Empty Running
In Arabicالسير فارغاً
Distance a goods vehicle drives with no load, most often on the way back from a delivery, costing fuel, wear and driver time without earning anything.
What is empty running in fleet management?
Empty running is usually measured as the share of total kilometres driven without a load. Some of it is unavoidable: a tanker or tipper delivering to a single customer has to come back. But much of it comes from planning: return trips that could have carried a load, repositioning runs between depots, and loads spread over more trips than needed. In Europe, about a fifth of road freight kilometres are driven empty.
To measure it, a fleet needs to know for every kilometre whether the vehicle was loaded. Telematics provides this from a weight sensor, from the load status in a linked waybill system, or from the geofences where loading and delivery take place.
How it works
- 1Each kilometre marked loaded or empty
- 2Empty share calculated per route
- 3Backloads planned for empty legs
Why does empty running matter in fleet management?
An empty truck still uses most of the fuel, tyres and driver hours a loaded one does, so every empty kilometre is pure cost. Cutting empty running from 40% to 30% of distance means doing the same paid work with fewer kilometres, fewer trucks or both. It also lowers emissions per tonne delivered, a figure clients increasingly compare.
What you gain
- Fewer unpaid kilometres
- More paid loads per truck
- Lower cost per tonne delivered
How does Safee help measure empty running?
Safee holds what is needed to split loaded from empty distance. With weight sensors, the load on each truck is recorded throughout the trip, and the Load Tracking Report shows where and when it was loaded and unloaded. With your shipment system linked through the API, the dashboard's Waybill Status widget shows which vehicles are loaded and which are empty, and the Waybill Mileage Report gives the distance covered with each load. Subtracted from total distance, that leaves your empty running per truck, driver and route.
A field example
A building materials haulier in Ras Al Khaimah runs 45 flatbed trucks carrying concrete blocks and cement from local factories to sites in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Weight data in Safee showed that 44% of the 390,000 km the fleet drives each month was driven empty, almost all of it on the way back. The company signed a contract to carry imported steel and tiles from Jebel Ali to Ras Al Khaimah on the return legs. Within four months empty running fell to 31%, and the fleet absorbed the extra work without a new truck.
Frequently asked questions
Is empty running the same as out-of-route distance?
No. Out-of-route distance is driving beyond the planned route; empty running is driving without a load, even on the right road.
What is a backload?
A load carried on the return leg of a trip, so the vehicle earns on the way back instead of returning empty. Freight exchange platforms and partner hauliers are common sources.
Want to put this to work in your fleet?
Talk to a Safee fleet expert about your vehicles and how you operate, and we will suggest what fits.
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