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🗓️ Last updated: June 2026·User-input estimate · CAD · no government rates
🍁 Canada Tool

🇨🇦 Canadian Detention Pay Calculator

See what dock time is really worth in CAD when a shipper or receiver holds you past free time. Enter your appointment and released times, your free time, and your detention rate — get billable hours, the detention charge, and an invoice-ready total. No rates or free-time rules baked in.

🍁 Detention Event (CAD)
When your delivery or pickup window started — the clock your free time runs from.
When you were actually released and free to leave.
Tick this if you were released after midnight, on the following day.
From your rate confirmation or contract. Varies by shipper/receiver — not set by QuicklyFig.
The hourly detention rate you charge or were offered. Your number, not a QuicklyFig rate.
⚙️ Optional — Billing Refinements
Rounds billable detention time up to your contract's increment.
Any flat add-on for the stop. Leave blank to skip.
Shown on your result text only. Nothing is saved or sent.
Billable Detention Hours
—hrs
time held past your free time — what you can bill for
Total Detention Amount
—CAD
detention charge plus any flat fee — invoice-ready estimate
Total Time at Stop
—
Free Time
—
Detention Charge
—
Admin / Accessorial Fee
—
Planning and invoice-estimate only — not legal, financial, tax, accounting, or transportation-compliance advice. This calculator does not determine whether detention is contractually owed. Free time, detention rates, and billing increments are figures you enter — QuicklyFig does not provide or verify them, and this tool uses no CRA, IFTA, GST/HST, carbon, or provincial rules. Rely on your own contracts, rate confirmations, and shipper, broker, or carrier terms, and confirm anything you bill with the responsible party.
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This tool sizes the dollar value of dock detention only. For a whole load's profit in CAD, use the Canadian Load Profitability Calculator.
Need your minimum rate floor? Use the Canadian Owner-Operator Break-Even Rate Calculator for the rate a load must pay per loaded km.
Sizing an empty leg instead? See the Canadian Deadhead / Empty Miles Cost Calculator, or build your operating cost with the Canadian Cost Per KM Calculator. Browse all Canadian trucking tools.

What detention time is really worth

When a shipper or receiver holds you past the free time on your rate confirmation, those extra hours are detention — and they are billable. This calculator turns one stop into a clear dollar figure in CAD: it takes the time between your appointment and when you were released, subtracts your free time, and bills the remaining hours at the detention rate you enter. Add a minimum billing increment and a flat admin fee and you get an invoice-ready total.

Detention is a commercial charge between you and your customer — it is not a freight rate, a load profit, or a regulated figure, and this tool keeps it that way. Everything is user-entered: your times, your free time, your rate, and your increment. Nothing about free time or detention rates is assumed or hardcoded, because those terms vary by shipper, receiver, and contract.

FigureFormula
Total time at stopreleased time − appointment time (+24 h if overnight)
Billable detention hoursmax(total time − free time, 0)
Rounded billable hoursbillable hours rounded up to your increment (optional)
Detention chargebillable hours × detention rate ($/hr)
Total detention amountdetention charge + flat admin / accessorial fee

Recalculate for every stop where you were held — and keep your appointment and release times documented. This tool gives you the number to put on an invoice or to discuss with your broker; whether it is paid still comes down to your contract and your records.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this Canadian detention pay calculator tell me?
It works out how many hours a shipper or receiver held you past your free time, and turns those billable hours into a dollar amount in CAD at the detention rate you enter. It gives you billable detention hours, the detention charge, any flat admin or accessorial fee, and an invoice-ready total. It is a planning and invoice-estimate aid — it does not decide whether detention is contractually owed.
How is detention pay calculated?
Total time at the stop = released/departed time − appointment/check-in time (with an overnight option if you were released the next day). Billable detention hours = total time − free time, never less than zero. If you set a minimum billing increment, billable time is rounded up to it. Detention charge = billable hours × your detention rate per hour. Total = detention charge + any flat admin or accessorial fee. Every figure comes from the numbers you enter — nothing is hardcoded.
What free time and detention rate should I use?
Use the free time and detention rate from your own rate confirmation, contract, or carrier-broker agreement. Free time (often a couple of hours, but it varies by shipper, receiver, and contract) and the detention rate per hour are both figures you enter yourself. QuicklyFig does not publish, assume, or provide detention rates or free-time rules.
How is this different from the Load Profitability and Break-Even Rate calculators?
This tool isolates one thing: the dollar value of time spent waiting at a dock past free time. The Canadian Load Profitability Calculator gives a full per-load profit and loss including revenue and every cost. The Canadian Owner-Operator Break-Even Rate Calculator gives your minimum freight rate per loaded kilometre. Use this detention tool to size a wait, then those tools for full-load margin and rate floors.
Does this calculator use any CRA, IFTA, or government rates?
No. Detention is a commercial charge between you and your customer, not a regulated rate. This tool applies no CRA, IFTA, GST/HST, carbon, or provincial rules and does not interpret your contract. It is a planning estimate only. Confirm what you are owed against your rate confirmation, contract, and carrier or broker terms.

Sitting at docks every week?

QuicklyFig is building Canadian trucking and freight tools. Free to calculate. Pro to save your detention logs and stop history in your Owner-Operator Command.

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