Every day, thousands of trucks drive along miles of freeways and highways completely empty — and the distances they drive with zero cargo onboard reaches many billions of miles every year. After a truck delivers its load, it may not have any goods to carry for the return leg of its journey and drives back empty. “I don’t think it is widely known,” said an industry veteran.
The problem of empty trucks has gotten worse in Europe, with the proportion of mileage driven by vehicles with zero cargo going up, reports CNBC (Sept. 12, 2022). In the EU, trucks clocked up so-called “deadhead” distances of around 21 billion miles in 2021. This equates to more than a fifth of the total distance traveled by road freight in the bloc last year, up from 20% in 2020.
By its nature, the road freight industry is complex: manufacturers or retailers that need to transport goods are in myriad locations, shipping varying amounts of cargo to many destinations, sometimes relying on multiple carriers to do so.
Trucking companies ideally need one customer (or customers) for the outward journey and another for the return. If they don’t have two customers, vehicles run empty. But, as well as needing a shipment for the return journey, they also need a truck that matches their load, with equipment such as refrigeration or a vehicle with a fork-lift attached. Some haulers still book deliveries via phone or email. This means information about what is being sent where isn’t always centrally held, making it harder to find shipments to fill trucks for the return leg.
In the U.S., meanwhile, the distances driven by empty trucks decreased from 21% in 2020 to 15% in 2021. Under the pressure of rising fuel prices, carriers achieved some of the lowest deadhead mileage in years. But running trucks without loads is still a problem, especially since costs are going up: U.S domestic freight rates increased 28% this year (across all modes of transport including road and air), reaching a potential peak. Empty miles mean less revenue for carriers. It means increased costs because an empty truck on the road still consumes fuel, still needs a driver, and still requires regular maintenance.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What is the solution to “deadheading”?
- Why is the problem bigger in the EU than in the US?