Detention has two parts: the time lost at the dock, and whether you get paid for it. They need different responses.
To lose less time, book appointments you can actually hit, arrive within the window, and have the BOL, PO, and any appointment number ready so check-in is quick. Facilities work on-time, prepared trucks first. Track which shippers and receivers routinely run long and either price that in or push back on the appointment.
To collect what you cannot avoid, start from the rate confirmation: know the free window and the hourly rate before the truck arrives, and negotiate them if the broker’s standard terms are unfavorable. Then capture proof — arrival and departure times from a gate system, a driver app, or the BOL annotated and signed by the facility. Detention billed with times that match the receiver’s records gets paid; detention billed from the driver’s memory usually does not.
How to apply the answer
The answer changes when the operating facts change. Before applying it, identify the carrier's fleet size, equipment, authority model, lanes, customer requirements, and the records already available. A small owner-operator may make a different decision from a multi-truck carrier with dedicated freight, an accounting team, or a shipper routing guide. State those assumptions so another person can review the reasoning instead of treating a general answer as a promise.
Use the answer as a starting point for a repeatable workflow. Write down the inputs, compare the available options, and record the evidence behind the decision. For this question, the relevant terms include detention, dwell-time, rate-confirmation, accessorial-charge. Linking the question to those definitions helps a dispatcher or owner move from a short answer to the operational detail that determines what happens next.
A useful next step is to test the decision against one real load, customer, driver, or settlement record, while keeping private information out of the example. Check what changed after the decision and update the process if the result did not match the assumption. This is especially important for compliance, tax, pricing, and cash-flow topics, where requirements and commercial terms can change.
If the decision affects more than one team, write down the handoff: who prepares the information, who reviews it, and where the final record lives. That small step turns a useful answer into a repeatable operating practice and makes it easier to find the next question when the workflow changes.
Trailflow's product pages describe supported workflows separately from this answer. Review the relevant product or workflow page for current availability, and verify regulated or financial decisions with the applicable primary source or qualified advisor.
Terms in this answer: Detention, Dwell Time, Rate Confirmation, Accessorial Charge
In Trailflow: the driver app.