Detention pay calculator
Find out what that stop was worth.
Enter how long your truck sat, the free time in that broker’s contract, and your rate. You get the amount and the working behind it — the same arithmetic that goes on an evidence packet.
Your stop
What that stop was worth
$337.50
for 6h 45m of billable detention
- Time on site
- 8h 34m
- Less free time
- − 2h
- Past free time
- 6h 34m
- Rounded up to 27 increments of 15m
- 6h 45m
- 6.75h × $50.00/hr
- $337.50
Whether you can still bill it is a different question
The figure above is what the stop was worth. Getting paid for it turns on three things that have nothing to do with the arithmetic.
- The broker usually has to be told at the time.
- Most contracts require written notice at or before free time runs out. A claim filed days later without it gets denied on that alone, however good the proof is.
- The filing window is short.
- Commonly 24 to 48 hours after delivery. A stop you are looking up from last month is almost certainly outside it.
- Free time is whatever that contract says.
- Not a universal two hours. It changes per customer, and billing against the wrong figure is one of the easiest ways to have a claim thrown out.
So treat that number as a measurement, not a cheque. It tells you what one stop cost you. The useful question is what the next one costs — and whether anyone catches it while the truck is still there.
Related reading
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.
See what detention cost you last month.
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