When to ask for detention?

I charge $75 per hour for detention after the first two hours. At 1 1/2 hours I am calling the broker to let them know about the delay and there may be a detention charge if the shipper doesn't get moving soon. However, I did learn a lesson the other day.

I billed CHR for 4.25 hours of detention at $75 per hours. After a week of not getting my pay, we resent the invoice and asked the status. They then sent a rate sheet back for $75 total on three hours. I called and asked if that was a joke, that I invoiced at $75 per hours. The broker said I can't set arbitrary rates and that $25 was the contract they had with the shipper. I replied that as the truck owner and business owner I could determine my own rate. Obviously he didn't like that reply, said fine I will give you what you want and hung up.

We received a new rate sheet of $50 per hour for three hours. Better than $25 but not the $75 we invoiced. Next time we will get a new confirmation before delivery being that the ball is in our court while we still own the load. Unfortunately this was from one of the big brokerage houses who seem to make the rules as they go along.

 

That is one of my gripes with CHR detention standard rate "is" $25 an hour. Good game plan getting a new confirmation with the correct detention rate before delivery instead of the nothing they always want to pay so they can skim detention that doesn't even belong to them in the first place (or any broker).

 

Here is the problem. I got paid 1/2 A year later. Lost the customer. I was banned. Office people said never dispatch this truck on this again. They never tell you that. 160.00 detention cost me several hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Customer has the say in the matter. Don't sit 10 hours for free. But don't bite the hand that feeds you either.

 

meh, that's all bs. Not my problem how much "wiggle room" the broker has. You give me a rate confirmation for 12:00 appt. I'm there at 12:00, should be loaded by 14:00. Broker's don't have a habit of paying for my mistakes, I don't pay for theirs. Whether they break even or not has nothing to do with it. I lose money on loads all the time, why would I think a broker shouldn't pay detention if it makes him lose money on the load ? Am I gonna call a broker 50 miles out and say, "Ghee, I ran out of wiggle room can you put some fuel in my tank for me ?". that's ridiculous.

Then, here we go with the carrot dangle logic. Be nice to the broker, that's how you get the really good loads ! lol, right, so it's good business to take a loss on someone elses screw up cuz they'll really give you the good stuff later. mmmhmm, good luck with that. Ask that broker why he doesn't get his own fleet of monkey-driven trucks then and pile up the money.

 

I agree it isnt the carriers problem if there isnt any wiggle room in a load for detention pay. But it is also unfair to blame the broker. We set up your appt times and expect you to be there. If you are, I expect the shipper/receiver to get you out in a timely fashion. 2 hrs for dry 4 hrs for produce. If this sint done, we have to get detetnion from them to pay you with, otherwise it has to come out of out pocket. We cant go to them and start loading you ourselves, we can only try and put pressure on them to get some gitty-up on taking care fo the carrier.

The only draw back i run into when getting carriers detention is dishonesty. When they say they were somwhere on time when they werent or were loaded over a longer period than they were. We can only count on the word of the customer to get true in and out times, if they are different than what the driver gave us, it puts a red flag up about paying detetnion.

Best practice is to give best to exact times as possible, have patience and ask to get detetnion, instead of telling a broker you need it.

 

I charge for detention.
I
run a 7 axle setup. I will give them 4 hours of my time. When the clock gets at 3 hours I call the broker and let them know the shipper still has not lded. me.
I also let them know when I get there to ld. as well.
Keep everybody in the loop so to speak.
My rate can very from ld. to ld.
Depends on the weight and if it's for my max setup.
They wanna stall I let them know I'm leaving.
Things happen and I try and work with each customer.. Not allways a hard arse