← Business Metric: Industry Specific (Infrastructure, Transport & Utilities) (all topics)
Empty running ratio
What it is
The share of container movements running empty because cargo flows are directionally imbalanced - India's EXIM trade means loaded imports inland and empties returning to port, or the reverse
Every empty kilometre costs the same haulage as a loaded one
Impact on industries
- Directly halves effective realisation on an imbalanced lane, since the operator pays haulage both ways but bills only one
- Structural rather than operational - it reflects the trade imbalance of the corridor, which no amount of scheduling skill removes
- Domestic cargo is the main fix, since it can be loaded on the return leg that EXIM cargo leaves empty
- Scale and network breadth improve matching, so larger operators achieve better balance than single-lane competitors