In a trucking industry plagued by costly delays, detention time is a significant and persistent issue. Hundreds of millions of work hours are lost annually, amounting to billions of dollars in non-reimbursed costs.
This article highlights the financial drain caused by detention time — when a driver, tractor, and trailer wait at either a shipper pick-up or delivery location for more than two hours — and its effects on driver retention, fleet efficiency, and overall profitability.
Next-gen technology, specifically EKA Omni-TMS™, offers a transformative solution. With automated service compliance, streamlined billing, and data-driven insights, carriers can effectively manage and recover detention costs, helping them drive efficiencies, reduce losses, and ultimately boost the bottom line.
Detention time and delays at customer facilities have been among the trucking industry's top concerns since2019. And according to the American Transportation Research Institute's (ATRI)latest top industry issues report, it ranks as the No. 8 concern among survey respondents. It was the No. 4 top concern for truck drivers.
Over 135 million hours in 2023were lost to detention, which is just a huge drain on productivity. This equates to $11.5 in lost potential revenue. As they say in trucking, “If the wheels are not turning, you are not earning.” Just “sitting around and doing nothing”costs the trucking industry $3.6 billion in direct costs that are not reimbursed by shippers.
Additional Economic Impacts ofDetention Time
34% of truck drivers say they’ve quit a job because of excessive detention time. There is a strong correlation between trucking company driver turnover level and level of detention experienced by the company.
Detained drivers were found to drive a little over 14.5% faster than trucks that are not detained. One of the interesting findings was that drivers don't just drive faster after; they also drive faster before they get to pick up or delivery location, anticipating that the shipper is going to detain them. Drivers are spending valuable time and energy constantly thinking about where I am going to be detained next and what can I do beforehand as well as afterward?
· Carriers invoice their shippers, on average, about 75% of the time.
· Only a little over half, 55%, of invoices are actually paid.
· About 41% of all detention incidents that involve detention fees are actually paid.
Many reasons factor in and make this current system of detention fees inadequate for the task of compensating carriers and drivers.
Shippers use frivolous reasons to justify short paying a detention invoice because they know that they can often get away with it. Here are examples of why they don’t pay or short pay carrier detention invoices:
· The driver arrives 10 minutes late for the appointment.
· An email notification was not sent to the shipper when the detention period was “triggered,” as required by detention contract
· Lack of objective time clock-type support data confirming length of detention time to measure start and end time of detention event.
There are all kinds of these little reasons that factor in and make the current system of detention fees inadequate to the task of compensating carriers and drivers fairly.
· Carriers make shippers aware of detention costs using specific data that shows actual detention cost incurred and trends for each pick-up and delivery location by month/year.
· Negotiate detention contract terms with shipper that maximize recovery of detention costs
· Choose a “forward leaning” TMS likeEKA Omni-TMS™, that provides data/reports to effectively communicate detention performance by shipper, monitor detention cost recovery and which ensures full service and detention compliance with each shipper contract. Also, a TMS that delivers a highly automated end-to-end detention solution for shipper service compliance, driver and O/O detention pay, shipper notifications, and accurate invoicing with supporting data in full compliance with shipper detention contract.
It takes a combination of EKAOmni-TMS™, and several real-time integrated technology solutions provided by other key solution partners to deliver the most automated and robust end-to-end detention technology solutions.
EKA‘s People-First TMS platform fluidly melds automated detention solutions with its superior load planning, execution, driver settlement, shipper billing, visibility, reporting and BI tools, and compliance with shipper detention contract terms. This fusion enables customers to negotiate and recover the highest level of detention cost from shippers. Also, EKA makes it easy — you need to access one system, and you are a click away to get the job done!
EKA is fully committed to rapidly developing and implementing solutions with its expanding list of Alliance and Integration partners to provide “forward-leaning” and “best-in-class” customer service compliance, detention cost reduction and cost recovery TMS Solution.
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