Empty Kilometres in German Road Freight: What Your Fleet Utilisation Rate Is Not Telling You in 2026

Fleet utilisation is the share of a fleet’s available time that its vehicles spend productively, usually measured as active vehicle hours divided by available hours. It is a useful number and an incomplete one, because a truck that is moving is counted as utilised even when it is moving empty. In Germany the official freight statistics show how large that gap can be: German heavy trucks ran about 140.7 million empty trips in 2025 against 231.5 million loaded trips, and about 6.35 billion empty kilometres against 20.69 billion loaded ones. For heads of transport and fleet managers at German retailers, manufacturers and 3PLs, this guide separates three measures that utilisation blends together, sets out a six-step method for cutting empty kilometres and gives a worked example on illustrative numbers. Locus, the world’s first Decision-Intelligent, Agentic TMS, plans capacity across owned and third-party fleets with its Capacity and Dispatch agents.

Why Empty Kilometres Matter in Germany: The Business Case

The official figures are large. The Federal Ministry for Transport publishes the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt’s freight statistics for German heavy trucks, which for 2025 give 231.5 million loaded trips and 140.7 million empty trips, with 20,685.2 million loaded kilometres and 6,351.3 million empty kilometres. Calculated from those totals, empty trips are about 38% of all trips and empty kilometres about 24% of all kilometres. The statistics cover German-registered trucks above 3.5 tonnes of payload and tractor units, and the shares are our calculation from the published totals.

The ratio is not new. A 2023 presentation of Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt data put the share of empty trips by German trucks in domestic traffic at about 38% in 2022, so the pattern is persistent and not a one-year effect.

Empty kilometres carry a toll. According to industry and press reports, Germany added a CO2 component to its truck toll on 1 December 2023 at €200 per tonne of CO2, and from 1 July 2024 extended the toll to vehicles above 3.5 tonnes. One report put the extra charge for heavy Euro VI trucks in the highest CO2 class at up to 15.8 cents per kilometre. Confirm current rates with the toll operator, since the sources date from 2023 and 2024.

Drivers are expensive and scarce. ELVIS reported average gross pay for German truck drivers of €3,400 a month in 2025, and says many carriers lack the staff to provide backup capacity, so a driver hour spent empty is an hour that cannot be sold.

What Is Different About Utilisation When Kilometres Run Empty

Active time is not productive time. A telematics feed counts a moving truck as active, whether it is loaded or empty, so utilisation can look healthy while output is low.

Empty running has structural causes. One-way flows, such as a distribution centre that sends goods out and receives little back, produce empty legs that no scheduling can remove.

Some empty kilometres are avoidable. Poor timing between a delivery and the next pick-up, or no visibility of nearby loads, creates empty kilometres that planning can remove.

Empty trips are shorter than loaded ones. The gap between the trip share and the kilometre share suggests many empty legs are short repositioning moves, which a planner can often combine with other work.

Tolls and driver cost make empties visible in the accounts. Because cost is charged per kilometre and per hour, an empty leg costs nearly as much as a loaded one.

How to Cut Empty Kilometres in Six Steps

1. Separate three measures

Report fleet utilisation (active hours over available hours), the loaded-kilometre ratio (loaded kilometres over total kilometres) and the load factor (payload carried over payload capacity) side by side. A rise in the first alone proves nothing.

2. Measure empty kilometres by lane

For each lane or route family, record loaded and empty legs from telematics and the TMS. Averages hide where the problem sits, so show the empty share by lane and by vehicle type.

3. Classify why kilometres run empty

Mark each empty leg as structural (a one-way flow), timing (the next load is not ready) or avoidable (a load existed nearby and was not seen). The split sets the target and the lever.

4. Price an empty kilometre

Add fuel, toll including the CO2 component, driver time and wear to get a cost per empty kilometre by vehicle class. A priced figure turns empty running from a statistic into a budget line.

5. Plan return loads before the outbound trip leaves

Pair inbound and outbound flows, sequence deliveries so the last drop is near the next pick-up and share return capacity across your owned fleet and your carrier pool. Offer spare return capacity to partners where it fits the contract.

6. Re-plan during execution and review weekly

Recompute plans as orders arrive and delays occur, so a nearby load can fill a gap, and review the loaded-kilometre ratio by lane every week against the target.

A Worked Example on Illustrative Numbers

The numbers below are illustrative, not benchmarks. Replace them with your own fleet data.

A fleet of 50 trucks drives 3,000 kilometres per truck a week, or 150,000 kilometres in total, and 23.5% of them run empty, in line with the national share.

A reduction of 3.5 points in the empty share removes 5,250 empty kilometres a week, worth about €4,725 a week or about €245,700 a year at the assumed cost. The same change leaves the fleet utilisation rate unchanged, because the trucks are still moving, which is why the loaded-kilometre ratio has to be reported next to it.

