What is deadhead?
Also called deadhead miles, empty miles
Deadhead is any distance a truck drives empty, most often between delivering one load and reaching the pickup for the next. Those miles cost fuel, hours and wear while earning nothing.
Every load has a delivery point and the next load has a pickup point, and they are rarely the same place. The gap between them is deadhead. It is measured in miles and it is usually quoted as a number attached to a load offer, as in a load with forty deadhead miles.
Deadhead is not waste in itself. A driver who refuses every load with empty miles will sit still, which costs more. What matters is whether the rate on the loaded portion covers the total distance, including the empty part, at an acceptable margin.
What it means on a dispatch desk
The number a dispatcher should actually watch is rate per total mile, not rate per loaded mile. A load paying three dollars a mile over four hundred loaded miles with two hundred deadhead miles pays two dollars a mile in reality. Carriers who quote loaded-mile rates to each other and total-mile rates to themselves are the ones still in business after a soft year.
Related terms
- BackhaulA backhaul is a load that moves a truck back toward its home base or toward the next place it wants to be, rather than further away. It exists to stop the return trip running empty.
- Cost per mileCost per mile is a carrier's total operating cost divided by total miles driven, including empty ones. It is the number that decides whether a given rate is profitable.
- LaneA lane is a regular origin-to-destination pairing that a carrier runs repeatedly, such as Dallas to Atlanta. Rates, volumes and seasonality are all discussed per lane.
- BobtailBobtailing is driving a tractor with no trailer attached at all. It is distinct from deadhead, which is pulling an empty trailer.
Knowing the term is the easy half
Knowing which carriers are worth calling this morning is the hard half.
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