Employee transport glossary
Empty running
Also called: dead mileage · dead kilometres · deadhead
Empty running is distance a vehicle travels with no passengers aboard — positioning from the yard to the first pickup, returning after the last drop, or moving between routes. It is paid for and carries nobody, and in most programmes it is a material share of total distance.
In practice
- Measured as the gap between total distance run and distance with passengers aboard
- Reduced by clustering employees so the first pickup is close to where the vehicle starts
- Also reduced by chaining routes so a vehicle finishing a drop begins a nearby pickup
- Often invisible where billing is per trip rather than per kilometre, but it is still priced in
Why it matters
Empty running is decided by route design, not by the rate negotiated with the vendor. A programme can reduce its rate card and still pay more overall if the routing pushes vehicles further to reach their first passenger.