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How to price a return load for your truck
Your truck has delivered and is about to drive home empty. Someone offers a load going your way, but at a low rate. Should you take it? This guide shows how to find the lowest rate worth accepting for a return load, and why that floor is very different from your normal price.
In short
- For a return load, compare the freight with the extra cost of carrying it, not the full cost of the trip.
- In the example, the extra cost is about ₹5,000 in cash, or about ₹8,800 once the truck's extra time is counted.
- Any return freight above that floor leaves you better off than running empty.
- But if most of your loads are priced near this floor, fixed costs and the EMI never get paid.
The situation
The example truck carries a load 750 km out and would normally return the same 750 km empty. Both legs are already counted in the outbound trip's cost. The diesel for the empty return is being spent anyway.
A customer offers a load for the return leg. Carrying it doesn't add many kilometres. What it adds is weight (more diesel), handling and time.
Step 1: The extra cash cost
| Diesel loaded: 750 km ÷ 3.75 km/l = 200 litres | |
| Diesel empty: 750 km ÷ 5 km/l = 150 litres | |
| Extra diesel: 50 litres × ₹90 | ₹4,500 |
| Loading and other handling costs | ₹500 |
| Extra cash cost | ₹5,000 |
Tolls and the driver's trip allowance are paid either way on the return journey, so they aren't extra. If your toll rate is higher for a loaded truck, or the driver gets paid more for a loaded leg, add the difference.
Step 2: Count the truck's time
Loading, waiting and unloading the return load adds, say, 16 hours to the cycle. In our waiting time guide, an hour of this truck's time is worth about ₹236 in contribution it could earn elsewhere.
| Extra cash cost | ₹5,000 |
| Extra time: 16 h × ₹236 | ₹3,778 |
| Lowest freight worth accepting | about ₹8,800 |
If there's no other work the truck could do in those 16 hours, the time costs nothing and the floor drops to ₹5,000. If the truck could be on its next outbound trip, the time matters, and the floor is closer to ₹8,800. If commission is charged on the freight, divide by (1 − commission rate), as in our break-even guide.
Step 3: Compare with your normal rate
A full-cost price for 750 km on this truck is in the region of ₹43,000 (see the break-even guide). The return-load floor is a fraction of that, which is exactly why it's dangerous:
- A return load above the floor is better than nothing. At ₹15,000, the example truck is about ₹6,000–₹10,000 better off than returning empty.
- But it's not a sustainable price. It only works because the outbound load paid for the trip. If both directions are priced like a return load, the truck never covers its fixed costs or the EMI.
- Watch the knock-on effect. If a regular customer learns you'll carry their goods for ₹15,000, they won't pay ₹43,000 next time.
Watch out: a return load that delays your next well-paid outbound trip can cost more than it earns. Check the timing before you accept.
Run it with your own numbers
Model the round trip in FleetProfit with and without a return load. The trip calculator handles loaded, empty and repositioning kilometres separately, so you can see exactly what a return load adds.
Open the trip calculatorCommon questions
What is the minimum rate for a return load?
The extra cost of carrying it: additional diesel for the weight, handling, any extra tolls or allowances, and, if the truck could be earning elsewhere, the value of the extra time.
Is a low-paying return load better than running empty?
Yes, if it pays more than its extra cost and doesn't delay a better-paying trip. But it only works because the outbound load paid for the journey.
Why not price all loads at the return-load rate?
Because that rate doesn't contribute to fixed costs or the EMI. If every load is priced like a return load, the truck can't pay for itself.