Dead head refers to distance a truck covers without earning freight revenue, most often an empty trailer repositioning to reach the next load. It still burns fuel, hours, and driver time, but nothing is being paid to move.
Because dead-head miles eat directly into a trip’s profit, dispatchers work to keep them low — pairing deliveries with a nearby backhaul so the truck reloads quickly. Tracking dead-head against loaded miles is also a useful measure of how efficiently a fleet is being routed.