I Need a Load Going Home
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Home time costs money when it’s planned late. A driver who needs to be home Friday and starts looking Thursday takes whatever heads the right direction, at whatever it pays. Planned backwards from the deadline instead, the same trip is usually profitable.
Plan backwards, not forwards
Work from the day you need to be home and count back. If it’s Friday and you’re 900 miles out, you need to be moving in the right direction by Wednesday, which means the load before that has to deliver somewhere with outbound freight toward home.
That’s a two- or three-load decision, and it starts several days before the one people actually start looking.
The trap
Taking a well-paying load in the wrong direction on Tuesday because home is still three days away. By Thursday you’re 300 miles further out and the only load home is terrible, or empty.
The Tuesday load has to be evaluated against where it leaves you relative to home, not just its rate. A slightly worse rate in the right direction usually wins the week.
Don’t announce the deadline
A broker who knows you have to be in Ohio by Friday has no reason to move on rate. Filter for direction; don’t negotiate from need.
When there’s nothing going home
Three options, in order of cost:
- A load that gets you most of the way. Partial progress plus a shorter deadhead usually beats waiting.
- A cheap load in the right direction. Revenue over miles you’d otherwise run empty.
- Deadhead home. Sometimes correct. Time with family is the return on that one, and it’s allowed to be.
For fleets
Home time is a retention issue before it’s a planning issue. Drivers leave over missed home time more than over pay, and a fleet that consistently gets people home when promised keeps them. Worth treating as a constraint on load assignment rather than something handled ad hoc.
Where Hey Bubba! fits
Hey Bubba! is an AI back-office automation platform for fleets. Home time can be set as a constraint (a date you need to be somewhere), and load matching works backwards from it, filtering for direction while still screening on net revenue per mile.
Frequently asked questions
Filter by destination region rather than by rate first, and start two or three loads out rather than on the last leg.
No. A broker who knows you have a deadline has no reason to negotiate.
Sometimes. Compare the empty miles against sitting, and count the home time as part of the return.
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