What you should know about Detention Pay!

Yeah, you miss those gravey train detentions from a couple years ago that paid something like $100 an hour and you would get a 10-hour break because the set your appoint for when they where closed. Laughed all the way to the bank.

 

This is the way I do it now and everyone is much happier this way. In the beginning, I used to not price in the load/unload. I was often calling brokers asking for detention but it always put a strain on the relationship. Now I build in 2-4 hrs of load time at $75 and 1-4 hrs unload time at $75. Less stress for everyone.

Do I get every load I bid? Of course not but it weeds out the cheap brokers and I find I deal with a better class of people that understands these things.

There are still brokers out there like Mallard Transportation of NB, Canada that expect me to wait 6.5 hours for $150 because the crane crew didn't bring enough counter weights. But that was ~5 years ago an you tend to remember those types.

 

I am reminded of a time that a shipper was late in getting the load ready. It was supposed to be ready the day before we arrived and they were just about finished when we showed up at 10:00 the next AM. That was fine...until the power went out. Driver had to layover. Broker suggested that it was an force majuere (sp?). I said it wasn't God's fault they didn't have it ready the night before.

Broker told me he would pay me the $50/hr out of his own pocket of necessary. Nice guy. I said we need to get them on the phone so we had a conference call. First words out of the shipper's mouth was we usually pay $75 after 1.

Detention pay is nothing to a shipper...it's almost always the broker chiseling.

 

Any time a steel plant is shipping expect to wait and wait and wait.
Forget detention, since brokers have to go after the shippers for the extra money because their not going to take a cut since its not their fault.

Steel, forever to load and unload. Forget it.
Pipe, same thing.
Machines, could be good or bad. Maybe.
Lumber, unloaded in 25 mins tops. Yes.

Screw the detention, let it sit for next guy.

 

As a broker I always try to get detention for the driver if he is held up beyond two hours. Most of the time I get it for them. What drives me crazy though is almost on a daily basis I have drivers running late for appointments and hear every excuse in the book. It really gets old getting lied to nearly every day. I don't see the companies willing to discount the load for me even though their tardiness and lack of honesty can harm my reputation. Just an fyi but depending on the situation and customer I usually get them $40-$50 per hour. I also make sure I am on the shipper or receivers behind as much as possible to get them out of there.

 

If they miss their appointment do they go to the back of the line and wait until all the other appointments are filled and without detention?

 

SWIFT had me deliver to OR and was supposed to Deliver Thursday 5 PM... went to the lactation and was told no deliveries after 2PM.. had to wait from 3 PM Thursday to 8 AM Friday in order to unload.. Swift declined to pay detention. Will never haul for them again

 

You don't call the receiver to verify delivery times when you pick up a load? I cannot tell you how many times the contracted delivery appointment was imaginary. Always call while you still have time to make adjustments.

 

NOCoCraig Often you are not provided nor allowed to contact brokers client...