Detention; What are we gonna do??

Why would you cap the o.o at 50 a hour? I know your making more than that. Are the o.o renting your trailer?

 

Actually 20 an hour isn't that far out of line. I personally think 15 is more realistic. Where we would differ is the first two hours being free, that would only work in a few niche markets. 4 hours is more feasible industry wide.

 

4 hours is ridiculous if you want someone to sit around for free that's just stupid. 2 is long time to load/unload. Hell a lot of places I go to are 1 hour free.

 

Have you ever negotiated Freight contract? Taking that hard nose attitude will only result in a potential customer telling you they are going to stay with their current carrier.

 

I agree 4 hours is ridiculous. I don't go back to customers that take more than 2 hours or don't pay detention at all. They can keep their other carrier. I'm not running a charity service and the bills for the truck and back home don't pay themselves. No one in a trucking company's office would sit at their desk and work for one hour free every day, much less 2 or more hours. Yet trucking companies think nothing about doing it to drivers.

 

Container detention isn't like your normal otr stuff.

 

I haul containers, we give 2 hrs free on all loads for loading or unloading, after that we charge $65 to $95/hr ( depends on the forwarder/broker/customer) driver standby time. Dispatch is tight on us about it also, we check in when we arrive, or as soon as possible, then after 90 minutes, then at 2 hrs, then every hr thereafter. If it's in the city, we (the drivers) are already paid by the hour, so it doesn't matter how long, we get paid the same. But, if it's out of town, I get a percentage of the detention fee, in my case it's 30%, on my last check, of my $950.00 percentage pay, $150 of that was detention pay for 4 different loads.

 

And that 4 hrs is why drivers/companies are being taken advantage of. I've gone into customers and been told it'll be 4 hrs, I tell them ok, but after two hours we charge detention, amazingly, I'm often unloaded ahead of OTR drivers who arrive before me, but are forced to give up 4 hrs of time. Several years back, I arrived at Sysco in Billings, 42,000 lbs of Kikkoman. The truck next to me arrived an hr before me, I was told the lumper fee and that it would be 3 to 5 hours. I told the receiver that we charged detention after 2 hrs, I was unloaded, received and on the road before the OTR driver as a result.