Fleet Utilisation Rate vs Loaded-Kilometre Ratio vs Load Factor: Key Differences

What to Look for in Fleet Utilisation Software

Loaded and empty legs, not only hours. Look for reporting that splits every trip into loaded and empty legs by lane and vehicle.

Capacity across owned and third-party fleets. Check that one plan can use your own trucks and carrier capacity, so return loads can be filled from either.

Sequencing for the next pick-up. Ask whether the planner considers where the next load starts when it orders the last drops.

Live re-planning. Look for plans that update as orders and delays change, so nearby loads can be used.

Cost per empty kilometre. Check that toll, fuel and driver time can be priced by vehicle class and shown against the target.

Capacity Planning in Action: Real-World Results

Neither deployment below is German or a study of empty running. They show what planning capacity across a mixed fleet delivers.

A global freight operator with 4,500+ drivers across 51 service centres. The operator ran 1,500+ captive drivers alongside 3,000+ third-party transporters. With centralised dispatch across both, the execution rate rose from 75% to 92%, uncovering $14M+ in annualised capacity across 25 sites. Read the freight operator case study.

A global FMCG leader running route-to-market across ten countries in Asia. The company served 1,000+ distributors with 5,000+ riders. With agents planning routes against live constraints and matching vehicles to demand, 12,000+ fewer trips ran each month, distance fell 15% and plan run time fell from 3 hours to 5 minutes. Read the FMCG case study.

Common Empty-Running Mistakes to Avoid

Reading a high utilisation rate as high productivity. A moving truck counts as utilised, so check the loaded-kilometre ratio.

Averaging across lanes. One fleet-wide share hides the lanes where empty running is structural and the ones where it is avoidable.

Treating every empty leg as unavoidable. Some are one-way flows, but others come from timing and visibility, which planning can fix.

Ignoring toll in the cost. Per-kilometre tolls and the CO2 component make an empty kilometre cost more than fuel, so price it.

How Locus Approaches Fleet Utilisation

Locus, the world’s first Decision-Intelligent, Agentic TMS, was recognised by Gartner for seven consecutive years and appears in the 2026 Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Execution and Logistics Technologies. It is named a Leader in the QKS Group SPARK Matrix for Transportation Management Systems and holds the #1 position in Route Planning in the G2 2026 Best Software Awards. In October 2025, Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the world’s largest IKEA retailer, acquired Locus. Locus continues to operate independently.

Locus’s Capacity agent plans fleet capacity across owned, contracted and on-demand vehicles, its Dispatch agent sequences routes against 250+ real-world constraints and re-plans during execution, and its guidance on fleet utilisation warns that GPS uptime can overstate productivity because a truck idling at a dock counts as active. Six governance mechanisms, including autonomy levels and human-in-the-loop approval, keep planners in control of what runs automatically. Locus has optimised 1.5B+ deliveries for 360+ enterprise customers across 30+ countries. Public sources show no German deployments and do not describe loaded-kilometre reporting or return-load matching, so during evaluation ask whether trips are reported as loaded and empty legs by lane, how return loads are found across owned and third-party capacity, how toll and the CO2 component are priced by vehicle class and whether the next pick-up is considered when drops are sequenced. To see how Locus would plan your German fleet, schedule a demo.

For heads of transport asking how to cut empty kilometres in Germany, Locus offers one planner that treats owned and third-party capacity as a single pool and re-plans as conditions change, so a nearby load can fill a gap that a fixed plan would leave empty.

Frequently Asked Questions

What share of German truck trips run empty? The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt’s 2025 freight statistics show 140.7 million empty trips against 231.5 million loaded trips for German heavy trucks, so about 38% of trips ran empty. By kilometres the share is about 24%, calculated from the published totals.

What is the difference between fleet utilisation and loaded-kilometre ratio? Fleet utilisation compares active hours with available hours, so an empty moving truck counts as utilised. The loaded-kilometre ratio compares loaded kilometres with all kilometres, so it shows how much of the driving produced output.

Why do trucks run empty? Three reasons: structural one-way flows, timing gaps between a delivery and the next load, and avoidable cases where a nearby load existed but was not seen. Each needs a different lever.

How do I reduce empty running? Measure empty kilometres by lane, classify the cause, price each empty kilometre, plan return loads before the outbound trip leaves, share capacity across your owned fleet and carrier pool, and re-plan during execution.

Does German toll affect the cost of empty running? Yes. Tolls apply per kilometre whether the truck is loaded or empty, and industry reports say a CO2 component was added in December 2023 and the toll was extended to vehicles above 3.5 tonnes in July 2024. Confirm current rates with the toll operator.

Can Locus reduce empty kilometres in Germany? Locus’s Capacity and Dispatch agents plan across owned and third-party capacity and re-plan during execution. Ask Locus how loaded and empty legs are reported and how return loads are matched.