Dwell time in trucking: the silent efficiency killer

You make every effort in your trucking business to be as efficient as possible every hour of the workday. But dwell time – periods when your trucks are on customers’ sites, sitting idle, waiting to be loaded, unloaded, or reassigned – is ready to disrupt the efficiency you’ve so carefully established. According to MIT researcher David Correll, most drivers use only 60 percent of their legally allowed driving time. This inefficiency can complicate your scheduling, increase your costs, and put a noticeable strain on your most valuable resources.

Every entity in the supply chain feels the impact of dwell time – carriers, brokers, and shippers alike. That’s why taking control and addressing the root causes of dwell time quickly and decisively is critical for optimizing your operations and maintaining your profitability.

This post will act as a central hub for the topic of dwell time – what causes it, how it affects supply chain participants, and the practical solutions you can use to mitigate its effects. When you understand dwell time, you’ll gain that competitive edge you’ve been looking for and improve your transportation business efficiency with ease.

What is dwell time in trucking?

Dwell time in trucking is the period between productive movement of your trucks. It’s when they’re stationary, waiting for various processes to occur so they can get back on the road making their deliveries and generating revenue. You can separate these idle periods into three main categories:

• Slack time: Generally the most unproductive time for your trucks, slack time is when your vehicles are not engaged in loading or unloading activities. It results from poor scheduling, delays in previous appointments, or waiting around for dock availability. Think of it as missed opportunities for the productive use of your valuable trucking assets.
  
  
• Detention time: When your trucks are held up at facilities along their routes beyond their scheduled or “free” time, they’re being detained. Usually, carriers allow a certain amount of free time (typically 2 hours), after which detention fees accrue. Detention time is specifically the time spent waiting after the free period has elapsed, caused by numerous factors – cargo readiness delays, inefficiently managed docks, administrative hold-ups, etc.
  
  
• Loading and unloading: Loading and unloading isn’t always a smooth, uncomplicated process. Any amount of inefficiency here can significantly contribute to dwell time and costly delays, from understaffing or lack of equipment to simple poor coordination. When these activities are professionally streamlined, you’ll see a notable reduction in overall dwell time.  

Breaking these types of idle times into categories enables you to more specifically target problems and determine how to fix them. You’ll have a better grasp on the inefficiencies that lead to slack time, detention time, or loading/unloading issues, and be able to make improvements that enhance your operational efficiency.

Main causes behind dwell time in trucking operations

Dwell time stems from several factors that impact your efficiency and productivity and may be part of a larger context of inefficiency you can identify in your operations. These include:

• Load planning: When you handle your load planning processes poorly, you’ll run into misaligned schedules and increased waiting times. Any time cargo isn’t ready or organized properly, your trucks will spend unnecessary time idling and ultimately wasting you money.
  
  
• Appointment times: Even the smallest scheduling conflicts or appointment time mismanagement leads to delays. And when multiple trucks are supposed to load or unload simultaneously, you’ll hit bottlenecks that lead to extended dwell times.
  
  
• Dock management: Managing docks appropriately can play a big role in minimizing truck dwell time. Inefficiencies like limited dock space, sluggish loading and unloading practices, or a lack of coordination can lead to significantly increased waiting periods for your trucks.
  
  
• Paperwork or administrative delays: Taking too long to complete paperwork, verify cargo, or obtain necessary approvals can contribute severely to trucking delays. If these processes aren’t streamlined and user-friendly, they’ll contribute to prolonged dwell times.
  
  
• Understaffing: Not enough workers to handle the volume of goods? Your trucks will be waiting for what feels like days. Insufficient staffing at loading docks and warehouses grinds the loading and unloading process to a halt and may balloon your dwell time to unsustainable levels.
  
  
• Driver scheduling: If your driver schedules aren’t well coordinated, your truck availability and cargo readiness will end up clashing on a regular basis. More efficient scheduling ensures your drivers arrive once cargo is ready for loading and unloading, reducing your idle times.

Each of these factors come down to planning, management, and staffing. But once you can identify and address them one by one, you’ll have a far better method for mitigating any issues and stopping dwell time in its tracks.

How dwell time impacts supply chain participants

Every minute of dwell time can have far-reaching consequences across the supply chain that affects carriers, brokers, and shippers in numerous ways.

Carriers

• Lower driver income: Longer dwell times directly reduce driver pay. A recent United States Department of Transportation report found that detention is associated with annual earnings reductions of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion for for-hire commercial motor vehicle drivers in the truckload sector.
  
  
• Lower carrier revenue: The same US DOT report found detention time reduced net income for carriers by an estimated $250.6 million to $302.9 million annually. Such a revenue loss significantly impacts both the financial health and operational efficiency for carriers across the country.
  
  
• Increased crash rates: If the total time a truck spends at a given facility increases by as little as 15 minutes, it raises the chances they’ll have a crash. The US DOT found the average expected crash rate increased by 6.2 percent. This not only jeopardizes driver safety but increases insurance costs and liability risks for carriers.

