Empty running: a quarter of domestic kilometres, behind an empty trailer

A quarter of the kilometres you run on domestic work are behind an empty
trailer. That is not an agency estimate — it is the Eurostat figure for national
road freight across the European Union in 2024.

The difference between fleets that know their empty-running rate and fleets that
do not is not technology. It is that the first group has the number written down
somewhere.

The one figure you can actually benchmark

Unlike parasitic kilometres — deviations with no explanation, for which no public
statistic exists at all — empty running has a solid European reference.

Eurostat, 2024, share of vehicle-kilometres run empty:

Note the ratio between the second and third rows: domestic work runs empty at
more than double the international rate. Not because domestic dispatchers are
worse, but because international corridors carry more return freight, more
exchanges and more partners on the same lane. The thinner the market, the more
often you come back empty.

Romania moved 67 billion tonne-kilometres in 2024, out of an EU total of 1,869
billion.

Why an empty kilometre is the most expensive one you drive

A loaded kilometre costs diesel, toll, wear and a driver — but it has a line on
an invoice against it.

An empty kilometre costs exactly the same. The difference is that nobody is
billed for it.

Until now part of that cost was hidden: the Romanian vignette was paid annually,
whatever distance you covered. From 1 October 2026, when TollRo’s per-kilometre
tariffs start being charged, that part becomes a cost line too. The
repositioning kilometre gets billed like any other.

Where empty kilometres are born

Almost always in the same place: between where the previous trip ended and where
the next one starts.

That is why Point 0 matters — the point the truck actually departs from,
which is wherever it last unloaded. If your planning uses the depot as the
starting point while the truck is in fact in another corner of Europe, the
repositioning kilometres you calculated have nothing to do with the ones you will
pay for.

In Tafi, Point 0 is taken from the previous trip rather than a fixed address.
When trips are entered retroactively and links in the chain are missing, the
dispatcher can pick which earlier trip it anchors to — so the empty kilometres
are not measured from the wrong place.

From Point 0 to the first loading point is the trip’s empty leg. It is calculated
together with the route, before departure, by the same routing engine (PTV) that
produces the loaded kilometres and the toll reference.

Which is what changes quoting: you see the repositioning cost before you accept
the load, not at the end of the month inside a per-truck average.

What it costs on your fleet

Put your own figures in. The empty-km percentage starts at 12% — change it to
yours, and the scale shows where you land against the three European reference
points.

cost/km       = consumption / 100 * diesel price + road toll
fleet km/yr   = trucks * km/month * 12
parasitic km  = fleet km * % parasitic
empty km      = fleet km * % empty
km recovered  = parasitic km * % cut + empty km * % cut
gross saving  = km recovered * cost/km
platform cost = trucks * price/truck * 12
net gain      = gross saving - platform cost
break-even    = platform cost / cost/km / trucks / 12

Be hard on the reduction percentage. Empty running does not respond to wishful
thinking: return freight either exists on that lane or it does not. A small
realistic number is more useful than an optimistic one that never happens.

What actually reduces empty running

There is no button. There are four things that move the needle, in order of
effect:

Knowing where the truck is when you quote. Most avoidable empty kilometres
happen because someone accepted a load without checking where the truck had to
come from. When the real position and the distance to loading are on screen at
the moment of the decision, some trips simply stop being accepted.

Chaining trips instead of planning them one at a time. A good plan is not the
one that optimises the next trip; it is the one that leaves the truck in a region
where something follows. That is only visible when you look at the chain rather
than the single order.

Separating empty from loaded kilometres in reporting. Mixed together under
“km per trip”, the cost of repositioning dissolves into the margin and nobody
sees it. Separated, it becomes a line somebody can watch monthly.

Comparing lanes, not trucks. Empty running is not evenly spread: there are
specific lanes that always come back empty. Once you have the figure per lane,
the pricing conversation with that customer is a different conversation.

What you can do on Monday morning

1. Work out your current percentage. Empty km divided by total km, over the
   last three months. If you cannot separate empty from loaded, that is the first
   thing to fix — you cannot improve what you do not measure.
2. Compare it against 25.8% if you run domestic and 12.6% if you run
   international. The 21.6% EU average is only useful for a mixed fleet.
3. Check Point 0 on ten random trips. If it starts from the depot instead of
   the real previous unloading place, every empty kilometre you report is wrong.
4. Put the repositioning distance on screen at the moment of quoting, not
   after.
5. Look at empty running per lane, not per truck. The truck does not choose
   the route; the commercial relationship does.
6. Set a threshold above which a trip with a long repositioning leg needs
   approval. Not to block it — to make it a conscious decision.

Frequently asked questions

Is 21.6% high or low?
It is the average. If you run international, your relevant benchmark is 12.6% and
21.6% would be poor. If you run domestic, 25.8% is the average and anything below
it is good. Compare yourself to your segment, not to the total.

Can empty running be eliminated?
No. Denmark, the best in the EU, sits at 7.5% — not zero. Freight does not always
return from where it went. The goal is not zero; it is knowing the number and
keeping it from growing.

How do I split empty from loaded if I have no plan per trip?
You cannot, and that is the uncomfortable answer. Without a departure point and a
loading point on every trip, “empty” and “loaded” cannot be separated. That is
why a saved plan on each trip is the precondition, not the option.

Does this matter for TollRo?
Directly. From 1 October 2026 every empty kilometre is paid twice — diesel and
toll — instead of once. What used to hide inside an annual vignette becomes a
monthly line.

If you want to see how much you run empty on your own lanes rather than a
European average, book a walkthrough and we will go through your trips.