Detention: Eight Years of 'We Need Better Data' Is Long Enough

For most drivers, detention is just part of the job. You hit the dock on time, check in and sit. The hours-of-service clock runs whether the wheels turn or not. Then the load pays the same as if you'd backed straight in.

The federal government has already said, in writing, that this costs money and lives.

What the government already knows

In January 2018, DOT's Office of Inspector General published a report Congress had ordered in the FAST Act. Its findings were blunt (DOT OIG, ST2018019):

• A 15-minute increase in average dwell time, the total time a truck spends at a facility, raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent.
• Detention cuts the annual earnings of for-hire truckload drivers by an estimated $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion.
• It cuts truckload carriers' net income by an estimated $250.6 million to $302.9 million a year.

FMCSA's own research page cites those numbers and works them out to roughly 400 crashes a year prevented for every one-minute cut in average detention time nationwide. The same page cites FMCSA's 2014 study, which found detention on about 1 in 10 stops, averaging 1.4 hours past the usual 2-hour standard. Medium-sized carriers were detained about twice as often as large ones: 19 percent of stops versus 9 percent (FMCSA).

So the costs aren't in doubt. The government's own watchdog put them on paper.

"We need better data" is running out of road

The OIG's central complaint was that "accurate industrywide data on driver detention do not currently exist." Most of the industry counts only the time past the contract limit, and the electronic data available then couldn't separate detention from ordinary loading (OIG). FMCSA agreed to do better.

That was 2018. In 2023 and again in 2024, FMCSA published notices for a new study meant to gather detention data "representative of the major segments" of the industry, with about 80 carriers and 2,500 drivers (Federal Register 2024-03256). FMCSA says it should beat earlier attempts because nearly every driver has kept detailed electronic records since the ELD mandate took effect in December 2017 (FMCSA).

In other words, the data drivers were told would protect them is already in the cab. The device logs the minute you arrive at the shipper and the minute you leave.

The pause pilot is a tell

This fall FMCSA proposed a pilot that would let drivers pause the 14-hour window for up to 3 hours, but only when that time is spent at a pickup or delivery location (Federal Register 2026-20476). Comments close Dec. 7.

We think the pilot is worth running. But look at what it assumes. The agency is designing hours-of-service relief around the fact that drivers get stuck at docks. That's an admission that detention is a safety problem. Pausing the clock helps the driver finish the trip legally. It doesn't pay for the three hours, and it doesn't give the shipper any reason to stop holding trucks.

What should happen next

The study is worth finishing, but a study isn't a policy. Once FMCSA has representative numbers, three things should follow.

1. Publish the results on a deadline. The study went through public comment in the Federal Register, so its findings should be public on a fixed schedule, not held for the next highway bill fight.
2. Treat detention as a safety issue, not a billing dispute. The OIG tied dwell time to crash risk. Something that raises crash risk belongs in safety rulemaking, not only in the fine print between shippers and carriers.
3. Let drivers use the ELD for themselves. Drivers already carry a federally required record of every hour at the dock. That record should be usable to document detention, on the driver's terms and with privacy protections, the same way it's used at roadside inspections.

Until then

• Log arrival, check-in and departure at every stop, and screenshot the ELD if your carrier's system lets you.
• Get detention terms in writing on the rate confirmation before you accept, including when the clock starts and the hourly rate.
• If you're leased on, your lease has to spell out who is responsible for detention (49 CFR 376.12(e)). Read that clause.

Drivers have been asked to accept electronic logs, tighter hours rules and more scrutiny, all in the name of safety. The government's own numbers say detention undermines that same goal. Eight years after the OIG report, "we need better data" can't be the answer anymore.