Layover fee trucking vs detention comes down to whether the truck was released. Detention runs while the driver is held at a facility past free time, on the clock, waiting to load or unload. Layover applies when the driver is released and has to sit overnight, or through a full operating period, before the load can be worked. Truck ordered not used (TONU) applies when the load never happened at all: the driver was dispatched, arrived or was en route, and the shipment was cancelled.
One delayed load, three possible charges, and they are mutually exclusive for any given interval. What costs money in settlement is rarely the wrong rate: it is paying detention and layover for the same hours, or paying TONU on a load that actually moved a day late.
This is a broker problem more than a shipper problem, because you sit between a carrier billing one thing and a customer who authorized another. If your carrier bills layover and your customer’s confirmation only covers detention, you eat the gap silently.
The three charges, precisely
Layover, detention and TONU all appear in the standard practitioner taxonomy of accessorial charges as distinct line items. None has a regulatory definition. Each is defined by the rate confirmation, the transportation agreement, and the rules tariff that agreement incorporates, which is why a carrier’s layover clause and yours may not describe the same event.
| Detention | Layover | TONU | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What happened | Driver held at the facility past free time | Driver released, must wait a full operating period or overnight | Load cancelled; the move never occurred |
| Truck status | On site, not released, on the clock | Released, off the dock, waiting for the next available window | Dispatched, then stood down |
| Clock | Runs from the free-time trigger to release | Counted in calendar days or 24-hour periods | Not time-based; a flat fee |
| Typical basis | Hourly or per 15-minute increment after free time | Flat per day, sometimes with a partial-day rule | Flat, sometimes tiered by distance traveled or notice given |
| Decisive evidence | Arrival and departure timestamps, gate log, ELD dwell | The release record and the rescheduled appointment | The cancellation message with its timestamp |
The row that settles most arguments is “truck status.” Detention requires that the truck was not released. The moment the facility tells the driver to come back tomorrow, detention stops and the layover question begins. A carrier billing detention through the night on a driver who left the property at 6 p.m. and returned at 8 a.m. is billing the wrong charge, and the release time on the gate log or the delivery attempt record is what proves it.
The decision tree
Run it in this order on any delayed load. Each question is answerable from a document.
1. Did the shipment ultimately move?
No, and it was cancelled after dispatch: TONU territory. Go to question 5.
No, and the carrier never dispatched: usually nothing is owed, though some agreements provide a cancellation fee. Check the rate con.
Yes: continue.
2. Was the driver held on site, or released?
Held on site past free time: detention for that interval. The clock trigger (appointment time, arrival, or gate-in) decides when it starts, and that trigger is a rate confirmation term, not a default. Which one your contract uses is worked through in when detention free time actually starts.
Released and told to return: detention stops at release. Continue to question 3.
3. Did the driver have to wait a full operating period or overnight before the load could be worked?
Yes: layover, if the rate confirmation or tariff provides for it. Most layover clauses require an overnight or a full 24-hour period, not a few hours.
No, the driver returned the same day within hours: this is usually still detention, or nothing, depending on whether the truck was actually released. A short release does not convert detention into layover just because the driver left the property for coffee.
4. Are both detention and layover billed for overlapping hours?
If the detention interval and the layover period touch the same clock time, one is wrong. Get the release timestamp and split the intervals at it.
5. If the load was cancelled, when and how was notice given?
TONU eligibility usually turns on a cancellation cutoff in the agreement: notice given before dispatch, after dispatch, or after arrival. Pull the cancellation message with its timestamp and compare it to the dispatch record. Tiered TONU rates commonly key off exactly this.
6. Did the delay generate a second, separate charge?
A layover that pushes delivery past the receiving window can generate a redelivery. A cancelled load can generate deadhead. These are legitimate separate charges, but each needs its own document, and the cause matters. When the delay was the carrier’s own doing, the redelivery analysis in when a carrier’s own failure triggers a redelivery fee applies directly.
