Every proprietor operator has felt this: that you drop down a load, and you check the boards, and there’s nothing real. So you point the truck home, and you go 200 miles empty. It has been a small setback – until the numbers hit. Empty miles don’t merely hurt your week; they quietly devastate your bottom line by taking hundreds of dollars at a time (fuel, wear, time, energy – empty miles are a leak drain at the bottom of your line).
Why Empty Miles Hit Owner-Operators the Hardest
Every carrier experiences empty miles, with owner-operators bearing the brunt of these costs. The average cost to operate a truck has been rising due to an increasing cost of equipment, maintenance and repairs, insurance, and fuel. These costs go on and on and on mile after mile – loaded or empty – meaning that every deadhead mile bears the full weight of operational expense without any revenue contribution.
Fuel continues to be one of the largest and most unpredictable expenses. According to the US Energy Information Administration, national diesel prices vary from week to week and in many areas exceed four dollars a gallon. Each empty mile burns that same fuel and makes no money to recover the cost of the trip.
Deadhead miles are your best opportunity at lost opportunity in trucking. When a truck is moving when there is no freight to move, the operator loses both time and potential revenue – two things which cannot be recovered. This is especially difficult for the independents, for they do not enjoy the financial cushions or fleet-level resources that larger carriers have to absorb inefficiencies.
Owner-operators take personally each and every operation cost of ownership, from fuel and tyres to insurance and unexpected repairs. Each mile that is empty eats at the profitability because the driver job is still paying something out of pocket and is not earning anything in return.
This combination of rising costs, fluctuating fuel costs and unreliable freight availability makes deadheading one of the most financially draining parts of an owner-operator’s week.
Load Board Volatility and the Rise of Wasted Miles
Deadhead is also often made worse by inconsistent freight postings. DAT publicly admits the existence of what drivers call “ghost “loads”—entries on the boards that have never actually moved. When a driver recognises that a posting was not authentic, the empty miles are multiplied before they formally reposition on account of a null load or a load that is not as described.
This wasted repositioning time is a growing contributor of deadhead, particularly for drivers that are carrying more ‘public’ boards than pre-planned/verified freight.
Empty Miles Are Rising – and the Financial Stakes Are Higher Than Ever
ATRI’s most recent cost research makes one trend clear – operating costs are on the rise and volatile, at the same time as freight rates. As profitability is tight across the industry,volatile at inefficiencies like empty miles are causing more damage than ever before. Large carriers as well as smaller fleets are paying attention to their routing, freight patterns and lane balance now in order to reduce non-productive miles.
Freight imbalance now plagues many regions, with outbound freight significantly outpacing inbound. Drivers delivering into these areas are often faced with longer repositioning stretches with fewer options available – the only option is deadhead as a mandatory part of the week unless supported by smarter planning or broker relationships.
All in all, the fewer empty miles you run, the greater your year-end profitability.
How Smart Drivers Reduce Empty Miles Without Guesswork
The most successful operators in the market today are ones that reduce uncertainty. DAT focuses on techniques like prearranged return freight, lane assignments in two-way movement, and brokers or dispatchers with verified backhaul options, not unknown board postings.
ATRI emphasises the importance of eliminating out-of-route travel, as well as better route planning, to control miles that don’t bring in money. Even minor changes in routing efficiency have a direct effect on the bottom line.
When deadhead is reduced, so is stress. When backhauls are placed early, the unpredictability disappears. And the net income for drivers who work lanes with balanced freight levels out.
How Dexter Dispatch Services Helps Drivers Cut Empty Miles
At Dexter Dispatch Services, we’re specializing on removing the mysteries out your week. Our team helps to find out if loads are real and plans your freight ahead of you, and to secure back hauls not to waste your time chasing vanishing opportunities. Instead of blindly moving through the school and public boards full of untrustworthy posts, you move through your plan. Every mile, every load, every route is being accounted for and every route is being made for your profit.
Empty miles will always exist in trucking but they don’t have to control your earnings. With smarter planning and a team working ahead of your truck – and not behind it – you can dry up some of your effort in the cost column and place it in the revenue column.
Conclusion
Empty miles are always a hidden cost in the trucking industry, but in 2025, its impact is greater than ever. Rising fuel costs, new regulations, and an increased level of competition means that every non-revenue mile impacts the bottom line as a carrier. By deploying smarter dispatch strategies to optimize route building and deployment, through the use of advanced routing technology, and the capacity to develop better relationships with their brokers and shippers, truckers can greatly improve upon deadhead, and ultimately, the bottom line. For example, in the marketplace of today, reducing empty miles isn’t about being more efficient, it’s about being able to survive as a trucker or a small fleet trying to maintain a place in the market.
👉 Contact Dexter Dispatch Services at www.dexterdispatchservices.com or call us at [682-336-0385]