Transportation: full trucks, partial loads and routes
A truck costs almost the same full or half empty. Filling it, and visiting several branches in one route, is where transport savings come from.
Red: an average own trip costs more per pallet than the carrier. Green: it costs less. The dot is you.
- Truck trips / week
- 8
- Average truck fill
- 63%
- Km driven / week
- 3,220
- Transport / week
- $5,064
- Transport per pallet
- $63.30
- Transport + branch stock
- $5,964
Every truck trip has two kinds of cost. Fixed costs are paid just for sending the truck out: the driver's day, the truck itself, insurance. Variable costs grow with each kilometre: fuel, tolls, tyres and wear.
The map above plays one working week. Trucks leave the central warehouse on Vía Tocumen for Chorrera, Colón, Santiago and David. The bar inside each truck shows how full it is: green is well used, amber is partly empty, red is mostly air.
A trip to David costs almost the same with 4 pallets or with 16. So the question is never just "how much does the truck cost" — it's "how many pallets share that cost".
Three ways to reach a branch
How the milk run is built
The route starts with the farthest branch. That truck has to drive all the way anyway, so its empty space is filled with pallets for the branches it passes on the way. When it's full, a second truck starts with the next branches.
Each truck then follows a simple rule: always drive to the nearest stop not yet visited, and come back to the warehouse at the end. Chorrera and Santiago sit on the road to David — serving them in the same trip adds almost no kilometres.
How often should you ship?
Shipping every day keeps branch shelves fresh and light: each delivery is small, so little stock sits waiting. But small deliveries mean half-empty trucks, and you pay the fixed cost of the trip every time.
Shipping once a week fills the trucks, but each delivery has to last seven days, so more pallets sit at the branch — money tied up and space used.
The frequency chart adds both costs. The total is usually U-shaped: the best frequency is where it bottoms out. With a carrier, transport barely changes with frequency, so shipping often is cheap.
Own trucks or a carrier?
Your own truck is cheapest per pallet when it runs full: you don't pay anyone's margin. But you pay the driver and the truck even on days it leaves half empty.
A carrier charges per pallet, so a small shipment costs little. It is usually more expensive than a full truck of your own, and much cheaper than a mostly empty one.
The fill chart shows the break-even: below that fill, hand the load to a carrier. Many distributors keep their own trucks for the big, nearby branches and use carriers for the small or far ones.
Try this
What to remember
- A trip costs a fixed amount plus a cost per km. Full or half empty, the truck costs almost the same.
- Cost per pallet falls as the truck fills. Utilisation is the first thing to check.
- A milk run lets branches on the same road share one truck.
- Shipping more often means less stock at branches but emptier trucks. Look for the bottom of the U.
- Use your own trucks where you can fill them; use a carrier for small or far branches.