Cutting empty runs: 5 levers that work immediately

Every empty run is paid time with nothing to show for it: fuel, driver wages, vehicle wear — and the van is missing precisely when the next job comes in. In an average transport operation, empty kilometers quickly add up to a quarter or a third of the total distance driven. The good news: most of them are avoidable without hiring a single extra driver. Here are the five levers that pay off fastest in practice.

1. Actively couple return rides, don't leave them to chance

The classic case: a patient is driven to dialysis in the morning, the van returns empty, and at midday a second van sets off empty to pick up the same patient. If you consistently plan outbound and return as a pair, you halve the problem immediately.

The key is to think about the return ride at the moment the job is booked — not when the patient calls. Recurring rides with a fixed return time can be coupled almost entirely automatically.

2. Bundle routes geographically

Two rides to the same clinic, 20 minutes apart, by two different vehicles — that isn't an outlier, it's daily reality when nobody has an overview of the whole picture. A glance at the map instead of the individual jobs shows immediately which rides can be combined.

Rule of thumb: if two jobs lead to the same destination within 30 minutes and 5 kilometers, they belong in the same route — or there needs to be a very good reason against it.

3. Assign the right vehicle class

An ambulance transport vehicle driving an ambulatory patient to a routine check-up is doubly expensive: in acquisition and in operation. If you strictly tie the vehicle class to actual necessity, you keep the expensive vans free for the rides that truly need them — and incidentally reduce the idle time of the smaller vehicles.

4. Make idle time visible

Empty runs are only half the truth. The other half is idle time: the driver waits 40 minutes for a patient still in treatment. This time appears in no kilometer billing, yet it costs just as much. Only when utilization per vehicle and day becomes visible can you tell which van is really working and which one is mostly waiting.

5. Learn patterns from your own data

Transport operations are remarkably predictable. The same dialysis patients, the same time windows, the same clinics — week after week. Once you capture these patterns cleanly, you can plan routes in advance instead of reacting. This is where the biggest lever lies: most empty runs aren't caused by bad drivers, but by a lack of overview in dispatch.

What this means in numbers

An operation that consistently applies these five levers noticeably lowers its empty kilometers — among MITA Base customers, reductions of around 31 percent after three months are not uncommon. That isn't the effect of expensive optimization software, but simply the result of finally seeing your own fleet in full.

The first step costs nothing: for one week, note every empty run and its reason. You'll be surprised how many of them trace back to two or three recurring patterns — and how quickly they disappear once they're visible.