EMPTY MILES / WHERE PROFIT LEAKS
Reduce deadhead miles by booking the reload first
Empty miles cost almost as much as loaded ones and pay nothing. The runs to drop yards, the drives home with an empty box, the trip to a pickup across the state: that is where van and power only profit leaks out. Deadhead planning is a habit, not luck, and it starts before you deliver.
WHAT DEADHEAD COSTS
Every empty mile still costs
ATRI's latest cost study put the average cost to run a truck at a record $2.336 per mile in 2025. Your own number may be higher or lower, but almost all of it applies whether the trailer is full or empty: fuel, truck payment, insurance, tires and your time.
So a 260-mile empty run home isn't free just because nobody paid for it. At the industry average it costs about $607. Run that twice a week and it is a truck payment. Work out your own number with the deadhead miles cost calculator.
SOURCE: ATRI 2026 Operational Costs of Trucking, via Bulk Transporter, CHECKED OCTOBER 2026.
- Empty miles
- 260
- Cost per mile (2025 average)
- $2.336
- Twice a week, per month
- $5,260
YARD TO YARD
Deadhead planning, one delivery at a time
Pick where you deliver. The map shows the empty run home and the alternative: a short deadhead to the nearest drop yard and a reload that brings you home loaded. The cost starts at the industry average; change it to yours.
- Empty run home
- Deadhead to yard
- Loaded home
- Run home empty (260 mi)
- -$607
- Deadhead to YARD B (48 mi)
- -$112
- Reload pay toward home (230 mi)
- $610
Hooking the reload turns a -$607 empty trip into $498 after the short deadhead, before the cost of the loaded miles home that you were driving anyway.
Drop yards and pool trailers are where this matters most. See power only dispatch for how we plan around them.
HOW WE CUT IT
Four habits that shrink empty miles
Reload before delivery
The next load is booked while you are still rolling, so you never deliver into a blank screen.
Triangle routes
Instead of A to B and empty back to A, run A to B to C to A, with each leg paying.
Land in strong markets
Before booking a load, we check what ships out of its delivery area.
Nearest yard, not first yard
For power only and drop and hook, the closest yard with trailers beats the first one posted.
WAIT OR RUN EMPTY?
Our decision rules
The hardest deadhead call is whether to sit or drive. These are the rules the desk uses, and the answer always goes to you as a choice, not an order.
- 01
Price both options in dollars
Waiting costs hours; running empty costs miles. Put both in money, using your cost per mile and what a day of your time is worth.
- 02
Look at the next market, not the next load
Driving 120 empty miles into a market with plenty of outbound freight can beat waiting for one cheap load.
- 03
Respect your hours
An empty run that burns the hours you need for a good load tomorrow is a bad run.
- 04
Protect home time
If a short wait gets you a load pointed home, it usually beats a longer empty run.
DEADHEAD BY TRUCK
Where each truck runs empty
Every equipment type leaks empty miles in its own place. Knowing where yours does is half of fixing it.
Dry van
Delivering into consumer markets that ship little back out. The fix is pricing the second load before the first.
Power only
Driving to the yard that has trailers, then back from the drop. The fix is choosing yards near the drops.
Reefer
Running empty out of produce markets after the season. The fix is dry backhauls in the reefer.
Flatbed and step deck
Job sites and plants in out-of-the-way places. The fix is lining up nearby steel and building material loads.
Box truck and hotshot
Short runs with empty returns. The fix is multi-stop routes and partials that point home.
Car hauler
One-way runs with an empty top deck. The fix is stacking cars that share a direction.
DEADHEAD QUESTIONS
Empty miles, answered
Every reload we find still comes to you as a rate con to sign or decline. Fees: dispatch cost.
01What is deadhead in trucking?
Deadhead is driving without a paying load: to a pickup, back home after a delivery, or to a drop yard to hook a trailer. You burn fuel, time and hours of service, and wear the truck, but nobody pays for those miles unless the rate covers them.
02How much deadhead is normal?
It varies a lot by equipment, lane and market, so there is no single right number. What matters is that every empty mile is priced into the all-in rate of the load it serves. A load that needs 150 empty miles can still be the best one if it pays for them.
03How do dispatchers reduce deadhead?
By booking the next load before the current one delivers, choosing loads that land in markets with freight going out, using triangle routes instead of straight back-and-forth runs, and picking the nearest drop yard or reload rather than the first one posted.
04Is it better to wait for a load or deadhead?
It depends on the market you are in and the one you would drive to. Waiting a few hours in a strong market often beats driving empty to a weak one. Running empty to a much stronger market can beat waiting all day. We compare both with your costs before deciding.
05Do brokers ever pay for deadhead?
Sometimes, when a load is hard to cover or the pickup is out of the way. It usually shows up as a higher rate rather than a separate line. We ask for it when the empty miles are long, and we count them in the all-in rate either way.
06Do you charge a fee on deadhead miles?
No. Our fee is 5% of gross load revenue on loads you haul. Empty miles earn nothing, so they cost you nothing in fees, which is also why we work so hard to cut them.
NO CONTRACT / NO FEE ON EMPTY MILES
Fewer empty miles. More paid ones.
Apply in two minutes. We plan the reload before you deliver, and every rate con comes to you to sign.