Backhaul and return loads
A backhaul is the return leg of a truck after it has delivered its cargo. Most trucks go out loaded and come back empty — and that empty leg is the single biggest source of waste in road transport.
Solving the backhaul problem is the cheapest way to lift both margin and sustainability at the same time. It doesn’t require new equipment, new drivers or new customers — just smarter matching.
Why empty backhauls happen
- Imbalanced flows – more cargo from origin to destination than the other way around (ports → inland is the classic example).
- Time pressure – the next loaded trip starts before a backhaul can be arranged.
- Lack of visibility – the planner doesn’t know there’s a return load 20 km away.
- Process gap – nobody’s job is specifically to find backhauls.
What a backhaul is worth
A truck running 200 empty kilometres on the return at €1.20/km in direct cost is losing €240 per trip. Multiplied by the working year, a single truck with one empty backhaul a day burns roughly €60,000 in marginal cost — and emits CO₂ for none of it (see empty miles).
Even a backhaul priced at 50% of the outbound rate is profitable: you’ve already paid for the truck and the driver.
Where return loads come from
| Source | How it works | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Existing customers | Match outbound delivery near another customer’s pickup | Easy if you have density |
| Long-term partner networks | Agreed lanes with other carriers/forwarders | Reliable but lower margin |
| Spot freight exchanges | Public marketplaces (Trans.eu, Timocom, etc.) | Flexible but rates are volatile |
| Brokers / forwarders | They sell you a backhaul they’ve sourced | Convenient but margin shared |
| Reverse logistics | Empty equipment, returns, packaging | Often overlooked, sometimes free |
How software helps
A TMS with good dispatch and good data unlocks backhauls in three ways:
- Visibility – show the planner empty return legs before they happen, not after.
- Geographic clustering – find open orders close to a scheduled delivery point.
- Cost-per-trip view – show the true marginal cost of a return leg so partial-rate backhauls become acceptable.
In Routix, the dispatch board, zones and per-trip cost views support this directly.
KPIs to track
- Empty kilometres % — overall and per lane.
- Backhaul ratio — backhauled trips ÷ total outbound trips.
- Revenue per backhauled trip — even a partial rate beats zero.
- CO₂ per loaded km — improves automatically as backhaul ratio rises.
Related concepts
See this in Routix
To turn backhaul theory into daily planning decisions, start on www.routix.com and then review the Dispatch board, Zones and trip-level cost views in Routix. Those screens make empty return legs visible early enough to fill them.
