Ask any fleet operator where their biggest avoidable cost is, and the honest ones say the same thing: the miles their trucks drive without cargo. Empty miles — also called deadhead miles — cost you fuel, driver hours, and vehicle wear without generating a cent of revenue. At scale, they’re the difference between a profitable operation and a break-even one.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association estimates that approximately 28–32% of heavy truck kilometres in Europe are driven empty. For a carrier running 10 trucks averaging 4,000 km per month each, that’s roughly 12,000–15,000 km of pure cost every month. At €0.45/km operating cost, that’s over €6,000 monthly that could be recovered.
Why Empty Miles Happen
The structural cause is simple: most loads are one-directional. You pick up in Hamburg, deliver to Munich. The truck then needs to find a load going back north, or deadhead home. Without an active load-matching workflow at the moment of delivery, the default is empty.
The operational cause is dispatcher bandwidth. A dispatcher managing 8–12 trucks manually can’t simultaneously monitor load board availability, track in-progress deliveries, and plan return legs in real time. The return leg gets planned reactively — after the driver calls from the delivery point.
Three Levers to Reduce Empty Miles
1. Active Load Board Integration
Connecting your dispatch system directly to load boards (DAT, Truckstop, TimoCom) means return-leg opportunities appear in your dispatch view the moment a delivery ETA is confirmed — not after the driver calls. The dispatcher can evaluate and book a backhaul load while the driver is still completing delivery paperwork.
2. Multi-Stop Route Optimization
AI-powered route optimization doesn’t just sequence existing loads — it identifies pickup-delivery combinations that minimise total empty distance across your full dispatch board. A system optimising across 8 trucks simultaneously will find combination routes that no dispatcher can compute manually.
3. Real-Time ETA Visibility
Reducing empty miles requires knowing when and where trucks will become available. GPS tracking with accurate ETA prediction — not just vehicle location, but estimated delivery completion time — gives dispatchers a 60–90 minute window to secure backhaul loads before the driver goes empty.
What Good Results Look Like
Carriers who implement integrated load matching and AI route optimization typically report empty mile reductions of 15–25%. For a 10-truck operation at €0.45/km, cutting deadhead from 30% to 20% of total kilometres recovers approximately €4,000–6,000/month in direct operating costs — before accounting for the revenue from additional loaded kilometres.
RouteWerk combines real-time GPS, AI multi-stop route optimization, and direct DAT/TimoCom/Truckstop load board integration in a single platform — so the dispatching system, the route planning engine, and the load matching workflow share the same data. Plans from €149/month, 30-day free trial.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of truck miles are empty on average?
European industry data consistently shows 28–32% of heavy truck kilometres are deadhead. The figure varies by carrier type — dedicated fleet carriers typically run lower deadhead than spot-market carriers.
What is the most effective way to find backhaul loads?
Direct integration with load boards (DAT, TimoCom) through your TMS — so return-leg loads surface automatically in your dispatch view rather than requiring manual board searches. Speed matters: loads posted on DAT are typically claimed within 15–30 minutes of posting.
