Detention pay

Everyone wants to know what something is going to cost them. The way I see it, get it as an all in rate. Do you really want to hear "if this happens...then this is the price, and if this.. .then this..." etc etc etc. It works out the same. Do you want less + possible detention? Or flat rate and if I get in and out fast then hey i won one? It's a win some lose some game to me. And my customers appreciate knowing exactly what it's going to cost them. If a place is notoriously excessive on waiting time, I ask for more up front. None of this guessing game business. I pull reefer and do at least 50% frozen and the bulk of the rest is produce/meat loads and here and there the occasional dry load.

Only time I make a stink is if something really goes off course.

 

I have a circular or conditions of service I use with every load. When I get a rate con from a broker I sign and send back "load accepted by: YOUR SIGNATURE HERE per conditions of service at www.yoursite.com"

My conditions of service spell out in detail about claims, detention, truck order not used, salvage rights, my base rate plus fuel surcharge. It's a 4 page document that saves my butt in situations where the broker wants to try and play games. Since they didn't reject the rate con with that change made to it, it means they accepted the change and you're now in a binding agreement.

Sometimes brokers will kick it back and say they won't agree to that, those are brokers I won't work with.

 

Do you actually require them to send it back to you with their signature by that stipulation site?

 

I'm using that web address as just a filler. They don't send anything back to me at all unless the broker disagrees with my stamp I sign all ratecons with.

 

The min Tonu I've read on here is $450 If you drive half a day to pick up than wait a few hour to find out they don't want you for no reason. Now your day is shot and may not find a new load until the next day.

 

The brokerage sends a Rate con with some basic detention info or none. Now, the proper way of handling it, imo, would be to verbally agree with the broker as to what the new detention terms are and then tell them that the rate con will have some additional (perhaps handwritten) notes about it with crossing out the old ones and that they should put their signature or initials that they agree with it. I think, this is a bulletproof legal way of handling it, in case of some potential misunderstanding or denial. Alternatively, requesting that they themselves state new detention terms on the revised rate confirmation would be even better and simpler option.
However, imo, in real life it may be a little complicated and time consuming and I am not so sure if they (brokers) would play along. I am sure that with reefer operations detention plays more vital role than with any other equipment.
When I go to Walmarts, Krogers, Krafts and such, I ask for more money. Simpler that way.

 

When I did a lot of produce I basically never paid detention. I told everyone up front what they were in for, and after that they were grownups who had gotten themselves into whatever happened next. That way of doing business only works if your customer is willing to pay enough to entice trucks to agree to those terms. I doubt there will be very many shippers still operating this way when this particular up cycle ends.

Nowadays I pay 35 dollars an hour for detention with 2 hours free on each end. Average loading time is an hour and average unloading time is an hour so I pay detention like 0.75% of the time. This is why I'm way less stressed and doing better health wise I'm pretty sure. Constantly squabbling over detention money is really unpleasant.

 

We typically pay $50/hr for detention after two hours, if the driver makes the hit time they set. 98% of my loads are open pick-up/delivery times, so detention rarely comes up unless there's something egregious. Looking back on my past hundred loads, I'm seeing detention on a total of three, so it's not a super common occurance.