Empty Mile Ratio
The percentage of total miles driven empty (deadhead) versus loaded.
Empty Mile Ratio in Practice
Every Empty Mile Still Costs Money
Fuel, tires, and time all get consumed on deadhead miles just as much as loaded ones, but without any revenue to offset the cost, which is exactly why empty mile ratio is treated as an efficiency metric worth minimizing.
Backhauls Are the Main Lever
Planning a return backhaul load instead of running empty back toward a home base or next pickup is the most direct way to bring down empty mile ratio, and it's a big part of what a good dispatcher spends their time doing.
Compare It Over Time, Not Just Per Trip
A single trip's empty mile ratio can look high because of an unusual circumstance, like a one-off relocation move. Tracking it over weeks or months gives a more meaningful picture of overall routing efficiency.
Empty Mile Ratio: What It Means and Why It Matters
Empty mile ratio measures how much of a truck's total driving happens with no paying freight aboard, and it's one of the clearer signals of how efficiently a carrier or dispatcher is planning routes. Every empty mile still burns fuel, adds wear, and takes up hours on the clock without generating any revenue, so a lower empty mile ratio generally translates directly into better earnings for the same amount of driving.
How Empty Mile Ratio Works
Empty mile ratio is calculated by dividing total deadhead, or empty, miles driven over a period by the total miles driven over that same period, loaded and empty combined, then expressing the result as a percentage. A truck that drove 1,000 total miles in a week, 150 of them empty, has an empty mile ratio of 15 percent for that week.
The ratio is affected directly by how well loads are planned back to back. A dispatcher who consistently lines up a backhaul near a delivery point keeps the ratio low, while one who leaves a truck to run empty back toward its home base or next pickup drives the ratio up.
A Practical Example
A driver delivers a load 500 miles from home and has two options: run 500 miles empty back home, or accept a backhaul load that pays a lower rate but covers most of the return trip. Running empty means 1,000 total miles for the round trip with 500 of them, or 50 percent, empty.
Taking the backhaul, even at a discounted rate, might mean covering 480 of those 500 return miles loaded, bringing the round trip's empty mile ratio down to just 2 percent. Even at a lower per-mile rate, the backhaul load likely earns more total revenue for the trip than running empty and earning nothing on the return leg at all.
Why It Matters for Owner-Operators
A lower empty mile ratio generally means more revenue generated per total mile driven and per hour of the driver's available clock, since deadhead miles consume both without paying anything back. For an owner-operator planning their own loads or working closely with a dispatcher, keeping an eye on empty mile ratio is a direct way to improve overall earnings without necessarily running any more total miles.
Common Mistakes
A common mistake is chasing the single highest paying headhaul rate without considering what the return trip will look like, ending up with a great outbound rate offset by a long empty run back. Another is not tracking empty mile ratio at all, which makes it hard to notice a gradual efficiency problem creeping in until it's already showing up clearly in lower overall earnings.
Related Calculators
Related Finance & Rates Terms
Carriers on Empty Mile Ratio
“My dispatcher started actively hunting backhauls once I asked about my empty mile ratio. It made a noticeable difference in my weekly earnings.”
“I used to just chase the best headhaul rate. Now I think about the return trip before I even accept the load out.”