:
- Identity: bill of lading and container numbers, the port of discharge for imports, and why the billed party is the proper party and liable.
- Timing: invoice and due dates, free time in days with start and end dates, the container availability date for imports, and the specific dates charged.
- Rate: the total, the tariff rule or contract section behind it, and the rates.
- Dispute: a contact, a link or QR code to a public page listing what a mitigation, refund or waiver request needs, and the timeframes.
- Certifications: that the charges follow FMC rules and that the billing party's own performance did not cause or contribute to them.
Under section 541.5, missing required information eliminates the obligation to pay. Under section 541.7, an invoice issued more than 30 calendar days after the charge was last incurred need not be paid. An NVOCC gets 30 days from the invoice it received. Under section 541.8, the billed party gets at least 30 days to request mitigation, refund or waiver. The billing party must then attempt to resolve it within 30 days, unless both agree to a later date.
One piece is gone. Section 541.4 once said which parties could properly be billed. On September 23, 2025, the D.C. Circuit set it aside in World Shipping Council v. Federal Maritime Commission, and the FMC removed it from the regulations, effective December 29, 2025. The rest of Part 541 stands. The rule no longer names who may be billed. It requires the invoice to say why the billed party is the right one.
The terminal generates the availability date and free time. The dock generates the dates in the middle: arrival, empty, drayage notified, return refused. Under 46 CFR 545.5, absent extenuating circumstances, practices that impose detention when empty containers cannot be returned are likely to be found unreasonable. Whether that fits your invoice is for your forwarder, customs broker or counsel. The evidence is on the dock. The terminal side is in ISF, bond and demurrage: the import clock, and the port-to-door cost stack in drayage from the Port of Miami to a prep center.
What to Ask a Prep Center Before the First Truck
PrepVia receives trucks and containers at its Miami dock. It is not the importer of record, the forwarder or the drayage company, and it is not a party to your ocean contract. What any receiving dock can give you in a detention dispute is the record, so ask for it before you route freight:
- Do you require appointments and confirm the time in writing? The appointment is where the clock starts in tariffs like Item 502.
- Do you log gate in, door, unload, signature and gate out for every truck by system time? Times typed up later lose to an ELD.
- Do you write times on the delivery receipt when you sign it? A signed time is an agreed time.
- What delay codes do you use, and who assigns the owner? Without the why, the geofence wins.
- What happens when a BOL arrives collect or blank? You want it flagged before the driver leaves.
- How do you tell the drayage company an empty is ready, and do you log refused returns? That record carries a per diem dispute.
- Which detention and waiting charges does your agreement pass to me, on what evidence? Put it next to the clauses in the prep center agreement checklist.
Notice what is missing: a promised unload time. I would rather see a dock that proves its times on every truck than one quoting a number it cannot show you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pays truck detention when the delay happens at a receiving dock?
The carrier's tariff and the contracts decide, not the dock. In Old Dominion's published Item 502, detention goes to the payor of the freight charges unless the consignor, consignee or a third party guaranteed payment. Your agreements with the supplier and the receiver can then move the cost. The dock record decides whether the facts support the bill.
When does the detention clock start if the truck arrives early?
That depends on the tariff. In ODFL 100-Q Item 502, the clock starts on arrival at the customer's property. If an appointment was made, it starts at the appointment time, not before, so an early truck accrues nothing until then. The same item makes the carrier's appointment records the sole basis for the appointed time, so keep your own written confirmation.
Is there a standard free time for truck detention?
Not in the federal sources cited here. FMCSA wrote in February 2024 that there is currently no standard definition of detention time, and the DOT Inspector General found in 2018 that contracts typically allow 2 hours. Old Dominion's Item 502 allows 20 to 60 minutes per stop. The only free time that matters is the one in your tariff and contract.
What must a container detention or demurrage invoice include?
Under 46 CFR 541.6, it must show bill of lading and container numbers, why the billed party is liable, free time with start and end dates, the dates charged, the rule and rates, dispute contacts and certifications. Imports add the port of discharge and the container availability date. Missing information eliminates the obligation to pay, and so does an invoice issued more than 30 calendar days after the charge was last incurred.
Can a receiver dispute detention when the carrier has ELD or GPS data?
A receiver can challenge the reason for a wait more easily than its length. An ELD records date, time and location at each duty status change under 49 CFR 395.26. The DOT Inspector General found that electronic data cannot readily separate detention from legitimate loading and unloading. Your appointment confirmation, door time and reason code answer the why, although some tariffs make the driver's hand-held times binding.
Does the FMCSA split duty pilot change who pays detention?
No. The pilot FMCSA proposed in September 2025 would let about 256 drivers pause the 14-hour driving window for 30 minutes to 3 hours at a pickup or delivery location, including detention time. FreightWaves reported on August 27, 2026 that a full launch is planned for 2027. It changes how those drivers' hours are counted, not which party pays for time at the dock.
Final Take
Detention disputes feel like arguments about money. They are arguments about clocks. The carrier arrives with its own: a hand-held device, an ELD and a geofence. The receiver either keeps a clock of its own or signs the carrier's.
Who pays is written before the truck moves, in the tariff, on your BOL freight terms and in your agreements. What your dock decides is whether the facts on the invoice are the facts that happened. Containers add a second clock with federal paperwork. Part 541 gives a billed party real leverage over an incomplete or late invoice, but only if someone can line your invoice dates up against your dock record.
So before you choose a receiving dock, ask to see the record for one truck, from appointment to gate out. If it exists, your next detention bill is a conversation. If it does not, it is a payment.
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