When does free time end?
Enter when the trailer arrived and the free-time allowance from your contract. This calculator shows exactly when free time runs out and how far into detention you are — in time, never dollars. Runs entirely in your browser. No signup, no upload, no logs.
When does detention start?
Detention starts when the free time in your contract runs out, most often 2 hours from arrival. Everything before that is free time; every minute after it is billable at the contracted rate. On stops with detention, drivers waited an average of 1.4 hours past a two-hour window in an FMCSA-sponsored study.
Free time starts when the trailer arrives or checks in. Once your allowance is used up, the clock keeps running into detention. You set the allowance — free time is a contract matter between the carrier and the yard, not an industry default.
We will email your figures back with a short breakdown you can forward to whoever signs off. A person writes it, usually the same day. No newsletter and no sales sequence.
What this is — and what Vantage does automatically
This is the manual version of what Vantage YMS does on its own. The moment a trailer hits the gate, Vantage starts its dwell clock — so a clerk never has to subtract timestamps by hand or wonder which trailers have crossed into detention.
Manual, here.
You type the arrival time, your allowance, and read the result. Fine for a one-off, but it's a timestamp you have to capture and a subtraction you have to remember to do — per trailer, all shift.
Automatic, in Vantage.
Gate-IN starts the clock the instant the trailer is scanned. Every trailer's dwell and detention time runs live on the yard map and dashboard — overage surfaced before it becomes a dispute, in time, with your own rate applied off-platform.
A full yard management system, from a phone.
Detention tracking is one piece. Gate operations, C-TPAT inspection, live yard map, carrier appointments, driver-license capture, yard moves and analytics — and container numbers read from a photo in the iPhone app, checked against the ISO 6346 check digit.
Gate IN / OUT.
End-to-end gate transactions — container, trailer, driver, seal, and appointment linked at the moment of scan. The dwell clock starts here.
Live dwell & detention.
Every trailer's free-time and detention clock runs automatically from gate-IN — shown in time, on the yard map and dashboard. You apply your own contracted rate.
Photo reading, checked.
The iPhone app reads trailer and container numbers from a photo; container numbers also get the ISO 6346 check digit; the clerk confirms every read.
C-TPAT 7-point inspection.
Digital 7-point checklist with an audit support pack: photos, timestamp, an optional driver signature, and a SHA-256 hash of each photo. In the iPhone app, on Pro and above.
Live yard map.
Real-time slot view. The manager sees every door and every move from any browser.
Carrier appointments.
Your team books and tracks carrier appointments from the browser.
Analytics & KPIs.
Throughput, detention exposure (in time), gate dwell, inspection pass-rate, OCR accuracy — the dashboards a full YMS gives you, included in the plan price.
14-day offline queue.
Walk into a dead zone, finish the cycle, sync on reconnect. The gate keeps recording offline (up to 500 queued moves, 14 days) and syncs when the signal returns.
Published, $149+/mo.
Lite $149, Pro $349 with C-TPAT inspection, Scale $649. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial (card required, no charge until day 15), no setup fee, cancel anytime. Or start free with no card; the Free plan never expires.
The other free tools
Put this calculator on your own site
Free to embed on any site, no permission or attribution needed beyond the small credit line inside the widget. It loads a stripped-down view with no header, no footer, and no marketing.
Frequently asked
What is detention and free time?
Free time is the agreed window a trailer can sit at a facility without penalty, starting at arrival or check-in. Once that window ends, the trailer is in detention — the time beyond the free-time allowance. The length of free time and any rate are set in the contract between the carrier and the yard, not by any standard. That's why this tool asks you to enter your own allowance.
Does Vantage set detention rates?
No. Your detention rate is a contract matter between the carrier and the yard. This tool — and Vantage YMS — tracks the time only. You apply your own contracted rate to the overage time it reports. We deliberately never display or imply a dollar amount.
Does this run in my browser?
Yes. The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing leaves it unless you choose to email yourself the results; then only the summary figures are sent.
Is the free-time allowance the same for everyone?
No. A live load and a drop-and-hook are often handled very differently, and every carrier↔yard contract sets its own numbers. We don't prescribe a default — you enter the allowance that applies to your agreement.
Let the yard keep the clock.
Vantage YMS tracks dwell and detention time per trailer automatically — free plan, no card, cancel anytime.