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Detention billing for 2–10 truck carriers

They deny the claim because nobody told them in time.

Your rate confirmation makes notice a condition of getting paid. TQL's says you must tell them at least 30 minutes before detention begins. WaitStamp sends that notice automatically, while the truck is still in the dock, then hands over a claim with every timestamp labelled. Your driver taps a link. He installs nothing.

Start tracking — 30 days, no card Read the email the broker gets
No app for the driver· No account for the driver· No location tracking
Claim 27618842 approved
On site
3:47
Free
−2:00
Billable
1:47
Billed
$107.00
11:58Driver tapped arrived
13:28Broker emailed — 30 min before free time ends
15:45Released. Detention stopped here.
16:02Claim sent with signed BOL
Illustration of a completed claim.
Every timestamp is labelled with where it came from. The event log is append-only and hash-chained, so the pack can't be quietly edited after the fact.
Watch it happen

One truck at a dock, from the driver's first tap to the money coming back.

Every screen is the real product running against the demo carrier — six trucks, ten weeks of loads — and every figure on them was computed by the same code a customer's account runs.

Why claims get denied

Four answers, and WaitStamp is built against the list.

"We were never notified."

Most rate confirmations make notice a condition of payment. A claim that first appears on an invoice three weeks later is one the broker can decline without much effort.

"Your times don't match ours."

A dispatcher reconstructing a Tuesday from memory and a text thread is not evidence. It is an argument, and the broker has more people to have it with.

"Detention wasn't on the rate con."

Silence is not a waiver. If the rate con says nothing, this broker's usual terms apply, and failing those, your own — you just have to say which, before they ask.

"The appointment wasn't firm."

Free time starts at the appointment or at arrival, whichever is later. Show that arithmetic on the claim and the argument stops.

Detention hit 39.3% of truckload stops in 2023, and 42.5% on spot freight. 94.5% of fleets bill for it; fewer than half of those invoices get paid. (ATRI, Costs and Consequences of Truck Driver Detention, 2024; DAT, 2024.)

How it works

Four steps, and three of them happen without you.

01

Drop in the rate confirmation

PDF, pasted text, or by hand. Stops, broker email, free time, rate and cap are read off the document. A rate con silent on detention doesn't stop the claim — the broker's remembered terms apply, then your own standard terms.

02

The driver gets one link

By text, or by email while your carrier text registration is pending. He taps I'm here when he pulls in — that's what starts the clock, so an early truck or a slipped appointment both work. If he never taps, he's asked once more, and dispatch can enter the time by hand.

03

The broker is told before free time ends

An email with a live status link, a set number of minutes before the clock starts running. Set it to 30 for TQL, or whatever the rate con in front of you asks for.

04

The claim assembles itself

When he's released, detention stops. The claim is computed, sent automatically or queued for a dispatcher, and the broker gets a page with approve, dispute, and the full proof pack.

Why not a GPS app

The detention apps all start after the wait. That is the problem.

A geofence notices you arrived, a geofence notices you left, and an invoice comes out the other end. WaitStamp sends the notice first and bills to the release. That is the whole difference, and it is the difference between a claim that clears and a claim that starts an argument.

A geofence answers the wrong question

“How long was I there” was never what the broker asked. He asked whether you told him in time, and a geofence has nothing to say about that.

A geofence cannot see the release

Released at 14:00, rolled out at midnight. Bill the gap and the broker refuses all of it — and you have spent your credibility on hours you were never owed.

Your driver keeps his location

No background app, no permission prompt, nothing draining his battery in a yard. He taps a link, and the page says at the bottom that it does not read where he is.

Why brokers pay these claims

Release is not departure.

A driver unloaded at 14:00 who then sleeps in the lot until midnight was detained for none of those ten hours. WaitStamp bills to the release, or to the departure if he was never released — whichever comes first.

Billing the ten-hour break produces a claim the broker is right to refuse, and costs you the relationship. Claims that only ask for the hours you're owed get approved, which is the entire business.

10:00Arrived. Free time starts at the appointment or at arrival, whichever is later. 12:00Free time ends. Detention starts running. 14:00Released — the meter stops here. 00:00Left after his ten-hour break. Not billed.
2:00 billable, not 12:00 — and that's why it clears
The proof pack

Everything the broker would ask for, already attached.

