Free time is weight-based on the road
The allowance at a stop is keyed to the pounds handled there. A one-pallet delivery gets the smallest band on the table, which is where most surprise detention comes from.
Waiting, billed
Detention and demurrage, and who is holding the stopwatch
Both words describe somebody paying for time. Detention is the carrier being kept waiting with its equipment; demurrage is cargo or a container sitting where it was not meant to sit. The clocks run in different places, the money is calculated differently, and on the ocean side there are federal rules about how the bill has to look.
Estes tariff figures46 CFR 541 in fullRead 2026-07-28
Free time is a table
The allowance is set by the weight on the vehicle at that stop. Once it runs out the meter is in fifteen-minute increments.
The two words, kept apart
- Detention is the carrier's asset being held. A trailer sitting at your dock, or a driver waiting past the allowance while somebody finds a forklift. The charge compensates the carrier for equipment and labour it cannot use elsewhere, and on the road side it starts the moment free time expires.
- Demurrage is cargo occupying space it was supposed to have vacated. In the ocean world the federal definition is broad: demurrage and detention mean any charges, including per diem charges, assessed by ocean common carriers, marine terminal operators or non-vessel-operating common carriers related to the use of marine terminal space or shipping containers, but not freight charges (46 CFR 541.3, read 2026-07-28).
- Free time is the allowance before either clock starts. It is not a courtesy and it is not standard across carriers. On the road it is published in the rules tariff; at a port it is set by the terminal schedule or the service contract, and the federal rules require the invoice to state it.
The practical distinction most shippers need: detention is usually measured in minutes and hours, demurrage in days. A dock that runs an hour late costs you detention. A container that sits at a terminal over a long weekend costs you demurrage, and the two rarely appear on the same invoice.
The road side, with published figures
LTL carriers publish this in their rules tariffs, which makes it one of the few freight charges you can read before it happens. Estes Express Lines sets free time by the weight handled at each vehicle stop, in its Rules Tariff Item 500 as published on the page last updated 5/11/26 and read by us on 2026-07-28.
- Under 2,500 lb at the stop: 30 minutes.
- 2,500 to under 5,000 lb: 60 minutes.
- 5,000 to under 10,000 lb: 90 to 120 minutes, in two bands.
- 10,000 to under 20,000 lb: 180 minutes.
- 36,000 lb or more: 360 minutes.
Once that runs out, the carrier's Accessorial Charges sheet, effective 17 November 2025 and read on 2026-07-28, prints the meter.
- Detention with power units, Item 500. Under 20,000 lb at the stop, $40 for each additional 15 minutes or fraction. At 20,000 lb or more, $90.30 for one hour or less and $35 for each further 15 minutes.
- Detention without power units, Item 501. A trailer dropped and left runs $110 per vehicle for the first 24 hours, $150 for the second, and $225 for the third day and each one after it.
Read those two blocks together and the arithmetic is unkind. A small LTL delivery gets half an hour, and an hour of hunting for a pallet jack past that adds four of those $40 increments to a shipment that may only have cost a couple of hundred to move. The tariff also states that free time on a dropped trailer does not run on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, which cuts both ways depending on when the trailer landed.
The ocean side has rules about the invoice itself
Since 2024 there is a federal regulation governing what a demurrage or detention invoice must contain and when it has to arrive. It is public domain and short enough to read. These are the parts that change outcomes.
- Thirty days to bill, at 541.7. A billing party must issue the invoice within 30 calendar days from the date the charge was last incurred, and if it does not, the billed party is not required to pay the charge. A non-vessel-operating common carrier passing a charge along gets its own 30 days from the invoice it received.
- Contents, at 541.6. The invoice has to carry the bill of lading and container numbers, the port of discharge on imports, the invoice date and due date, the allowed free time in days with its start and end dates, the container availability date or earliest return date, the specific dates charged, the total due, the tariff rule or contract the rate comes from, and the rate itself.
- Omissions are fatal, at 541.5. Failure to include any of the required minimum information eliminates any obligation of the billed party to pay the applicable charge. That is the whole section, and it is the most useful sentence in the part.
- Thirty days to dispute, at 541.8. The billing party must allow at least 30 calendar days from issuance for a request to mitigate, refund or waive, and must attempt to resolve such a request within 30 days of receiving it.
- Certifications, at 541.6(e). The invoice must state that the charges comply with the Commission's rules and that the billing party's own performance did not cause or contribute to the charge.
Source: 46 CFR Part 541, sourced at 89 FR 14362, retrieved from the eCFR on 2026-07-28. None of this applies to a dry van at your dock in Ohio, which is governed by the carrier's tariff and your contract instead. But if a container charge arrives with no free-time dates on it, the regulation has already answered the question of whether you owe it.
How to stop paying for waiting
- Know your free time before the truck booksIt is in the rules tariff, keyed to the weight at the stop. Thirty minutes for a small delivery is a very different plan from three hours.
- Have the dock ready, not scheduledEquipment present, aisle clear, paperwork printed. The allowance starts on arrival, not on the moment somebody notices the truck.
- Time-stamp everything at the dockArrival, start of unload, finish, release. Carrier tariffs require the carrier to keep that record, and a disputed hour is settled by whoever has one.
- Check a container invoice against the required fieldsFree-time start and end, container availability date, the tariff rule behind the rate. Missing fields are grounds to refuse under 541.5.
- Watch the calendar on ocean chargesA charge invoiced more than 30 days after it was last incurred does not have to be paid. Diary the date rather than arguing the merits.
Most detention on the LTL side is avoidable and most demurrage is not, which is why they deserve different attention. If you are pricing a lane and want to know which accessorials are likely to land on it, send the details through our freight review form and a person will go through it with you.
A dropped trailer is a different meter
Detention without power is billed by the day and escalates fast, and the tariff pauses the free-time clock over weekends and holidays. Both facts change how you plan a drop.
A late container invoice is refusable
The federal rule gives the billing party 30 calendar days from the date the charge was last incurred. Past that, the billed party is not required to pay it.
Detention and demurrage, answered
What is the difference between detention and demurrage?
Detention charges for the carrier's equipment being held, usually a trailer or a container away from the terminal, and is measured in minutes or days. Demurrage charges for cargo occupying terminal space past its allowance, and is measured in days.
How much is LTL detention?
Estes publishes $40 for each additional 15 minutes past free time when the stop handles under 20,000 lb, and $90.30 for the first hour plus $35 per further 15 minutes at 20,000 lb or more, on its accessorial sheet effective 17 November 2025 and read 2026-07-28. Other carriers set their own figures in their own tariffs.
How long is free time before detention starts?
On the Estes tariff read 2026-07-28 it ranges from 30 minutes for a stop under 2,500 lb to 360 minutes at 36,000 lb or more, and a dropped trailer without power gets 24 consecutive hours. Port free time is a separate arrangement set by the terminal or the contract.
Can I refuse a demurrage invoice?
Sometimes. Under 46 CFR 541.7 an invoice issued more than 30 calendar days after the charge was last incurred does not have to be paid, and under 541.5 an invoice missing any required field carries no obligation to pay either. Both were read from the eCFR on 2026-07-28.