Deadhead miles fuel increase costs, waste time, and drive down your fleet’s profitability. Find out how carriers, shippers, and brokers can cut down deadhead trips with smarter logistics solutions such as FTM.
The Hidden Cost of Empty Trucks
Deadhead miles, or deadhead trips, are the miles that a truck drives without a load. This generally occurs after a freight delivery or other logistics mile production, and the truck is on its way to the next load. Moreover deadhead miles can often be forgotten about, but they create a serious inefficiency on operations to carriers, brokers, and shippers alike.
In an industry where every mile matters, reducing the number of deadhead miles is not just about bettering fuel consumption, it’s about bettering profitability, sustainability, and safety. In this blog, we define deadhead miles, uncover why they are so expensive, and explore how smart logistics platforms like FTM can eliminate them from your operations.
Read more: Hidden Costs in Logistics: How to Cut Unnecessary Expenses
What Are Deadhead Miles?
Deadhead is defined as “the distance a truck travels empty with a trailer attached, usually after dropping off a load and traveling to the next pick-up”.
In fact deadhead miles are different from bobtailing which is driving with an empty truck without a trailer. In both instances, the resources are moving, but not producing revenue, which is a significant contributor to the hidden cost to the freight ecosystem.
Why Deadhead Miles Hurt Your Bottom Line
- Fuel and Operating Expenses
Empty miles still use fuel and driver hours. In fact, trucks can still consume 6 MPG or more without cargo (depending on speed, route, and terrain).
- Maintenance and Sustainability
Deadhead miles shorten the life of a truck without generating revenue. In addition It adds to unnecessary carbon emissions, an increasing concern for shippers that are increasingly concerned about sustainability.
- Lost Revenue & Inefficient Utilization
Every empty mile is another opportunity to monetize the truck’s capacity. Therefore poor planning creates inefficient asset utilization and makes it more difficult to reach profitability goals.
- Driver Discomfort and Safety
When a driver’s time is being wasted driving empty miles, it is demotivating. Whereas this is associated with driver turnover, driver fatigue, and increased chance of risk when driving.
How to Reduce Deadhead Miles: Proven Strategies
1. Route Optimization Using TMS Reduces Deadhead Miles
A Transportation Management System (TMS) such as FTM can mitigate deadhead miles by accurately planning pickup and delivery routes that optimize truck capacity utilization while minimizing empty miles. Furthermore the FTM Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) engine will coordinate each delivery with its backhaul based on current operating conditions.
2. Real-Time Shipment Visibility
Deadhead is often the result of missed opportunities. So with real-time shipment visibility, brokers and carriers can respond faster to evolving freight conditions and reposition trucks efficiently, avoiding idle movements.
Read more: Why Visibility is the Backbone of Modern Logistics
3. Load Matching and Backhaul Planning
FTM’s Load Board and Collaborative Planning modules allow shippers and carriers to connect empty trucks to available loads at the moment. Since planners use historical, and predictive data, they can use backhauls in advance while avoiding empty trips.
4. Integrated Telematics & Tracking optimizes deadhead miles
FTMis integrated with ELDs so that its TMS can provide location-based load offers enabling dispatchers to quickly match available loads to trucks nearby. This is essential for reducing empty miles between jobs.
5. Smart Contracts and Pricing Flexibility
Movements toward performance improvement can also mitigate deadhead risk through flexible pricing and budgeted contractual clauses. Indeed if a shipment ends up requiring accessorial charges, working that out with a broker is better than the shipper being exclusively accountable for better addressing inefficiencies.
How FTM Helps Carriers and Brokers Cut Deadhead Miles
FTM’s Smart TMS is designed to proactively eliminate inefficiencies like deadhead miles by integrating all freight planning into one intelligent platform:
- Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS)
- Dynamic Route Optimization
- Real-Time Visibility Dashboards
- Load Board Integration
- Collaborative Load Sharing
- Shipment Forecasting Tools
- KPI Dashboards and Analytics
Regardless if you’re a shipper looking to enhance sustainability or a carrier looking to improve margins, FTM’s end-to-end platform provides the control and data visibility required to mitigate deadhead trips significantly.
Best Practices to Get Started
- By using your TMS reports, examine your empty mileage trends today.
- Use load board APIs to start real-time load matching.
- Ask drivers for feedback to align routes to real-world constraints.
- Train dispatchers in planning workflows that use APS.
- Create KPIs that measure deadhead reduction per lane.
AI-Powered Fleet Optimization
AI and predictive analytics are transforming how fleets combat inefficiencies.Furthermore FTM is at the forefront, incorporating machine learning into route forecasting, dynamic pricing, and carrier recommendations. This evolution means that deadhead may eventually be a thing of the past.
Read more: How AI in Logistics Decision-Making Improves Efficiency
Deadhead Doesn’t Have to Be Inevitable
Missing every other empty mile is missing an opportunity to optimize your cost of business, but with the right technology and data accessibility, deadhead miles can be reduced or eliminated! FTM puts the tools to move smarter (not just faster) into the carrier, broker, and shipper‘s hands.
Take Action Today
Deadhead miles drain profits, but they’re avoidable.
FTM helps you cut empty trips with smarter planning and real-time tools.
Book your free demo today and start optimizing your fleet.
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