How to Prove Detention With GPS: Use a Trip Report, Not a Phone Call

Every broker and carrier has had this conversation. The driver says he sat at the receiver for four hours. The receiver says he was late and they got him in as fast as they could. The shipper says they never agreed to pay detention on that load. And you're in the middle with no way to prove who's right.

Detention is supposed to cover the time a truck waits past the free time at a shipper or receiver. In practice, it gets argued far more often than it gets paid, and the reason is almost always the same: nobody can prove the times.

What you actually need to get detention paid

Whoever pays detention wants to see three things:

1. When the truck arrived. Not when the driver says he got there. When the truck was actually at the facility.
2. When the truck left. Detention time ends when the truck is released, so the departure time matters as much as the arrival.
3. That the wait wasn't the driver's fault. If the truck showed up hours after its appointment, most customers won't pay for the wait that followed.

Handwritten in and out times on the bill of lading help when the facility fills them in. But they're often blank, illegible, or written by the same people who don't want to pay. A phone call to the driver two days later isn't proof of anything.

What a GPS trip report shows

A trip report is built from the location the driver's phone shared during the load. Instead of one dot on a map, it tells the whole story of the load:

• Arrival and departure at each stop, with the time on site. For example: "Left the receiver, on site about 3 h 40 min, 6:02 AM to 9:42 AM."
• Every stop along the way of 10 minutes or more, with where and how long. Fuel stops, rest breaks and overnight parking are all visible.
• Driving time versus idle time for the whole load.
• Miles driven, measured along the roads the truck actually took.
• The route on a map and the highways taken, in order.
• A timeline of what happened: when tracking started, arrivals, departures, messages, and the POD upload.

Every entry has a timestamp that nobody typed in by hand. That's what makes it useful in a dispute.

How to use it for detention

Check the appointment against the arrival

Before you bill detention, compare the appointment time with the arrival time on the report. If the truck was on time or early, you have your answer for the "the driver was late" objection before anyone raises it.

Bill from the time on site

The time between arrival and departure at the stop is the dock time. Subtract the free time in your agreement, and what's left is the detention you're billing. Put the arrival and departure times right on the invoice.

Attach the report

Send the trip report as a PDF with the detention invoice. A customer who sees the arrival time, the departure time and the truck sitting on a map at their dock has much less to argue with.

Keep it for the file

Even when detention isn't billed, save the report with the load. If a claim, a late-delivery complaint or a carrier dispute comes up weeks later, you have the record.

It isn't only for detention

• Late delivery complaints: show exactly when the truck arrived and where it stopped along the way.
• Carrier performance: see which carriers sit for hours between pickup and delivery, and which run clean.
• Shipper visibility: send your customer the full trip, not just "it delivered."
• Mileage questions: the road miles actually driven, not a guess.

What you need to get one

The only requirement is that the driver shares location during the load. With HaulEye, the driver taps Start Tracking once in the free driver app, and the trip report builds itself from there. It updates while the load is moving and is complete when the load delivers. Open it from the load in HaulEye Dispatch and tap Save as PDF to send it.

Detention isn't lost because the wait didn't happen. It's lost because nobody could prove it. A trip report is the proof.

HaulEye works for freight brokers, carriers and shippers. Plans start at $100 a month with 10 tracked loads included, and every tracked load comes with its trip report.