Dead mileage, dead running, light running, empty cars or deadheading in

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

and empty leg in

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

is when a revenue-gaining vehicle operates without carrying or accepting passengers, such as when coming from a garage to begin its first trip of the day. Similar terms in the UK include empty coaching stock (ECS) move and dead in tow (DIT). The term '' deadheading'' or ''

jumpseat A jump seat (sometimes spelled jumpseat) is an auxiliary seat in an automobile, train or aircraft, typically folding or spring-loaded to collapse out of the way when not used. The term originated in the United States c. 1860 for a movable car ...

ing'' also applies to the practice of allowing employees of a common carrier to travel in a vehicle as a non-revenue passenger. For example, an airline might assign a pilot living in New York to a flight from Denver to Los Angeles, and the pilot would simply catch any flight going to Denver, either wearing their uniform or showing ID, in lieu of buying a ticket. Also, some transport companies will allow employees to use the service when off duty, such as a city bus line allowing an off-duty driver to commute to and from work for free. Additionally, inspectors from a regulatory agency may use transport on a deadhead basis to do inspections, such as a

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce railroa ...

inspector riding a freight train to inspect for safety violations.

Causes

Dead mileage routinely occurs when a route starts or finishes in a location away from a terminal or maintenance facility, and the start or end of a shift requires moving the vehicle without passengers.

Effects, prevention, and mitigation

Dead mileage incurs costs for the operator in terms of non-revenue earning fuel use, wages, and a reduction in the driver's legal availability for revenue-generating driving. Operators will often reduce dead mileage by starting or finishing the first or last service of the day, or shift, at a garage along the route, a so-called ''part service'' or ''part route''. Dead mileage may also be reduced by the operation of routes specifically timed and routed to facilitate bus movements rather than the passenger need. Often changing routes slightly (and ensuring high on time performance) can greatly increase the useful time-to-dead-mileage ratio for both crew and vehicles. Cutting-edge technology has been also leveraged to preempt dead miles and find innovative ways to reduce downtime or in some cases replenish the empty or dead miles with revenue-generating backhaul.

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and other

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

techniques can be used in a connected platform to predict and allocate loads in real-time and meet on-demand requests. Dead mileage has increasingly become an issue with privatised competition for bus services, most notable with the

privatisation of London bus services The privatisation of London bus services was the process of the transfer of operation of buses in London from public bodies to private companies. For half a century, operation of London bus services for public transport was under the direct con ...

. Often operators will come to an arrangement to share garage facilities to reduce dead mileage. Some air charter companies lease out their planes at a lower rate for the empty leg flights to attract rentals for originally non-revenue flights.

References

{{Public transport Scheduling (transportation) Transport operations Public transport Aircraft operations Economic efficiency

Causes

Effects, prevention, and mitigation

See also

References