Transparent demurrage tracking for the fuel industry
Hours at the rack are billable. Proving them shouldn't be a fight.
Demurly records waits at the terminal and at the drop with GPS, timestamps and photos. Carriers send the charge in a few taps. Fuel buyers approve it, dispute it or pay it from the same record.
94.5%
of fleets charge detention fees
<50%
of those invoices are paid
39.3%
of stops, drivers reported being detained
135M+
hours lost to detention in 2023
Across US for-hire trucking, not fuel hauling alone. 2023 data. American Transportation Research Institute, 2024
The problem
Why demurrage turns into an argument
Nearly every fleet charges for detention, and across trucking they're paid on fewer than half of those invoices. The fight is almost always about proof.
Paper and email
The old way
- Carrier bills from the driver's logbook
- 6:16 → $315.00
- Buyer checks the terminal's gate log
- 7:41 → $157.50
- In the queue before the gate
- 1h 25m, on neither paper
Weeks of email over $157.50. Paid short, or written off, and the next load starts with less trust.
One record both sides see
The Demurly way
- 6:16The driver taps Start in the queue; GPS starts
- 6:20Photo of the line at Gate 2
- 7:41GPS: through the gate
- 10:08Stops by itself as the truck drives off
3h 00m billable × $105.00/hr = $315.00
The buyer opens the same record, sees the queue on the map and the photo, and approves $315.00.
What it costs
Put your own numbers on it
One disputed wait is a hundred dollars and an afternoon of emails. Across a year of loads it's a line on the P&L. Set the sliders to your operation and see what the argument costs.
Across US trucking, ATRI found fleets are paid for fewer than half of the detention invoices they send.
$117,000
of wait time billed a year that never gets paid
- Waits a year
- 2,340
- Billed per wait
- $100
- Billable a year
- $234,000
- Unpaid per truck
- $4,680
Your numbers, the math as live formulas, and a what-if table to share with your team.
An estimate from the numbers you set, to show what's at stake. It isn't what Demurly would recover: a record makes the wait provable, and paying it is still between you and the other company.
One load, start to finish
How Demurly settles it
One record follows the wait from the terminal to the payment, from a driver's phone to the buyer's approval.
At the terminal
The driver records the wait
- Starts with one tap when the truck arrives
- The phone's location is logged through the wait
- A photo is required before it can stop
- Stops by itself if the truck drives away
In the carrier's office
The carrier checks it and sends it
- Your rate and free time, per customer
- Billed in 15-minute steps, the same way every time
- Send one, or a whole batch at once
As the fuel buyer
The buyer reviews the evidence
- Times, GPS trail, photos and the math on one screen
- Approve, or dispute it with a reason
- Pay by card in Demurly, or mark it paid
When they disagree
Disputes get answered on the record
- A dispute and its answer stay on the record
- The history can't be edited after the fact
- Approved after a dispute, it's billed like any other
Who it's for
One record, three jobs
Fuel Buyer
Approve what's real. Dispute what isn't.
- Every charge arrives with its GPS trail and photos
- Dispute with a reason, in one place
- Approved charges as a scheduled CSV for your AP team
Free to use
Invite your carriersCarrier
Bill every wait you can prove.
- Drivers record on the phone they already carry
- Charges worked out from your rate and free time
- Get paid by card, with payouts to your bank
No subscription; first 25 approved charges free
Start freeDriver
Tap when you arrive. Tap when you leave.
- Works in your phone's browser, nothing to install
- Sign in with the number and PIN from your carrier
- Keeps your times even when the signal drops
Set up by your carrier
Driver sign-inWorks with
It fits the systems you already run
Carriers' books
QuickBooks Online, NetSuite and SAP Business One (early access): approved charges become invoices, and payments sync both ways.
Buyers' AP
Approved charges delivered as a CSV on your schedule, ready for your payables system.
Your trading partners
EDI X12: incoming 214s start and stop records, and approved charges go out as 210s.
Your rules
Single sign-on (SAML), approval limits by role, and an audit log of every change.
Your own systems
A REST API and signed webhooks, documented from the same file the app is tested against.
Pricing
Pay when your charge is approved
Fuel buyers use Demurly for free. Carriers pay no subscription, for any number of drivers: just a fee on each charge the buyer approves, and the first 25 are free.
Standard: no monthly fee
3% of each approved charge, at least $3 and at most $30, however the buyer pays it: in Demurly, or by check, ACH or wire. Nothing on charges that are rejected or never approved. Your first 25 approved charges are free.
Pro: $199 a month
1.5% of each approved charge, at least $1.50 and at most $15, plus:
- Accounting sync: QuickBooks Online, NetSuite and SAP Business One
- EDI 214 status messages in and 210 invoices out
- The public API and webhooks
- Single sign-on (SAML)
Fees on charges paid in Demurly come out of the payout; the rest are billed once a month.
Example: a $150 charge paid by card
- The charge
- $150
- Card processing, shown to the buyer before paying
- $4.79
- The buyer pays
- $154.79
- Demurly fee (3%), from the carrier's payout
- $4.50
- The carrier receives
- $145.50
Buyers who pay by check, ACH or through their own books mark the charge paid; no card fee applies, and the carrier's 3% fee is billed with the month's others.
Questions people ask
Do I need an account to approve a charge?
No. When a carrier sends you a charge, the email has a link to it. If it went to your company email address, you can review the evidence and approve or dispute from that link. You can create a free account later from the same link.
What if my carrier and I disagree on free time?
Each record shows the free time and rate that were applied, set by the carrier for your account. If it's wrong, dispute it with a reason. The carrier can correct the record and send it again, and every change stays in its history.
Who sees the photos and GPS?
The carrier's team and the fuel buyer the charge is sent to. Location is only logged while a wait is being recorded.
Can a record be changed after it's sent?
Details can be corrected and the record sent again, but nothing is overwritten: the history shows every step, who took it and when, and it can't be edited.
Do terminals have to use Demurly?
No. The driver records the wait on their own phone. The terminal doesn't need to do anything.
Is detention the same as demurrage?
Close enough for this. In trucking, detention usually means paying a carrier for time its truck is held beyond the free time. In fuel hauling, the same charge is often called demurrage. Demurly handles that charge, whatever you call it.
How is the evidence handled?
Only the two companies on a charge see its GPS trail and photos: the carrier's team and the fuel buyer it's sent to. The phone logs location only while a wait is being recorded, never through the rest of the day. Every step, from the driver's first tap to payment, stays in the record's history as it happened, and no one can edit it. Records are kept for seven years, like any financial record, so an audit years from now still has the proof behind each charge. Demurly LLC is a US company, hosted on US servers; payments go through Stripe, and two-step sign-in is available to everyone.
Who built Demurly?
Demurly's founder comes from fuel distribution: managing hundreds of drivers and carriers, with over a billion gallons a year delivered on the company's own trucks and through third-party carriers. That's both sides of the charge: sending the detention invoice, and being asked to pay one. Questions, or want to try it on your own lanes first? Book a 15-minute call or contact us; you'll talk to a person, not a sales script.
What does it cost?
Fuel buyers use Demurly for free. Carriers pay no subscription, for any number of drivers: 3% of each approved charge, at least $3 and at most $30, however the buyer pays it, due when the buyer approves the charge, and nothing on charges that are rejected or never approved. A carrier's first 25 approved charges are free. Pro ($199 a month) lowers the fee to 1.5% and adds accounting sync, EDI, the API and single sign-on. Enterprise starts at $999 a month on an annual contract, with transaction fees negotiated on volume; pricing depends on your requirements. Card and bank payments add a processing fee for the buyer, shown before paying.