Northeast Freight Time one clock, four readings

Reading an Industry Survey

Most numbers in freight come from surveys, not from measurement. Carriers report their dwell, shippers report their turn times, and both are reporting impressions of an interval nobody has defined. For another workplace-measurement reference, cognitive offloading.

That does not make surveys useless. It makes them a specific kind of evidence with specific limits, and six checks tell you which figures are usable. For complementary transport data and research, see CSCMP.

The six checks

One. Who was asked, and who answered? A survey of carriers produces the carrier's view. A response rate of a few per cent from a membership list produces the view of members who care enough to reply — which, on a grievance topic, is not a random sample.

Two. Was it measured or recalled? "How long do you typically wait?" is recall. Gate data is measurement. Recall in a grievance context runs long, reliably and without anyone lying.

Three. What was the definition? If the survey did not define detention, respondents used their own, and the resulting average is a blend of incompatible quantities.

Four. What is the denominator? Per stop, per load, per driver, per week. "Two hours of detention" means very different things across those, and the unit is frequently dropped in retelling.

Five. Who published it, and what do they sell? Research organisations, trade associations and software vendors all publish in this space, and their incentives differ. A vendor's survey showing large dwell is not fabricated; it is a real finding by a party who benefits from the conclusion.

Six. What year? Rates, capacity and congestion move fast. A 2021 dwell figure describes 2021.

What this means for the figures in circulation

Applying the checks to the common ones.

Average dwell around 1 hour 54 minutes per stop, with 3 hours 16 minutes for refrigerated and 2 hours 23 minutes for fleets of 25 trucks or fewer. Industry data from 2021, self-reported, definition unstated. Useful for relative comparison — reefer worse than dry, small fleets worst — and weak as an absolute benchmark.

94.5% of carriers charge detention and fewer than half of those invoices are paid. From ATRI, the most serious research body in the sector. Self-reported, and the second half is the more robust claim because carriers know precisely what they were paid.

Detention on about one stop in ten, averaging 1.4 hours. From FMCSA's 2014 study, whose limitations the agency itself describes as rudimentary. Federal, and old, and weak by its own account.

$1.1–1.3 billion in lost driver income and a 6.2% crash-rate association. A federal audit rather than a survey, and the strongest evidence in the field.

Note the pattern: the figures people quote most confidently are the survey ones, and the strongest evidence is the least quoted.

The one asymmetry worth knowing

Self-reported waiting runs long and self-reported turn times run short.

Neither party is dishonest. A carrier remembers the bad visits, because those are the ones that cost a delivery. A facility measures from check-in, which excludes the queue outside. Both report their own experience accurately and the two do not meet.

So when a carrier survey and a shipper survey disagree by an hour, the honest reading is usually that both are right about different intervals, not that one is exaggerating.

What to do with all of them

Use industry figures for direction, not for level. Reefer worse than dry van, small fleets worse than large, congestion seasonal — these are robust across sources.

Use federal sources for argument. A DOT audit outranks a trade survey in any room where it matters.

And use your own data for decisions. A week of four timestamps at your own gate settles questions about your operation that no national average can address.

The short version