Evidence, by charge
Detention. The positional research on freight detention charge disputes identifies three documents as the minimum before contesting: the rate confirmation (free time, rate, clock trigger language), the BOL or POD with facility timestamps, and the carrier’s own detention documentation. Electronic BOL timestamps captured at the dock are the cleanest version of the second document, which is the point made in this vendor explainer on detention fee calculation. Where the POD carries no in and out times at all, the substitute package is set out in how to dispute a detention charge with no POD times, and the full document set is in the six documents that win a detention dispute.
Layover. The document nobody asks for is the release record. Layover asserts that the truck was released and could not work the load until the next operating period. That means there is a release time and a rescheduled appointment, and both should be producible. Ask for: the time the driver was released, who released them, the next available appointment offered, and who offered it. If the carrier cannot show that the facility refused to work the load that day, the layover is unsupported. Also check the rate con for a layover clause at all. If layover is not named and no accessorial schedule is incorporated by reference, the charge is outside the agreed scope before you reach the facts.
TONU. One document decides it: the cancellation, with its timestamp, in whatever channel it arrived (email, load board message, TMS note, phone log). Compare it to the dispatch record. Everything else is secondary. Where TONU gets contested is almost always the interval between dispatch and cancellation, and the second thing to check is whether the rate confirmation states a cancellation cutoff and a tiered rate. Many do not, and then you are negotiating rather than enforcing.
What is contractual and what is not
Say this part plainly, because getting it wrong is how a settlement dispute gets dismissed. Detention, layover and TONU are contract charges. No federal rule requires a carrier to be paid any of them, and no federal rule bars any of them. The rate confirmation and the incorporated rules tariff decide entitlement.
What regulation gives you is a set of narrower, real leverage points.
An itemization right. Under 49 CFR 373.103, a freight or expense bill must show consignor and consignee names, shipment date, origin and destination, package count, freight description, weight or volume, the exact rates assessed, and the total charges due with the nature and amount of each charge, plus route, participating carriers, transfer points and remittance address. “DET/LAY 750.00” as a single line does not state the nature and amount of each charge, and asking for the split, the hours, and the rate is a request with a rule behind it. It also frequently resolves the whole question, because the split reveals the overlap.
A billing window. Under 49 U.S.C. 13710, a carrier must bill charges additional to those originally billed within 180 days of the shipper’s receipt of the original bill to preserve its collection rights, and the billed party must contest within 180 days of receipt to preserve its right to challenge. Delay accessorials arrive on supplemental bills more often than any other category, so this clock is worth tracking. The rest of the deadlines are in every freight billing deadline that can cost you money.
A collection limitation. Under 49 U.S.C. 14705, a carrier must begin a civil action to collect freight charges within 18 months of accrual, with claims accruing on delivery or tender of delivery.
A post-payment clock. If settlement already released the payment, this is an overcharge claim rather than a dispute, and under 49 CFR 378.8 the processing carrier must pay, decline, or settle a written overcharge claim within 60 days of receipt absent a written agreement to extend. 49 CFR 378.4 sets out what must accompany the claim: the freight bill, the rate, classification, weight or tariff authority relied on, and payment information. Note that inadequate documentation alone cannot disqualify a claim.
Why carriers push on this, and why you should be measured
Detention is not a nuisance charge invented to pad invoices. The DOT Inspector General’s study of driver detention (Report ST2018019, January 2018) estimated that detention reduces for-hire truckload driver annual earnings by $1.1 to $1.3 billion and truckload motor carrier net income by $250.6 to $302.9 million annually, and that a 15-minute increase in average dwell time raises the average expected crash rate by 6.2 percent. When a driver loses a day to a facility, somebody absorbed a real cost.
That cuts both ways in settlement. It means a well-documented detention or layover claim deserves to be paid promptly and without friction, and that a broker who reflexively short-pays delay charges is buying a capacity problem. It also means the charge is worth getting right, because a carrier billing layover when the correct charge was four hours of detention is asking you to fund a day the truck did not actually lose.
The productive posture is: pay what is supported, fast, and ask for the record on what is not. Most miscoded delay charges are exactly that, miscoded, generated by a settlement clerk picking the nearest code rather than by anyone trying to overbill.
The pass-through problem
The charge only being right is half the job. The other half is whether it is billable downstream.
Three failure modes show up repeatedly in broker settlement.
