How detention works
Free Time by Freight Type and Region
A reference for what the market generally does. The market is not a party to your contract — the rate confirmation in front of you overrides every line on this page.
Two further notes before the tables. Every figure below comes from US industry sources and is quoted in US dollars; no comparable Canadian survey data exists. And the confidence column reflects how well each row is sourced, not how common it is.
Free time by freight type
| Freight type | Standard free time | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry van | 2 hours per stop | Confirmed in two published schedules. Detention on 32.6% of stops | High |
| Refrigerated | 2 hours per stop | Same clause as dry van, detention on 56.2% of stops | High |
| Flatbed, general | 2 hours per stop | Detention on 26.2% of stops | High |
| Specialized | Often 1 hour, or paid from arrival | Free time frequently traded away. Detention on 19.3% of stops | Medium |
| Hazmat, tank | 2 hours per stop | Free time standard; hourly rate carries the premium | Medium |
| Container drayage, Metro Vancouver | Set by terminal or contract | Driver pay is regulated; free time is not. See region table | High |
Free time from two published accessorial schedules. Detention frequencies from ATRI, Costs and Consequences of Truck Driver Detention: A Comprehensive Analysis (September 2024).
Free time barely varies by equipment. Two hours is close to universal in general freight. What varies is how often you exceed it: refrigerated operations run the highest detention frequency of any equipment class, on the same two-hour clause, because of pulp checks, pre-cooling, and lumper-dependent unloading — which is why comparing your rate to the market tells you little.
Free time by region and jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Basis | What governs free time | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada, general freight | Private contract | Rate confirmation or master agreement only. No statute | High |
| Metro Vancouver container drayage | Contract, plus statutory pay rules | Free time itself is still contractual. The BC Container Trucking Act sets minimum operator compensation and requires 100% pass-through of wait time remuneration to the driver | High |
| United States, general freight | Private contract | Rate confirmation only. Statutory tariffs ended with 1980 deregulation | High |
| Cross-border Canada–US | Private contract | No differing free time convention. Differences are currency, tax and HOS | Medium |
Container Trucking Regulation (BC Reg 248/2014) — wait time remuneration, ss. 1, 23 and 24(2), and the published schedules above.
There is no provincial or state variation in free time as a matter of law anywhere outside the BC drayage framework. Regional differences that exist are facility practice, not regulation — the Canadian legal position in full.
When the clock starts
The start trigger is the most-disputed term and the one most often left out of a rate confirmation. Four candidates, listed earliest to latest:
| Trigger | What it means | Typically favoured by |
|---|---|---|
| Geofence or property entry | First recorded arrival on site | Carrier |
| Gate arrival | Truck reaches the facility gate | Carrier |
| Guard shack check-in | Driver registers with facility staff | Common convention, especially first-come-first-served sites |
| Dock door assignment | Driver is staged at an assigned door | Broker and shipper |
Ordering and typical preference observed across published schedules and broker-carrier agreements. Where your rate confirmation is silent, expect the latest defensible trigger to be applied.
Convention is the scheduled appointment time, or check-in at facilities operating first-come-first-served. Early arrival generally does not start the clock; the appointment time does. Where the rate confirmation is silent, expect the latest defensible trigger to be applied — and note that your ELD records the earliest of the four.
Billing mechanics
| Term | Common practice | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Detention rate | $50 to $60 per hour | High |
| Daily cap | A dollar ceiling equal to the layover day rate, working out to about 6 hours | High |
| Layover | $300 to $360 per 24 hours, more for a team | High |
| TONU | $150 | High |
| Stop-off | $50 per stop | High |
| Billing increment | 15, 30 or 60 minutes | Medium |
| Advance notice requirement | Before the charge is incurred. Not a set number of minutes | High |
| Submission deadline | 24 to 48 hours after delivery | Medium |
From two published accessorial schedules and broker-carrier agreements. All figures in USD.
The cap matters more than the rate, and in both published schedules the cap equals the layover day rate. Detention accrues hourly until it costs what a full layover day costs, then stops. Check the cap first — which is also where a detention day becomes a layover day.
Multi-stop loads
| Model | How free time is allocated | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Per-stop | Full free time window at every stop | Medium |
A broker-favourable variant giving free time only at origin and final delivery circulates in industry commentary, but neither published schedule contains it — so it is deliberately not listed as a model here.
Read your own rate confirmation rather than assuming either model. Stop-off charges are separate from detention: you can bill a stop-off fee for the existence of an additional stop and detention for waiting at it.
What this page can’t tell you
Whether any of it applies to your loads. The conventions above describe what the market generally does, and the market is not a party to your contract. The only authoritative source for your free time is the rate confirmation in front of you, and the second-best source is your own record of what your receivers actually do.
Measuring the second one across a fleet is what we built DwellWatch for.
Find out what detention cost your fleet last month
Connect your ELD and DwellWatch reads the last 30 days of your own telemetry — every hold past free time, at every customer site, with the hours behind it. It takes minutes, there is no card, and nothing for your drivers to do.
It is a measurement, not a cheque: filing windows and the notice requirement mean most of a look-back is already gone. What it tells you is the size of the leak, and whether it is worth closing.
Start my free auditRead next
Standard Detention Rates by Freight Type
Standard detention is two hours free then $50 to $60 an hour, capped around six hours. Here’s what real contracts say, and why normal doesn’t cover your costs.
Detention Pay in Canada: How Free Time Actually Works
Canadian law makes you pay your driver for the wait, but doesn't make anyone pay you. Here's how free time, HOS rules, and broker recourse actually work.
Detention vs Layover vs TONU: What’s the Difference?
Detention is hourly, layover is daily, TONU is a flat cancellation fee. Here’s which applies when, what each is worth, and how brokers convert one to another.