The claim link stays live for 180 days and is renewed by every send and reminder, so a claim in dispute never goes dark. Reminders go out on days 3, 7 and 14. Accounting marks paid, short paid or rejected, and the whole ledger exports to CSV.

Start a 30-day trial

Timeline

Every timestamp with the source that produced it — driver tap, dispatcher entry, or notice sent.

Terms, and where they came from

“Per your rate confirmation” reads differently from “the carrier's standard terms.” The pack says which.

Driver photos

The signed BOL and anything else he snapped at the dock, timestamped on arrival.

Hash chain

Append-only events, each hashing the one before it. Verified when the pack renders.

The arithmetic

On site, minus free time, times the rate, capped — shown as a sum, not a total.

PDF

The same pack as a file, for the broker who forwards things to accounting.

What your driver installs

Nothing.

One link in one text. Buttons big enough for gloves, and a page that tells him what each tap does. No login, no download, no location tracking — the page records the time he taps and the photo he sends, and says so at the bottom.

Setup on your side is a name and a mobile number per driver. Carrier approval for business texting takes ten to fifteen days and no provider can skip it, so until yours clears the link goes to the driver by email and your dispatcher can hand it over from his own phone in one tap.

WBell Ridge Carriers via WaitStamp
Mike, you're at Kessler Distribution
Load 88214 · America/Chicago
Detention accruing
+1:12
Free time ended 1:58 PM
$72.00 earned so far
Snap the signed BOLThe photo is timestamped and goes in the claim.
Loaded / unloaded — free to goStops the clock, even if you stay parked.
I'm leaving nowLogs your departure and closes out the stop.
This page logs the time you tap and the photo you send so detention can be billed with proof. It does not read your phone's location.
Layover and TONU

Detention is not the only hour you are owed.

A layover is worth more than a whole day of detention and a TONU covers a truck that was sold to nobody, yet both usually die on a phone call. They go through the same machinery as a detention claim — the same broker page, the same proof pack, the same reminders — so they get chased instead of forgotten.

Held overnight

He taps they're holding me overnight and a layover lands on your board as a decision, priced by the day. WaitStamp also flags a hold that has run long on its own, in case he never taps.

Cancelled on the way

He taps load cancelled — nothing for me here. The load is cancelled and a TONU is queued against it, on the day it happened rather than whenever someone remembers.

Never billed twice

Detention on that same visit is re-billed only up to the moment the layover started. One night, one charge — a broker who spots an overlap stops reading the rest of the claim.

Nothing is billed on its own. Each one arrives as a prompt on your board with the charge already worked out, and a dispatcher decides whether to raise it.

Pricing

One approved claim covers the month.

The average excessive detention charge fleets bill is $63.71 an hour (ATRI, 2024). Two billable hours is $127.42.

Solo
$39 / month

One truck, and you handle your own rate cons.

$390 a year — two months free.

Start 30 days free
  • 1 truck, up to 30 tracked stops a month
  • One login
  • Broker notice before free time ends
  • Full proof pack and PDF
  • Rate confirmation reading
  • Reminders on days 3, 7 and 14
Fleet Plus
$249 / month

Ten trucks and up, with a back office.

$2,490 a year — two months free.

Start 30 days free
  • 12 trucks included, $20 each after
  • Everything in Fleet
  • Notice timing set per broker
  • Private record of who actually pays
  • Unlimited logins
  • We file your carrier text registration (carriers take about two weeks)
  • Someone onboards you by name

A truck counts toward the bill only in a month it was named on a load, so parking one takes it off. Sales tax is included, so the figure above is the figure charged. More than 25 trucks? Email us and we'll quote you.

Cancel and your evidence stays readable

A cancelled subscription stops WaitStamp starting new work — no new loads, no new activations. Sign-in, the board, every existing claim, the proof packs and the CSV export stay available.

A truck in a dock keeps being tracked

Loads already active run to completion even if the card expires mid-dwell. A truck sitting at a shipper is still owed its evidence.

No contract and no card to start

Month to month. Nothing to sign, no setup fee, no per-claim fee, and no card until you decide the thing works.

Full plan comparison and questions →

The next time a dock holds you four hours, have the paperwork already done.

About three minutes gets a live detention clock on your screen. No rate confirmation to hand? Start on a sample load — same parser, same clock, same claim — and read the broker notice yourself.

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