--- title: "Three hours at the dock that nobody invoiced" url: "https://edriq.com/blog/three-hours-at-the-dock-nobody-invoiced" description: "The order allowed a charge for waiting beyond the free time. Nobody recorded when the truck arrived and left, so the charge was never raised — or was raised and disputed." --- # Three hours at the dock that nobody invoiced September 15, 2026·3 min read·EdrIQ The truck had a slot at seven. It was at the gate at a quarter to. It was called to a dock at ten, loading finished at half past eleven, and it left at noon. The driver mentioned it in a message, the dispatcher sighed, and the load moved on. The order allowed two hours free and a charge for every hour started after that. The charge was never invoiced. Nobody decided not to; it simply never became anybody’s job. ## Why waiting time goes unbilled **The times are not recorded.** Arrival, the moment the truck was called in, the end of loading, departure. Nobody writes them down as they happen, and a week later “about three hours” is not something a customer will pay for. **The terms are somewhere else.** The free time and the rate sit in a framework agreement, in the customer’s general conditions, or in one line of an order PDF. The person closing the load does not have them in front of them. **Raising it feels awkward.** The customer gives regular work, the waiting was the warehouse’s fault rather than theirs, and nobody wants a dispute over a few hours. So the charge is dropped quietly, every time. **The forwarder pays it anyway.** A subcontracted carrier will charge the forwarder for waiting time when it has grounds to. If the forwarder does not pass it on to the shipper, the waiting comes straight out of the margin. ## Why it gets disputed when it is raised A waiting-time charge without evidence is an opinion. The customer’s first questions are predictable: when did the truck arrive, was it on time for its slot, and who says so. If the answer is the driver’s memory, the charge is negotiated down or written off. Most often it falls on the slot. If the truck missed its booked window, the waiting was its own doing and the customer is right to refuse. A claim has to show that the truck was there on time, not only that it was there for a long time. The reverse happens too: the truck was on time, nobody can show it, and the result is the same as if it had been late. ## What evidence looks like **A timestamp at arrival.** A message from the driver at the gate, a photo of the entrance or the queue. A message carries the time it was sent, which is already more than most claims have. **A timestamp at departure.** The same again when the paperwork is handed back and the truck leaves. **The slot on the order.** The booked time window, so that arrival can be compared against it without searching an email thread. **The times on the document, where possible.** Some warehouses will write arrival and departure times on the delivery note or the CMR and sign them. When they do, that is the strongest evidence there is. When they refuse, the driver’s timestamps still count for something. ## The terms belong on the order The free time and the rate should not live in a contract nobody opens. They should be on the order itself: two hours free, then this much per hour, counted from the slot or from arrival, whichever the agreement says. Then whoever closes the load can see in seconds whether a charge is due and how much it is. With the times and the terms on the same load, the calculation stops being a judgement call. The charge goes onto the draft invoice with the timestamps attached, and a person decides whether to send it this time — there are sometimes good reasons not to. The difference is that it is then a decision, rather than something that happened by default. ## Why it is worth doing Waiting time is not a large amount on any single load. Across a year of loads at warehouses known for keeping drivers waiting, it adds up to real money that was earned and simply not collected. It is also information. A consignee who keeps trucks for three hours every week is more expensive to serve than the rate card suggests, and the next quote for that lane should say so. That only works if somebody recorded the hours in the first place. - detention - waiting time - invoicing - documents ## Keep reading - [A forwarding agent works all night. What may it write alone?](https://edriq.com/blog/a-forwarding-agent-works-all-night) - [The driver runs out of hours 40 km from the dock](https://edriq.com/blog/the-driver-runs-out-of-hours-40-km-from-the-dock)