i’v twice run back to aberdeen empty from cornwall, boss said he didnt take that big a hit by doing it as he thought he would
I ran back from Wisbech on Friday however we do a lot of warehousing which makes big bucks.
one firm i worked at used to get paid for running empty to besancon to collect a load and (1200km) as the rates were so good sometimes they would only pick up 3 or 4 pallets lol…another had me running all the way up to john lewis brackmills from braintree with 1 pallet…booking time was 10am and im still in yard at 9am now i said to TO that there was no way im gonna get there before 1pm and did you wanna ring up and check that theyll take it still??..no no itll be ok guess what got there and pallet was refused so had to bring it all the way again for it to go on the pallet network for the following day lol…cammacks used to run full to inverness then empty back to colchester…carbon footprint ey lol LOVE IT!! 
I used to run from Dundee to Bicester empty because the customer had the trailers dedcatied to there contract and we werent allowed to carry other products on them. Used to spend days following our other trucks about to the same customersall over the place
i was once sent out in a 26tonner to deliver a box of screws,…
A few, years ago we use to run from Exeter to Slough, Reading, or Portsmouth in a day and run back empty, as the trucks made more money doing 5 brick loads a week than wasting time and money chasing rubbish rate back loads worried about getting paid for them after 3 months of waiting.
ady1:
job for today
a- b /168 miles -deliver 10 palletsb-a /168 miles- empty.
sometimes it makes you wonder how firms make money
you think that bad i was work at Xmas few years back an drove 300 km from Lewes to Leicester to the drop with 1 parcel on the artic and came back with nothing and had to wait till 12am for the Scotland truck to see if there had some thing on for me as the forgot to fax the sheet there was 15 truck run that week doing there runs and between us we must have had 300 parcels all week but as the contract said we had to run
one of the lads this week tipped and emptied at ayr.when he rang in for his next load he was told to go to dagenham to collect 5 drops wales 
.raise my hands above my head shake my head and walk away…
buck73:
one of the lads this week tipped and emptied at ayr.when he rang in for his next load he was told to go to dagenham to collect 5 drops wales
that’s the trouble having a specialist vehicle it limits you
enit?:
The only realistic way to cut down on empty running is to have one nationalised freight exchange with a uniformed set rate per mile/tonne. The nearest suitable truck gets the job. It would completely screw up any idea of competition but would chuff the environmentalists no end. Fewer trucks on the road all working to capacity creating less pollution. The only major problem I can foresee is it becoming too bureaucratic.
Not nationalised - but the pallet systems do this very efficiently and there are enough of them to ensure the competition keeps the rates down. We can pick up a singe pallet from West Mid’s at 4pm and deliver it next day to a shop in the middle of edinburgh on a tail lift for £50. No haulier could do that on his own transport.
A year ago our main contract decided to close their block plant in Wiltshire, good news for us because it opened up alot of new work to the south west, problem was we were running to Cornwall and Wales from their Kent plant and having no back loads 
In the last few months we have only just started to get a decent run of backloads from these areas which is even better cos we earn more money 
delboytwo:
buck73:
one of the lads this week tipped and emptied at ayr.when he rang in for his next load he was told to go to dagenham to collect 5 drops walesthat’s the trouble having a specialist vehicle it limits you
i know what your saying delboytwo,however,we have contracts with most major manufacturers to deliver countrywide,they could have sent the lad to immingham for a southern load to pay the diesel.the factors in this werent anything other,but to get the load out to the dealer to keep the league time(a time manufactures give hauliers to deliver the vehicles once the cars are landed and nigh on impossible to keep to when its the busy period).and surely it wouls have made more sense to send this guy to nissan or immingham,and another driver who was further south into dagenham.out of curisoty i wonder what the mileage is between the two?.
the company i work for loads us out of portbury for either n/w back into ellesmere port or east side then load out of stallingboro for home. boss will not have us run more than about 60 klicks empty. 