Bluerock TMS22.07.20264 min read

Empty Miles in Trucking: The Hidden Cost of Driving Blind

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Empty Miles Are Costing You More Than You Think

Every trucking company has a leak somewhere. For most small fleets, it isn't fuel prices or a slow-paying broker — it's the miles nobody is paying you to drive.

An empty mile (or "deadhead mile") is any mile your truck covers without a paying load on board. You still burn fuel and pay the driver for that mile, you just don't get paid for it. A few years ago, a fat freight rate could quietly absorb that cost. That cushion is gone.

Why Empty Miles Cost More Today Than They Used To

Freight rates are tighter, fuel isn't getting cheaper, and drivers are scarce and expensive. Shippers now expect Amazon-grade tracking on a trucking budget. Put together, every deadhead mile is a mile you pay for twice: once in fuel and wages, and once in the load you didn't haul instead.

There's a second bill arriving now too: emissions. Regulators and large shippers are starting to score carriers on carbon per load, and an empty truck is pure carbon with zero revenue attached.

"In the past, you could bury an empty mile in a fat rate. Those days are gone." - Rico van Leuken, CEO, Bluerock TMS

How Much Are Empty Miles Actually Costing Your Fleet?

Run a rough number: take your all-in cost per mile (fuel, driver pay, maintenance) and multiply it by your empty-mile percentage across a month. Most small fleets have never calculated this figure, and most are surprised by it. An empty-mile rate that looks like "just part of the job" at 15–20% is, in plain terms, a fifth of your truck's operating time producing zero revenue.

Why "That's Just How Trucking Works" Isn't True Anymore

Efficiency used to be a nice-to-have. It's now the business model. The carriers absorbing the current rate environment aren't the ones working harder, they're the ones who stopped treating empty miles as unavoidable and started treating them as a number to bring down.

That starts with a simple shift: planning trips as round trips instead of one-way hauls. It's a free change — no software required — and it's the single highest-leverage move a small carrier can make. We break down exactly how to do it in [Round Trip vs. One-Way Haul: The Planning Shift That Actually Cuts Empty Miles].

Ready to stop paying for miles nobody's paying you for?

Book a demo and see how Bluerock TMS helps you cut them.

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FAQ

What is a deadhead mile in trucking?

A deadhead mile, also called an empty mile, is any mile a truck drives without a paying load on board — most commonly the leg between delivering one load and collecting the next. The carrier still pays for fuel, driver hours, and equipment wear on that mile but earns no revenue against it.

What percentage of miles are empty for a typical fleet? Empty miles commonly account for 15–20% of total miles driven for small and mid-sized carriers, meaning roughly one fifth of operating time produces no revenue. A fleet that has never measured its own figure should treat that range as an assumption to test rather than a benchmark to accept.

How do I calculate my fleet's empty-mile percentage? Divide total unloaded miles by total miles driven over a set period, using one month as a starting window. Multiply that percentage by all-in cost per mile — fuel, driver pay, and maintenance combined — to convert it into a monetary figure. Most ELD and dispatch systems can produce unloaded mileage automatically; a fleet unable to pull the number at all is usually running on disconnected tools rather than a single system of record.

Accordion Title iHow can a carrier reduce empty miles? Four levers reduce empty miles, in order of cost. Planning trips as round trips rather than one-way hauls is a process change with no software required. Backhaul matching across a wider carrier network fills return legs. Lane-level analysis identifies which routes consistently generate deadhead. Automated load matching applies all three at a scale a dispatcher cannot track manually. Bluerock TMS supports the last three through a network of 10,000+ active carriers across North America and Europe.

Accordion Title iCan a small carrier reduce empty miles without buying new technology? Round-trip planning replaces one-way haul planning without any purchase, and it is the highest-leverage first move available to a small carrier. The limit is scale: manual coordination holds while one dispatcher can hold every truck, lane, and open return leg in their head, and stops holding once the fleet exceeds that. Technology becomes relevant at the point where the planning problem outgrows a single person's working memory, not at a specific truck count.

Why are empty miles more expensive now than a few years ago? Three cost pressures converged. Freight rates tightened, removing the margin that once absorbed unpaid miles. Fuel and driver costs rose, increasing what each empty mile actually costs to run. And large shippers and regulators began scoring carriers on carbon emitted per load, where an empty truck generates emissions against zero freight moved. Deadhead that was a rounding error under loose rates is now a line item that affects both margin and shipper eligibility.

Does a transportation management system reduce empty miles? A TMS reduces empty miles by making return legs and nearby available loads visible at the moment of planning, rather than after the truck has already been dispatched. The reduction comes from network access and automated matching — the wider the carrier and load network, the more return legs can be filled. Bluerock TMS has been recognised in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Transportation Management Systems for six consecutive years (2021–2026) and typically implements in 8–12 weeks.

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