← All field notesJuly 24, 2026

Detention, TONU and Layover Pay: How to Actually Collect It

Detention, TONU, layover and lumper pay are money you already earned. Here is what the rate con must say and what proof actually gets it paid.

(224) 496-4390

Fortuna Dispatch Desk, reviewed by David White

Detention, TONU, layover and lumper reimbursement are not fees you might qualify for. They are money you already earned: hours you sat, a truck you sent, a night you lost, cash you fronted at a dock. Most of it never gets collected, not because brokers refuse to pay it, but because nobody asked in a way the paperwork could support. Every one of these claims lives or dies on the same document: the rate confirmation.

This is the part of the load most drivers skip past to get to the linehaul number. It is also the only place any of these four line items becomes real. If the rate con does not say it, you are not filing a claim, you are asking a favor.

What you are actually owed, and what sets it off

Four separate things get lumped together as "extra money," and mixing them up is how claims get denied. Each one has its own trigger and its own proof:

What it's called	What triggers it	What proof you need
Detention	Shipper or receiver holds you past the free time stated on the rate con, usually counted from your check-in	Arrival and departure timestamps, a signed BOL, and confirmation the delay was not your own late arrival
TONU (Truck Ordered Not Used)	You're dispatched to a load and it's cancelled, or the freight isn't ready or available after you've already committed the truck	The original rate con or dispatch confirmation, your arrival record, and written notice of the cancellation
Layover	You're held overnight through no fault of your own, usually because a load or appointment could not be completed the same day	Timestamps spanning the overnight period, your ELD log, and the reason the delay carried past a full day
Lumper reimbursement	A shipper or receiver requires a third-party loading or unloading crew and charges you directly for it	An itemized, signed lumper receipt, ideally photographed at the dock before you leave

Notice what is missing from that table: dollar amounts. That is deliberate. Detention pay, TONU flat fees and layover rates are set broker by broker and lane by lane. There is no industry-standard number, and anyone who quotes you one before you have read your own rate con is guessing. What is standard is that the number has to be written down somewhere before you can collect it.

What the rate con has to say before any of this is collectible

A claim does not start when the dock doors will not open. It starts weeks earlier, in the accessorial section of the rate con you signed. Before you accept the load, that section needs to answer three questions in writing: how many hours of free time before detention starts, whether TONU applies and under what conditions, and whether lumper costs get reimbursed against a receipt. We have written separately about reading a rate con line by line, and the accessorial block is exactly where that habit pays off here. A rate con that is silent on detention is not neutral. It is a broker who never has to pay it.

If the accessorial terms are not spelled out, do not assume they are implied. Call the broker before you accept the load and get the free-time window and the detention rate in writing, even if it is just a confirming text. A verbal "yeah, we pay detention" is worth nothing next to a shipper who says the delay was your fault.

The clock that's already running: detention and your hours of service

Sitting at a dock does not pause your day. Under FMCSA's hours-of-service rules, your 14-hour on-duty window starts when you go on duty and keeps running while you are on duty, not driving, waiting for a door to open. Off-duty time is what stops that clock, and standing in a shipper's lot while they finish someone else's load is not off-duty. Every hour of detention is an hour you are not getting back on your drive time later that day. That is a second reason to document the wait as it happens: it is not just a claim against the broker, it is the reason your next appointment slipped too.

This is not rare or unusual. A U.S. Government Accountability Office review of driver-reported detention found that most of the drivers interviewed had experienced it within the prior two weeks, and the large majority of those who had said it affected their ability to stay within hours-of-service limits. The full GAO report is here. The system already expects this to happen. Your paperwork should too.

The proof that turns a claim into a check

None of this pays out on your word against the shipper's. It pays out on a timeline you can prove. Build it in real time, not from memory that night:

The common thread: capture it while you are still there. A detention claim built from memory after you have delivered is a negotiation. One built from timestamps and a signed BOL is an invoice.

Arrival time. When you check in at the guard shack, the kiosk, or the dock office. A photo of the check-in ticket or kiosk screen with a timestamp beats a note in your head.
Departure time. When the trailer is sealed and you are released, not when you finally clear the lot.
A signed BOL. Have the shipper or receiver note the actual times on it, or at minimum get their signature on a delay note you write yourself.
Your ELD record. On-duty-not-driving status logged for the wait is a timestamped, third-party record no one can argue with later.
Photos. The closed dock door, the empty lot, the line of trucks ahead of you, a dashboard clock next to the trailer number. Small things, but they corroborate a timeline months later when nobody remembers the day.

How the claim is actually made

Log the times as they happen. Arrival, door open, loaded, departure. Timestamped photos on your phone or your ELD status changes are enough; you do not need special software.
Get the BOL signed with the real times, or attach a separate delay note the shipper or receiver signs before you leave the dock.
Photograph your proof before you pull out: the door, the lot, the seal, the lumper receipt if there is one.
Notify the broker the same day, in writing, referencing the free-time and accessorial terms from the rate con. This starts the clock on their side and creates a paper trail if it goes sideways later.
Submit the accessorial invoice alongside your regular freight bill: the rate con, the signed BOL, your time log and any photos attached.
Follow up on their normal payment cycle before escalating. A broker who is slow to answer a first email is often just slow, not refusing.

What the timeline actually looks like

Nobody can promise you a date, and anyone who does is selling something. Detention and TONU claims are accessorials, and most brokers process them separately from the linehaul invoice, sometimes only on request rather than automatically. Realistically, expect the base freight payment on whatever cycle you agreed to, quick-pay or standard terms, and the accessorial to land on its own timeline after that, often only once you have submitted the paperwork yourself. A rate con with clear detention and TONU terms, paired with a same-day notice and a full documentation packet, gives you the strongest possible position. It does not guarantee the check. It just means that when a broker disputes it, you have something to put in front of them besides your word.

A dispatcher who is doing the job right treats this paperwork as part of the load, not an afterthought: reading the accessorial terms before you accept, reminding you to log times, and actually filing the claim instead of letting it quietly disappear. That does not make the broker pay any faster. It just means the invoice gets sent instead of forgotten, which is the step most of this money dies on.

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