South Africa relies heavily on its roads to keep goods moving. Road freight accounted for 85.3% of all freight payload in the country in 2025, according to the Ctrack Transport and Freight Index. That makes the efficient use of trucks and other commercial vehicles an important part of the wider conversation about transport costs and capacity.
One of the challenges is what happens after a vehicle has completed its delivery.
A moving truck carrying a household from Johannesburg to Cape Town, for example, may arrive full. Unless another suitable job can be found for the return journey, it could travel much of the way back with little or nothing on board.
The fuel bill remains. So do tolls, driver costs, maintenance and wear on the vehicle. The transporter is covering those costs without earning revenue from the available capacity.
“An empty return journey is one of the biggest inefficiencies a transporter can face,” says Chante Venter, CEO of Wise Move South Africa. “The vehicle still has to get home or move on to its next job, and those kilometres still cost money.”
Researchers studying 134 trips completed by eight trucks over three months found that 53.1% of the vehicle kilometres travelled were empty. When the trucks were carrying cargo, they were loaded to an average of 68.7% of their available 36-tonne payload capacity.
The study involved a bulk-liquid transport operator, where specialised tankers and cleaning requirements made empty repositioning more common, so the figure cannot be applied to the entire South African transport sector. It does, however, illustrate the cost of capacity that goes unused.
There is an environmental cost too. The same study calculated that an empty truck in the operator’s fleet emitted 1.19kg of CO₂ equivalent for every kilometre travelled.
For moving companies and smaller transport businesses, one of the ways to reduce empty kilometres is through backloading.
The principle is well established. A transporter completing a job in one city finds a customer who needs goods moved in the opposite direction, allowing the return journey to generate income. Shared loads can also allow more than one customer’s belongings or goods to travel in the same vehicle when there is spare capacity and the routes and schedules are compatible.
The challenge has traditionally been finding the right customer at the right time.
A transporter preparing to leave Cape Town for Johannesburg may have space available, while someone in Cape Town needs a piece of furniture, household contents or even a vehicle transported to Gauteng. Without a way of connecting the two, the opportunity can easily be missed.
Digital transport platforms are helping to make those connections easier by giving customers access to a wider pool of providers and allowing transport businesses to identify jobs that fit with routes they are already travelling.
“The transport capacity is often already there,” says Venter. “The opportunity is to connect it with the customer who needs it. If a transporter is travelling that route anyway and has suitable space available, filling that space makes the journey more productive.”
The economics are particularly relevant for smaller operators.
Large logistics businesses may have established networks, regular freight volumes and customers moving goods in both directions. Smaller operators do not always have that certainty.
A truck that earns money travelling from Pretoria to Durban can quickly become an expense if it has nothing to carry on the return trip. Finding suitable return work means the business is generating more value from the vehicle it already owns.
For customers, better use of existing capacity can also create more choice, particularly on long-distance moves.
Someone whose collection and delivery dates are slightly flexible may be easier to match with a vehicle already travelling the required route. Accurate information about the items being moved, including the quantity, size and any special handling requirements, also makes it easier for transporters to assess whether a load can be accommodated.
This does not mean squeezing additional goods onto vehicles regardless of capacity or choosing a transporter purely because it is cheaper.
Venter says customers still need to consider the quality and reliability of the service.
“Backloading only works when the job can be accommodated properly and safely,” she says. “Consumers should know who they are dealing with, understand what is included in the quote and look at the track record of the transporter. Making better use of capacity should never mean compromising on the service.”
Online platforms are also giving smaller transport operators greater access to customers outside their existing networks. Reviews and service histories can help establish trust, while customers are able to compare different providers before choosing who will handle their belongings.
For South Africa, where more than four-fifths of freight payload is transported by road, even relatively small improvements in how existing vehicle capacity is used can matter.
The country’s major transport challenges will not be solved by backloading. Roads, rail infrastructure, ports, fuel costs and logistics efficiency remain much bigger issues.
But at the level of individual transport businesses, there is a practical opportunity to reduce the number of kilometres travelled without a paying load.
During Transport Month, that is worth considering. South Africa has thousands of vehicles already moving between its cities every day. Making better use of the space in those vehicles can help transporters get more value from each journey while giving consumers another way to move their goods around the country.
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