Detention Cost Calculator — what do closed docks cost you?
Detention is not a rounding error — for most fleets it is one of the largest controllable costs in the operation. Drag the sliders to your numbers and see the annual damage.
Detention fees paid (per year)
$52,000
8.0 events/week x 2.5 hrs x $50
Lost driving revenue (per year)
$88,400
A parked truck earns nothing — usually the bigger number
Closed-dock arrivals (per year)
$4,800
Layover + re-dispatch + driver time, ~$400 each
Total annual cost
$145,200
Dispatching against verified hours prevents roughly a third of this — about $43,560/year back.
Estimates only. This tool produces illustrative figures from your inputs and industry-typical assumptions; it is not a quote, an invoice, financial or legal advice, or a prediction of actual charges. Real detention and layover costs depend on your contracts, rate agreements, facilities, and circumstances. SupplierHours makes no warranty as to the accuracy of these estimates and is not responsible for any costs, losses, or decisions arising from their use. See our Terms of Service.
The math
Detention events per week = loads per week x detention rate. Each event costs the detention fee (hours x rate) plus the revenue that truck would have earned moving freight (hours x revenue/hr) — the fee is what you pay, the idle truck is what you actually lose. Closed-dock arrivals are estimated at $400 each (layover fee, re-dispatch, and burned driver hours-of-service time). The prevention estimate assumes dispatching against verified facility hours eliminates roughly 30% of events — the share caused by stale hours, unannounced closures, and wrong-timezone bookings rather than genuine congestion.