Backhaul trucking: what a backhaul is and how to price one

What does backhaul mean in trucking?

In trucking, the headhaul is the main load out, usually from a region that ships a lot of freight. The backhaul is the load that brings the truck back, toward home or toward the next strong market. A round trip is a headhaul plus a backhaul. Without a backhaul, the truck drives back empty, which is deadhead.

The words are relative. One carrier's headhaul is another's backhaul, depending on where each is based and where their freight usually goes. A carrier based in the Midwest might call a load to Texas the headhaul and the load home the backhaul, while a Texas carrier sees it the other way round.

Large shippers also use backhaul in another sense: their own trucks, after delivering to their stores, pick up freight from suppliers on the way back instead of returning empty. The idea is the same. Fill the truck on the return trip, so the whole round trip earns.

Why backhaul freight pays less

It comes down to lane balance. Some regions ship out far more freight than they receive: manufacturing and distribution hubs, ports, farm regions in season. Trucks flow into those areas easily, but they're needed to carry freight out. Other regions receive far more than they ship, so trucks arrive full and struggle to leave full.

When you're leaving a region with more trucks than freight, many carriers are competing for the same few loads, and brokers know it. Posted rates out of those markets are lower. That's the backhaul discount. Carriers price their headhaul higher partly to cover a weak backhaul, and the market as a whole balances out that way. Our best and worst freight markets page looks at which areas tend to ship more than they receive, using public data with sources and dates.

How to price a backhaul

Judging a backhaul against your normal floor rate often says no. The fairer comparison is against what you'd do instead. If the alternative is driving home empty, the backhaul only has to beat the cost of those empty miles to be worth taking. Your fixed costs, like the truck payment and insurance, run either way.

• +Running cost of the trip home empty = miles x (fuel per mile + maintenance and tires per mile).
• +Backhaul worth considering if its pay is above that running cost, plus something for any extra time it takes.
• +Backhaul worth taking if it also fits your schedule, leaves you where you want to be, and comes from a broker you've checked.

In this EXAMPLE, the $1.40 backhaul is far below a normal floor, but it turns a $522 loss into about a $300 gain on the way home. Waiting a day for a better load earns more on paper but costs a day of the truck's time and a day at home. Which is best depends on your schedule. The deadhead miles cost calculator works out the running cost of the empty option.

Backhaul trucking rates and the rate con

Backhaul rates are lower on average, but the work isn't easier, so the terms matter just as much. Read the rate confirmation for detention, stops and appointment times. A cheap backhaul with a long live unload and no detention can eat a day and cost more than it pays.

Also watch the broker. Loads that nobody else wants attract more slow payers and more fraud. Check every broker on FMCSA's public records, especially when you're tired and keen to get home.

How to find good backhauls

• +Search before you deliver. Look for the backhaul while the headhaul is still loaded. Good ones go early.
• +Look at a wider area. A pickup 60 miles from your delivery can beat one 10 miles away if it pays better and heads the right way.
• +Try partials. Two partials home can pay more than one cheap full load.
• +Ask brokers who move your headhaul lane. Many handle freight both ways and would rather give a known truck the return load.
• +Know the zones. Our guide to trucking zones shows how freight tends to flow between regions.
• +Consider a hot load. An urgent load in the right direction can pay well even as a backhaul. See hot loads in trucking.

Where to look for backhaul freight

Most backhauls are found the same way as any spot load: on load boards, through broker emails and by calling brokers who move freight out of the area. Searching a load board for loads heading toward home, with a wide pickup radius around your delivery, is the quickest start. Our guide to how load boards work covers searching and reading postings. Partials marked P on the board are worth a look too, since two partials home can beat one weak full load.

Turning backhauls into a round trip that pays

The strongest small carriers think in round trips, not single loads. They look at the headhaul and the backhaul together, and accept a slightly lower headhaul if it leaves them in a market with a reliable backhaul. Over time, the best round trips become regular lanes with brokers or shippers on both ends, and the backhaul stops being a scramble.

If you have a regular headhaul, ask the broker or shipper on that lane whether they have freight coming the other way, or know who does. A dedicated lane with freight in both directions is about as good as small-carrier trucking gets.