Backhauling
Backhauling is the practice of interleaving pickups and deposits on a single route to maximize vehicle, container, and driver utilization . The benefits include improved vehicle, container, and driver utilization and freight cost avoidance.
When considering backhaul opportunities, the incremental costs including off-route miles, fuel, labor, tolls, equipment, risk of late arrival, and risk of capacity shortages must be weighed against the incremental benefits including freight revenues acting as a carrier, cost avoidance for offset freight charges, and advertising.