The Detention Dilemma: How to Decrease Wait Time and Increase Efficiency

Did you know that detention wait time is more than just a number, it’s an industry differentiator? This post will help you decrease your wait time and increase the efficiency of your drivers, resulting in less driver turnover and improved customer satisfaction scores. Plus, it will also help to ensure that you are meeting the detention compliance requirements of all freight contracts. Let’s explore how detention time can be used as a market differentiator by helping your customers make informed decisions that translate into long-term success for you and your company.

Importance of Detention

Because detention is an individual carrier issue, carriers can use it as a competitive advantage in negotiations. For example, detention duration is a component of capacity utilization rates. Carriers with shorter detention times can deliver more loads than those with longer detentions. Drivers also appreciate shorter detainments as they often result in fewer hours behind the wheel. Additionally, detention time directly impacts driver pay due to DOT rules that require miles-in-service reporting.

Longer detention = Lower profit

Detention is money in your pocket. The more time you’re able to keep your driver on the road, that’s one less minute he or she has to wait for a load at another terminal. If a carrier can decrease detention times at their terminals, they can get trucks back on route faster, increasing efficiency of both drivers and carriers. More efficient carriers mean lower costs for shippers, which means lower shipping prices for all customers.

Longer detention = Less driver satisfaction

One survey showed that 86% of drivers rated waiting time as their biggest complaint with a carrier. This is because waiting costs money. And carriers know if they don’t address it, they will lose drivers who are tired of making money sitting on their trucks. It’s a simple equation: Longer detention = less driver satisfaction = fewer customers for your fleet.

Ways To Reduce Detention

Employ loading and unloading strategies that reduce wait time, such as staging loads, grouping similar stops together, or assigning multiple drivers to a load. Make sure your carrier network is well connected so loads can be efficiently routed. Pay attention to weather conditions; time wasted due to congestion or bad weather can translate into lost revenue for both carriers and drivers. Consider investing in technology that can help decrease detention times at both ends of a journey. For example, if you have an empty trailer ready to go back out on another run, it may make sense to have one driver drop off his trailer while another picks up an already-loaded trailer. This method allows them to stay on schedule without wasting time waiting around for trailers to be loaded or unloaded. The same concept applies when drivers pick up loads from shippers; by optimizing operations between shippers and receivers, drivers spend less time idling and more time on their way to their next stop.