How to Handle a Driver Detention Call

Without a recorded arrival time, a detention claim becomes two people arguing about how long a driver actually waited. A driver calling in gives dispatch the chance to fix that at the source: capture when the truck arrived, not reconstruct it later from memory or a paper log filled out at the end of the week.

The wait also has a knock-on effect the driver on the phone cannot see. A truck sitting at a dock past its window can push the next pickup, the next delivery window, or the driver's remaining hours. Dispatch needs the call the moment the clock starts running long, not after the driver is already an hour past free time.

The agent asks for the driver and unit, the load number, and the shipper or receiver name and location, then the time the driver arrived and whether loading or unloading has started. It also asks what reason the facility gave for the delay, if any, so the record does not depend on the driver remembering it correctly by the time dispatch reviews it.

It also captures whether the delay is putting the driver's remaining hours at risk. That single question is what tells dispatch whether this call can sit in a log for later or needs a person on the line right now.

Most detention calls are not urgent the moment they come in; the driver is waiting, not in danger, and a timestamped record is enough for now. The call becomes urgent when the wait threatens an appointment at the next stop, a connecting load, or the driver's hours, or when the facility tells the driver to leave without being loaded or unloaded. Those situations follow the live-transfer rule you set, the same way a schedule-critical call does anywhere else in your dispatch flow.

The agent does not decide whether to pull a driver off a dock or negotiate with the facility. It captures the situation in full and puts dispatch on the line to make that call, rather than guessing at a decision that belongs to a person.

A detention log is only useful if it holds up later: the load number, the facility, the arrival time, and the time the driver was released or the call ended. If you have approved detention policy language, such as how you count free time, the agent can state it; if a real determination depends on the load or the account, it says so and routes the details to whoever handles billing on your team instead of inventing a number.