GetDockPay
Free calculator

Detention pay calculator

Put in your times, your free time and your rate. You get the billable hours and what the stop owes you, worked out to the minute the same way the GetDockPay app does it. No sign-up, nothing stored.

What one stop owes you

hours

$ per hour

Use the free time and rate on your rate con. The 2 hours and $75 filled in are only an example.

You arrived after the appointment. A late arrival can rule out detention however long you waited, so check your rate con before you bill it. The math below starts the clock at your arrival.
Detention owed for this stop
$262.50
Time counted5 h 30 min
Billable3.50 h
On the app's claim$263

What unpaid detention costs you in a year

hours / week

Count only time after the free time on the rate con. Two stops that each ran 90 minutes over is 3 hours.

$ / hour

Median detention fees in 2023 were $50 an hour for truckload, $60 for refrigerated and $80 for specialized (ATRI). Use the rate on your rate con.

weeks
Left at the dock this year
$10,800
Per week$225
Per month$900
Covers Pro for9 months
3 h × $75 = $225 a week
$225 × 48 weeks = $10,800 a year
One billed hour at $75 covers 3 months of Pro at $24.99.
Carriers bill detention only 75% of the time, and only 55% of those invoices get paid (ATRI, 2024). The bills that get paid have the same proof: GPS-stamped arrival and departure, the signed BOL, the rate con clause, and a follow-up when the broker goes quiet. The app records the times, BOL and rate-con numbers for every stop on the Free plan; Pro sends the claim and emails the day 3, 7 and 14 follow-ups.

Start logging stops free

iPhone and Android. No card. Pro is $24.99 a month when you are ready to send the invoice.

How to calculate detention pay

Billable hours = time at the dock after the clock starts, minus free time. Multiply by the hourly rate on your rate con.

This calculator (and the app) starts the clock at the later of your arrival and your appointment, so arriving early never earns detention. Times count to the minute with no rounding up, and billable time is shown in hundredths of an hour.

Example: arrived 2:00 PM, appointment 2:00 PM, departed 7:30 PM, 2 hours free, $75 an hour. 5 h 30 min counted, minus 2 h free = 3 h 30 min = 3.50 h. 3.50 × $75 = $262.50. Arriving at 1:00 PM for the same 2:00 PM appointment gives the same answer.

If your rate con bills in 15-minute steps or caps detention per stop, apply those to the result; the app works to the minute.

Where the numbers come from

Two hours of free time is the most common start: 67% of carriers that charge detention start at two hours, 12% at one hour and 6% at three. Median detention fees in 2023 were $50 an hour for truckload, $60 for refrigerated and $80 for specialized freight. Drivers reported detention at 39.3% of stops (all ATRI, Costs and Consequences of Truck Driver Detention, 2024). Your own rate con is the number that matters, which is why the inputs are yours.

Getting it paid

Detention is an accessorial on the freight bill: it needs the load number, the rate con clause, your in and out times and the broker's email, then a follow-up on day 3, 7 and 14. Read how to get paid for detention time, grab the free invoice template, and see what the broker receives.