How to Find Return Loads

What is a Return Load?

A return load, back load or back haul is a vehicle's journey back to base following a delivery that has taken it away from base. Often it is hard to find loads to fill these return legs, leaving you with an vehicle empty and wasting valuable fuel and the driver's time, not to mention all the overheads of your business, such as wear and tear on the vehicle, admin staff and so forth.

Why Return Loads are Important

The haulage business is incredibly competitive. You need to give yourself every advantage you can. Successful haulage firms need good relationships with repeat customers. You'll need a steady stream of work to keep your vehicles busy in at least one direction. To really start operating effectively, though, you'll also need to reduce your so-called 'dead mileage' (i.e. empty return legs) and start finding as many return loads as possible.

Finding Return Loads

One good tip, if you have regular work going to one part of the country, is to find companies with regular shipments coming back in the opposite direction. If that doesn't work, or you've not yet managed to find such companies, you can try checking the various freight and haulage websites that list goods to move. You may find jobs that are available or you may be able to list your available capacity so that others can find you. Lastly, you could try calling haulage companies that are local to your delivery location to see if they have any surplus work that they would like to offload.

Summary

In summary, then, here are the 3 tactics you can use to find more return loads:

1. If you have regular work going one way, find companies with regular shipments coming back the other way.
2. Check the haulage marketplace websites (such as this one) to see if anyone has goods to move your way.
3. Call haulage companies in your drop-off region to see if they have jobs they'd be willing to subcontract.