Detention Free Time by Carrier: What the Tariffs Publish

How much free time does a carrier get before detention starts?

Free time is the wait a facility allows before detention starts, and it is whatever the governing tariff or rate confirmation says: across the 19 carriers and shippers whose tariffs we read on 15 October 2026, it runs from 15 minutes to 6 hours. The range is wide enough that a flat two-hour assumption can be wrong in either direction. The shortest published free time is 15 minutes, and the longest is 6 hours on Estes’ heaviest tier. Read the number from the document for the load, not from memory.

Why is free time a table instead of a flat number?

Eleven of the thirteen issuers we tabulated from the 25 tariffs read on 15 October 2026 publish free time as a table that steps up with the size of the shipment, so the answer depends on which row the load falls in. The row is set by weight in eight of the thirteen, such as Saia, which gives 30 minutes under 2,500 lb and 180 minutes at 20,000 lb and over. Old Dominion and Southeastern Freight Lines key theirs to shipments per stop, and Landstar keys its to equipment. Two issuers publish a single figure: Heartland Express at 60 minutes, and States Logistics at 30 minutes.

What free time does each carrier publish?

The table below gives each carrier’s free time as its tariff publishes it, so the range can be checked row by row. Read across a row and you get the starting figure and the top of the range. Where the tariff keys free time to weight, the cell names the lightest tier and the heaviest. Where it keys free time to shipments per stop or to equipment, the cell names those categories. The figures were read from the tariffs on 15 October 2026 and should be checked against the current document before a load is priced.

Does a late carrier lose its free time at Old Dominion?

Old Dominion’s tariff does not take free time away from a late carrier; it adds free time when the carrier runs behind a set appointment. Its appointment rule starts computation at the set appointment time, not before, and only a carrier more than 30 minutes late gets extra time back. The rule, on page 54 of tariff ODFL 100-Q, reads in full: “If an appointment has been made, computation of time begins at the set appointment time, not before. If Carrier is more than 30 minutes late for an appointment then 1 minute of free time will be added for each minute Carrier is late.”

How do appointments change when detention starts?

Where a tariff sets an appointment, the appointment time can be where the clock starts, and Dayton Freight’s tariff makes detention depend on arriving within 60 minutes of it. Old Dominion’s rule starts computation at the set appointment time, not before, so an early arrival does not start the clock early. Dayton Freight’s tariff, DAFG 19-K on page 16 in its Note F, is stricter on lateness: “Detention shall be applicable to appointment deliveries provided Carrier arrives at the appointment location within sixty (60) minutes of the set appointment time.” Read together, the two tariffs handle a late carrier in opposite ways.

Does a spotted trailer have its own free time?

Spotted trailers follow a separate rule in 17 of the 19 issuers whose tariffs we read on 15 October 2026, and there the free time is almost always 24 consecutive hours. A spotted trailer is one left without a tractor. Because that rule sits apart from the detention row, a reader who checks only the detention row can miss it, and the two should be read side by side.

How does free time in a rate confirmation compare?

Broker rate confirmations set free time differently from the tariffs, and six of the confirmations that mention detention state no free time at all. Of the 27 executed rate confirmations from 17 brokers that we collected, 15 had a readable text layer, and in those the free time found was 2 hours on the Ryan Transportation and Nolan Transportation confirmations, 3 hours on appointment loads and 4 on first-come-first-served (TQL confirmation 23197637), 2 hours dry and 3 hours refrigerated (Armstrong Transport), and 4 hours (Arrive Logistics confirmation 2796890).

What should you check before the truck arrives?

Confirm the free time, the appointment rule and any spotted trailer term in the document governing the load before the truck is dispatched. A rate confirmation that is silent on free time leaves nothing to bill against, and a tariff’s appointment rule decides when the clock starts. Keep the arrival and departure times as they happen, because free time you cannot prove is free time you cannot bill.

Four checks, in the order they stop being possible:

1. Find which document governs the load. A rate confirmation and a carrier’s own rules tariff set free time differently, and only one of them is in force for this move.
2. Read the free time as published, not as remembered. Eight of the thirteen key it to weight, so the number changes with the shipment rather than with the carrier.
3. Check whether the appointment rule applies. Old Dominion begins the count at the appointment time rather than at arrival; Dayton Freight requires arrival within sixty minutes of it.
4. Record arrival and departure as they happen. Six of the rate confirmations we read that mention detention state no free time at all, which makes your own timestamped record the only number in the file.