Detention policy template

One page your drivers and dispatch can actually follow.

Detention is lost on process, not on merits. This is the process, short enough to print and pin up. Adopt it as written or edit it — it is yours.

Print it, or use your browser’s print dialog to save it as a PDF. Everything below the line prints; this introduction does not.

Detention policy

Company: ________________________    Effective: ________________

1. Drivers — at every facility stop

  1. Note the time you check in at the guard shack, not the time you reach the property. That is the time the claim is measured from.
  2. Tell dispatch immediately if you are not at a door within one hour of your appointment time.
  3. Get the times written on the bill of lading before you leave — check-in, door assignment, release.
  4. If staff refuse to write the times: write them on the face of the BOL yourself, add a line saying the facility refused, get the clerk’s first name or employee number, then date and initial it.
  5. Photograph the annotated BOL, the door number and any visible dock clock before you pull off the property.
  6. Keep every gate ticket, lumper receipt and door assignment slip.

2. Dispatch — before free time runs out

  1. Send the broker written notice at or before the moment free time expires. Not after. This is usually a condition of being paid at all, and it is the only part of a claim that cannot be produced later.
  2. The notice needs three things: the load number, the exact check-in time, and the current status at the facility.
  3. Save the broker’s reply. A written acknowledgement is what authorises the bill.

Load [number]. Driver checked in at [facility] at [time]. Still not at a door as of [time]. Free time expires now, detention clock starting.

3. Billing — within 48 hours of delivery

  1. Invoice detention as its own line, separate from linehaul and fuel surcharge.
  2. Attach the rate confirmation with the detention clause highlighted, the BOL, the notice thread, and the telematics record.
  3. Send it to the broker’s billing or claims address, not to the dispatcher.
  4. Accessorial deadlines are shorter than your normal billing terms and they run out quietly. Treat detention as a faster workflow.

4. What we do not chase

  • Loads where no notice was sent during the wait.
  • Rate confirmations with no detention terms, or “at broker discretion”.
  • Under an hour of billable time.

Writing those off is what makes the winnable ones worth the time.

Template from dwellwatch.app — free to adopt and edit. General information, not legal advice.

Why these four things and not others

Denials cluster around missing timestamps and missing real-time notice rather than around the merits. That means most of what carriers lose is process, and a process short enough to fit on one page is one people actually follow.

The notice is step one for dispatch because it is the only piece that cannot be rebuilt afterwards. Everything else — the BOL, the photos, the telematics — can be assembled after the truck has gone. That one cannot.

Use it with

The step that breaks down is step two.

Somebody has to notice the truck is still sitting, while it is still sitting, on every load. DwellWatch does that from the ELD you already run. Start with a free 30-day audit of what detention has already cost you.

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