Authorization mismatch. Your customer’s rate confirmation caps detention at two hours at $50 per hour. Your carrier confirmation says detention after two hours at $75 per hour. Every detained load loses $25 an hour, invisibly, forever. Mirror the terms.
Charge-type mismatch. Your customer authorized detention. The carrier billed layover. Even if the layover is legitimate, your customer’s confirmation does not cover a charge type it never named, and you will be arguing for it after the fact with a document that says something else.
Silent absorption. The delay charge falls below the review threshold and gets paid without a pass-through decision. This is the same structural leak described in the rate confirmation versus carrier invoice reconciliation procedure, and it is worse on delay charges because they are individually small and collectively constant.
The fix for all three is procedural rather than clever: every delay charge gets a pass-through decision at the moment of settlement, recorded, with the supporting document attached. Not later, not at month-end.
The short-pay letter
When the charge type is wrong, contest the coding rather than the amount. It is a narrower argument and it wins more often.
Subject: Invoice 33718 - detention and layover billed for overlapping
hours, request for split and correction
Hello,
We are contesting the delay charges on invoice 33718 (load 220914,
Dallas TX to Memphis TN, delivery appointment 08/18/2026 14:00).
Billed:
Detention 8.0 hrs @ $60.00 $480.00
Layover 1 day $250.00
Our records show the driver arrived at 13:42, was released by the
consignee at 18:10 with a return appointment for 08/19 at 09:00, and
delivered at 09:35 on 08/19.
Detention and layover cannot both run across the same interval. On these
timestamps, free time began at the appointment per the rate confirmation
and the on-site interval ends at release, which supports approximately
2.2 hours of detention, not 8.0.
Please send:
1. The gate or facility release record showing the time the driver was
released on 08/18.
2. The driver's arrival and departure timestamps for both days.
3. The rate confirmation clause you are billing layover under, or the
tariff item number and effective version.
Please also itemize each delay charge separately with hours and rate, per
49 CFR 373.103.
We are releasing the linehaul, fuel surcharge and the supported detention
interval for payment today, totaling $2,062.00, and holding $598.00
pending your response. We are contesting within the window preserved
under 49 U.S.C. 13710.
Thank you,
[Name]
[Company] | [Phone] | [Email]Releasing the supported portion immediately is not a courtesy, it is the mechanism that keeps the dispute narrow. The carrier’s cash is not held hostage over a coding question, and the conversation stays about the record rather than about payment.
The checklist
- Establish the timeline first: dispatch, arrival, release, return, completion. Every question below is answered from it.
- Identify whether the truck was released, and when. This single fact separates detention from layover.
- Confirm the free-time clock trigger in the rate confirmation: appointment, arrival, or gate-in.
- Check for overlapping intervals. Detention and layover cannot run over the same hours.
- For layover, request the release record and the rescheduled appointment.
- For TONU, get the cancellation message with its timestamp and compare it to dispatch.
- Confirm each charge is named in the rate confirmation, or that an accessorial schedule is incorporated by reference; get the tariff item number where it is not.
- Recompute hours and rounding increments against the billed amount.
- Check the pass-through: is the charge type and the rate authorized on your customer’s confirmation.
- Release the supported portion, contest the coding, and record the pass-through decision at settlement.
Steps two and four catch most of the money. A driver released at 6 p.m. is not detained overnight, and a load that moved the next morning was not a truck ordered not used. Getting the charge type right before you argue about the amount saves the argument entirely about half the time.
Sources
- Top 20 accessorial charges, practitioner taxonomy (Zipline Logistics)
- DOT OIG Report ST2018019, driver detention study (Office of Inspector General, U.S. DOT, January 2018)
- 49 CFR 373.103, Freight or expense bills (Cornell LII)
- 49 U.S.C. 13710, billing and contesting windows (Cornell LII)
- 49 U.S.C. 14705, limitation on collecting freight charges (Cornell LII)
- 49 CFR 378.4, documentation accompanying an overcharge claim (Cornell LII)
- 49 CFR 378.8, overcharge claim resolution within 60 days (Cornell LII)
- Freight detention charge disputes: the three documents (Laneproof)
- Calculating detention fees and electronic BOL timestamps (Vector)