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Trucking Tends: Truck Detention: No Time to Wait
Inefficiencies at loading docks and yards cost truck drivers significant time and money





By Mark Montague, DAT Solutions

If there's one area where carriers, freight brokers, and shippers can agree, it's that more productivity is good for business. Unfortunately, the loading dock—where shippers and carriers literally come together—is the area where much productivity gets lost.

At DAT Solutions, we surveyed 257 carriers and nearly 63% said their truck drivers spend more than three hours at a shipper's dock waiting for their vehicle to be loaded and unloaded. Roughly 54% reported typical detention times of three to four hours, while 9% said it was common to be detained five hours or more.

All of that lost productivity is a big issue when you're paid by mile and need to keep the wheels turning in order to generate revenue. In fact, 84% of motor carriers said detention is one of the top five business problems they face.

By contrast, among the 50 freight brokers who responded to the survey, only 20% agreed that detention is one of their top five problems while 78% said other issues had a bigger impact on their business.

Both brokers and carriers defined detention as holding a driver and truck at the dock for more than two hours while loading or unloading. Most of the carriers surveyed said they are seldom paid for detention, and when payment is offered, it does not cover the full business cost that results from the delay.

Only 3% of carriers said they were paid on 90% or more of their detention claims, at a rate between $30 and $50 per hour. Even when the claims were paid, that level of compensation did not cover the opportunity costs to their business.

Carriers said they were often forced to turn down other loads while their trucks were detained and unavailable. One owner-operator reported losing
two loads—with combined revenue of $1,900—
because his truck was detained too long at a receiver's dock.

Freight brokers who were reimbursed by their shipper customers were twice as likely to compensate carriers for detention. Two-thirds of brokers surveyed said they paid detention only when they could collect the fee from the shipper or consignee, while the other one-third of brokers paid detention whenever carriers complained.

Driver detention costs the trucking industry as much as $4 billion a year in lost productivity, according to a 2009 DOT study. In June, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration began preparing an audit to measure the potential effects of loading and unloading delays on truck driver fatigue and crash risks as it lays the groundwork for new regulations.

The industry does not need to wait for rules from Washington.

Driver detention is an urgent issue that can be addressed by carriers, brokers, and shippers alike right now. It's a matter of fairness: many shippers and receivers are lax about their dock operations but it's the carriers and drivers who are forced to pay for that inefficiency.

For details about the DAT Detention Survey, go to www.dat.com/detention.

Mark Montague is industry rate analyst for DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT® network of load boards and RateView rate-analysis tool. He has applied his expertise to logistics, rates, and routing for more than 30 years. Mark is based in Portland, Ore. For information, visit www.dat.com.