What if your vehicle hauling business could spend less time driving empty and more time moving cars for paying customers? This is precisely the situation that route optimization is intended to solve.
According to recent investigations, deadhead mileage has fallen by 34.1% due to the introduction of AI-based route optimization techniques. For transport companies, empty miles are more than a minor inconvenience.
They impact how you spend money on fuel, driver salary, and maintenance. This article explains how route optimization algorithms can help cut deadline miles in vehicle hauling.
Deadhead miles refer to the distance that a truck covers without carrying a paying freight. For instance, a carrier has transported some cars from Texas to Florida, but does not have any cargo for the return trip. This means that the driver has to travel hundreds of miles empty to pick up the next load.
Naturally, it is not always possible to eliminate deadhead miles altogether. Sometimes, a truck must move in order to pick up the next shipment. The key goal is to reduce these empty miles as much as possible. That is where route optimization makes a difference.
This is extremely important, especially for companies with a nationwide car shipping network. Due to the wide geographical distribution of their vehicles and customers, this enables them to easily pinpoint their next load, thereby ensuring that their trips are not wasted.
The primary benefit of routing optimization is the forward-looking approach it embraces. Instead of waiting for the completion of a delivery to determine what is next, a routing optimization system works to determine the next necessary cargo transport throughout the entire delivery process.
For instance, if a transportation company has to deliver goods to Dallas from Atlanta, the routing optimization system is capable of figuring out which vehicles are present close to Dallas and traveling the necessary route. This means that the driver would simply arrive in Dallas without having to think of the subsequent moves.
Backhauls are a big opportunity for reducing empty miles. For example, imagine a carrier taking cars from Chicago to Atlanta. Going back to Chicago with an empty truck is very inconvenient. However, when there are vehicles available for loading either in Atlanta or within a couple of hours of driving to Chicago, then this trip turns into another paying job.
Technology is able to find these possibilities of backhauling in a faster way than when someone is looking for loads one by one. The software can check the location of the truck, the location of the vehicles available for pickup, the capacity of the trailer, and whether the demand is able to fit into the schedule.
When it comes to vehicle shipping, it is rare that there is a single pickup and drop-off. A transporter may need to pick up vehicles from several cities and deliver them to an entirely different location.
What matters is how the stops are planned, as sometimes the order of stops makes a huge difference. If a route is poorly planned, the truck will have to visit the same area several times. Meanwhile, a good route groups nearby pickups together and arranges deliveries in a logical sequence.
Deadhead miles are one of those costs that can easily become part of the routine. A truck delivers freight, travels empty to reach a market, picks up another load, and moves on.
However, those miles can cause a serious problem. Route optimization makes it possible for carriers to view their operations in a new light. Instead of just asking where to go, it compels them to think about what loads to take, in what direction to go, and how to combine the next moves for maximum profitability.