Deadhead

Deadhead is unavoidable in truckload freight — you rarely deliver exactly where the next load starts — but it is controllable. Planning the next load before the current one delivers is the main lever.

The right way to judge it is to fold it into the rate. A load paying $2.90 per mile over 400 loaded miles that took 150 deadhead miles to reach is really paying about $2.11 per mile across the 550 miles the truck turned.

Deadhead percentage — empty miles as a share of total miles — is worth watching over a month rather than per load. Anything trending up usually means loads are being booked too late.

Empty miles cost almost as much as loaded ones. The truck burns fuel, wears tires, uses hours of service and adds to the payment's share per mile. The only thing missing is the pay. Most fuel surcharges are paid on loaded miles only, so the fuel for deadhead comes out of your line haul too.

Measure it, don't guess it. The empty miles on a trip are rarely on the rate con, so they are easy to forget when you judge a load. GPS or ELD data shows the real distance from the last delivery to the next pickup.

Sometimes a long deadhead is still the right call, for example to escape a market where freight is thin. The way to decide is to compare loads by what they pay per mile turned, not per loaded mile advertised.