The Hours Nobody Pays For: Why Detention Time Is a Bigger Problem Than It Sounds

A driver shows up on time, backs into the dock, and then waits. And waits. Industry surveys show nearly 60 percent of drivers now wait more than two hours to get loaded or unloaded, and 63 percent report waits over three hours. That time doesn't just disappear, it eats directly into the hours a driver has available to drive, and often into the pay they were counting on for the day.

What Detention Pay Is Supposed to Fix

Detention pay exists to compensate drivers for exactly this: time spent waiting at a shipper or receiver beyond a reasonable window, usually after the first hour or two. Current rates typically run $25 to $50 an hour for company drivers, more for owner-operators, and higher still for specialized freight. On paper, the system is designed to make sure a driver's time has value even when a truck isn't moving.

The problem isn't that detention pay doesn't exist, it's that it often doesn't get collected. Research suggests less than half of the detention charges drivers are owed actually get paid out. Between inconsistent tracking, disputes over who was responsible for the delay, and paperwork that's easy to lose in the shuffle, drivers frequently end up absorbing hours of unpaid waiting as just part of the job.

Every hour lost sitting at a dock is an hour that can't be used to reach the next stop, get home on schedule, or simply rest. When detention time isn't tracked and paid consistently, drivers are effectively working for free, and it pushes them closer to rushing once they finally do get moving, which is exactly the kind of pressure that leads to mistakes. Treating detention as an occasional bonus rather than a real cost of doing business puts that pressure on the person with the least control over the delay in the first place.

What Actually Changes This

Fixing it starts with tracking arrival and departure times consistently, documenting delays as they happen instead of after the fact, and treating detention pay as a non-negotiable part of settling a load rather than something a driver has to fight for. When that tracking is built into everyday operations instead of handled case by case, drivers spend less energy chasing down what they're owed and more time doing the job they signed up for.

How EB Infinity Handles It

At EB Infinity, dock times are tracked and detention pay is treated as a routine part of every settlement, not an exception a driver has to request. Waiting at a dock is frustrating enough without also having to fight to get paid for it, and making sure that doesn't happen is one of the more straightforward ways a company can show it values a driver's time.