Brokers

• Customer satisfaction: It’s abundantly clear that the more efficient your operations, the happier your customers will be with your services. Brokers can enhance this by partnering with shippers who maintain lower dwell times thanks to more efficient check-in processes, highly competent facilities, and rapid turnarounds. Efficiency like this leads to better pricing and services, which brokers can pass on to their customers.
  
  
• Detention fees: Detention fees tend to start after a set free time of two hours in most cases and can range from $50 to $100 per hour. Small at first, these costs quickly add up and affect the profitability and reputation of shipments managed by brokers. With more flexible appointment scheduling strategies, pre-staging freight, and utilizing drop trailers, brokers can substantially reduce these fees.
  
  
• Reduced capacity availability: Frequent, long dwell times means underutilization of driving hours. Higher dwell times reduce the availability of trucks for other shipments, which effectively decreases market capacity. Shippers that minimize dwell times can secure better rates and capacity, which benefits brokers as they manage tight schedules while seeking to meet customer demands.

Shippers

• Less favorable shipper characteristics: Shippers known for high dwell times are less favored due to higher costs and known inefficiencies. For shippers to be more favored, they’ll need to embrace practices that lead to lower dwell times, more favorable contract terms, and positive driver experiences.
  
  
• Increased shipping rates: Shippers with variable dwell times face higher costs. If dwell times are kept under two hours, however, they can typically avoid freight rate increases. According to C.H. Robinson, a two-hour average dwell time at the origin increases the freight rate for every load by an average of $9.83. If a truck is detained for three hours, that cost rises by $14.74 per load. Combined dwell time at both the origin and destination point can increase the total freight rate by $44.54. Additionally, regional variability plays a role – for example, a truck detained for two hours in the Pacific region increases freight rates by $54.91, but only by $6.85 in the Northeast region.
  
  
• Labor costs: Shippers can leverage digital tools for appointment scheduling, real-time visibility, and more efficient load planning to reduce their overall labor costs. Plus, they can streamline their operations and significantly reduce costs by utilizing drop trailers – especially if they’re high-volume shippers.

Clearly, dwell time affects everyone down the line of the supply chain. That’s why it’s so important to understand its impact and what steps can be taken to address it. Carriers, brokers, and shippers can enhance their supply chain performance across the board by taking steps to minimize dwell time wherever possible.

How do you solve dwell time in trucking?

Reducing dwell time in trucking isn’t as simple as we might wish, given the grand complexity of our modern logistics and transportation industry. But it’s entirely possible with the implementation of strategic measures that address root causes and seek more practical solutions:

1. Select freight to minimize dwell time

• Choose no-touch freight: Make sure to prioritize freight that requires minimal handling by your drivers. With no-touch freight, you’ll ensure the loading and unloading processes run quickly and reduce the time your trucks spend idling.
  
  
• Pre-staged freight: Work to ensure freight is always staged and ready before trucks arrive. Pre-staging minimizes wait times and allows drivers to load or unload quickly so they can continue along their routes without unnecessary delays.
  
  
• Flexible load types: Choose live loads that can be handled as quickly as possible. More flexible load types enable faster turnaround times that reduce dwell times and significantly improve overall efficiency.

2. Implement a drop trailer program to minimize dwell time

• Flexible scheduling: With a drop trailer program in place, shippers can load and unload trailers and carriers can pick up loads at their convenience to reduce peak congestion and wait times. If you can decouple the loading and unloading process altogether from driver schedules, your operations will become more efficient.
  
  
• Reduce driver wait times: Drop trailers mean drivers can drop off their trailers and immediately move on to their next load. Taking this approach saves time as drivers won’t have to wait for loading and unloading to finish.
  
  
• Increase capacity utilization: Implementing a drop trailer program improves your overall fleet productivity by better utilizing driver and equipment hours. Reducing that idle time enables carriers to increase the number of trips made boost their revenue every day.

3. Utilize software to minimize dwell time in trucking

• Holistic decision-making: With advanced software tools integrated seamlessly into your operation, you’ll gain a comprehensive view of your operations that enable smarter decision. Such tools allow you to consider every aspect of your supply chain so you can better coordinate and plan accordingly to reduce dwell time.
  
  
• Predictive analytics: If you have a longstanding issue with dwell time, you can investigate and determine exactly why it occurs so frequently. According to MIT’s David Correll, “Unfortunately, we have observed that the best predictor of a facility’s dwell time is its historical dwell time.” But when you leverage predictive analytics, your company can anticipate delays based on what has caused them in the past and adjust your operations proactively.
  
  
• Intelligent scheduling: Advanced AI tools and intelligent software solutions can help you optimize driver schedules and load assignments to reduce bottlenecks and wait times. With intelligent scheduling, you can ensure both drivers and loads are efficiently coordinated to minimize idle periods and improve your productivity from top to bottom.

Ready to learn more about how your business can reduce the effects of dwell time in trucking? Keep a browser tab open on the Optym blog and check back regularly to read our newest posts. And if you’re curious about how we can help you increase operational efficiency in your logistics and transportation business, reach out to a member of the Optym team today!

Contact Optym.