How to Cut Deadhead Miles

Deadhead is every mile you drive empty, usually to reach your next pickup. You pay for fuel, tires, maintenance and time on those miles, and nobody pays you for them. You'll never get it to zero, but most owner-operators can cut it a lot with better planning. Here's how dispatchers do it.

What deadhead really costs

An empty mile costs you nearly as much as a loaded one. ATRI's 2026 report put the average cost of running a truck at $2.336 per mile in 2025. Even if your own cost is lower, the math adds up fast:

Illustrative cost of $2.00 per mile. Use your own cost per mile.

Cutting 150 empty miles a week is worth more than most rate negotiations.

Measure your deadhead first

You can't cut what you don't track. For the next two weeks, log for every load:

• Empty miles from your last delivery (or home) to the pickup
• Loaded miles
• The total rate

Divide empty miles by total miles for your deadhead percentage. Then look for patterns: which delivery cities left you driving empty the farthest, and which brokers' loads put you there.

Book into markets you can get out of

The biggest deadhead decision happens when you accept the load before it, not the day you deliver. Some cities have plenty of outbound freight for your trailer type. Others take in far more freight than they ship out, so trucks pile up and outbound rates drop. Port and plant markets such as Savannah and Houston usually reload well. Much of Florida does not.

• Check outbound volume before you book. Load board market data and load-to-truck ratios show where trucks are scarce and where they're stuck. Our monthly rate report summarizes the national picture.
• Price the trap. A great rate into a weak market can be worth less than an average rate into a strong one, once you count the empty miles out.
• Know your equipment's markets. Reefer freight clusters around produce regions and food distribution. Flatbed follows construction and manufacturing. Van is the most widespread.

Line up the reload before you deliver

Waiting until you're empty to look for the next load is the most common cause of deadhead. By then the good loads near your delivery are gone, and you take what's left or drive to find something.

1. Start looking a day before delivery, or as soon as you know your delivery time.
2. Search in a tight radius first, then widen it in steps.
3. Call brokers who ship out of that area, not just the load board. Brokers often have freight they haven't posted yet.
4. Match the pickup time to your delivery, with a realistic buffer for unloading and hours of service.

This is a big part of what a dispatcher does. While you drive, your dispatcher is working the reload, so the empty miles are short and planned instead of a surprise.

Your dispatcher should be able to tell you, before you accept a load, what the reload options look like out of that delivery area. If nobody can answer that question, you're guessing, and guessing is how carriers end up driving 300 miles empty on a Friday.

Judge loads by all-in rate per mile

A load's posted rate per mile only counts loaded miles. To compare loads fairly, include the deadhead:

Example: Load A pays $1,500 for 500 loaded miles ($3.00 a mile) but needs 150 empty miles to reach it. All-in, that's $1,500 ÷ 650 = about $2.31 a mile. Load B pays $1,300 for 500 loaded miles ($2.60 a mile) with 20 empty miles: $1,300 ÷ 520 = $2.50 a mile. Load B pays less on the board and more in your pocket.

When a longer deadhead is worth it

Some empty miles are good investments:

• Getting out of a dead market. Driving 150 miles empty to a strong market can beat sitting for two days.
• Heading home. A short empty run that gets you home on time has value beyond the math.
• Setting up a great next load. A short deadhead to a well-paying load with a strong reload behind it.
• A repeat broker. Covering a load for a broker who sends you steady freight can be worth a few empty miles.

The key is choosing those miles on purpose, with the all-in rate in front of you.

Deadhead by equipment type

How you cut deadhead depends on what you pull.

• Dry van. The most widespread freight, so reloads are usually close. The risk is booking into a city that takes in more freight than it ships out.
• Reefer. Reloads cluster around produce regions, food plants and cold storage. Out of season, plan longer repositioning moves on purpose, and haul dry freight when it makes sense.
• Flatbed. Follows construction, steel and manufacturing. Industrial regions reload well, while some delivery job sites are far from any outbound freight.
• Box truck and hotshot. Shorter runs mean deadhead is a bigger share of your miles. A tight radius around your home base matters more than chasing one high-paying load.
• Power only. The best reload is often the next trailer move from the same program: an empty to return or a loaded trailer to reposition.

Habits that keep deadhead low

• Plan your week around where you need to end up, not just the next load
• Build relationships with brokers on both ends of your favorite lanes
• Know your lanes: which cities reload easily for your trailer
• Accept short, well-placed reloads, not only long, high-paying ones
• Review your deadhead percentage every month, and compare it to the month before so you can see whether the changes are working

Backhaul planning is built into our dry van dispatch and every other equipment type we run. We look for your next load before you deliver the current one, inside the lanes and home time you set. See how one dedicated dispatcher works with you.