🔁 Backhaul / Deadhead Reducer

Purpose

Turn a week's load list, committed outbound lanes, and available equipment into a ranked set of backhaul-pairing and triangulation opportunities — each with estimated empty miles saved, revenue added, driver-hour feasibility, and ready-to-use sourcing actions (post to load board, call target broker, pull from committed shipper pool).

When to Use

Use this skill during the Friday / Monday planning huddle, after the routing-guide rerate, whenever a new lane is added with an unfavorable headhaul ratio, when fuel prices spike and deadhead dollars become painful, or any time the operations team notices a persistent empty-mile pattern in a region (e.g., trucks consistently running 200+ empty miles out of a Kansas City drop). It is equally useful for a small carrier with 15 trucks and for a broker trying to place a partner's return leg profitably.

Required Input

Provide the following:

1. Outbound load list — For each committed load this week: pickup city/state, delivery city/state, equipment type, delivery day, estimated unload complete time, and driver/truck assignment if set
2. Equipment and HOS snapshot — Available driver hours at the drop city for each truck (11/14/70 remaining), home-time or reset windows, equipment restrictions (reefer, flatbed, hazmat endorsement), and any domicile anchor each truck must return to by a given date
3. Backhaul sources — Preferred load boards (DAT, Truckstop, 123Loadboard), broker partners for the destination region, committed shipper backhaul pool (shippers with a return-lane agreement), and private shipper contacts
4. Triangulation constraints — Maximum acceptable deadhead miles per leg, minimum target RPM for a backhaul, and any lane blacklist (regions the fleet avoids)
5. Market context (optional) — Recent DAT RateView or Greenscreens benchmarks on the candidate backhaul lanes, load-to-truck ratios in the drop region

Instructions

You are a dispatch planner focused on reducing empty miles without breaking HOS or committed delivery windows. Your job is to take the outbound picture and produce a prioritized backhaul plan the dispatcher can execute the same day.

Before you start:

• Load config.yml for default deadhead tolerance, minimum backhaul RPM, and preferred sources
• Reference knowledge-base/terminology/ for correct terms (deadhead, backhaul, triangulation, headhaul, RPM, HOS 11/14/70, domicile, tender)
• Note whether the fleet operates regional, OTR, or dedicated — the triangulation logic differs

Process:

1. Group drops by region and day — Cluster the outbound list into drop regions (3-digit ZIP or commercial market) and by delivery day so pairs of trucks finishing in the same area can share backhaul opportunities
2. Identify the deadhead exposure — For each drop, estimate empty miles to the next likely origin (domicile, next committed pickup, or nearest known freight source). Rank drops by deadhead dollars at risk (empty miles × estimated cost per mile from config.yml)
3. Score backhaul candidates — For each high-exposure drop, propose 2–3 candidate backhaul lanes using load-board, broker partner, and committed-pool data. Score each candidate on:
   • Deadhead-in miles (drop → pickup)
   • Pickup window feasibility given HOS and unload finish time
   • Estimated all-in RPM vs. minimum threshold
   • Destination usefulness (does it set up the next committed move or land at domicile?)
   • Source reliability (committed shipper > preferred broker > spot board)
4. Build triangulation plans where they pay — When a single backhaul does not get the truck home or to the next committed move, propose a two-stop triangulation (A → B → C → home) only if total empty miles drop, both legs meet the minimum RPM, and HOS holds
5. Flag feasibility killers — Call out anything that would void the plan: driver out of hours, equipment mismatch, reset required before the candidate pickup, weather or port congestion affecting the lane
6. Recommend and assign actions — For the top 5–8 opportunities, produce a one-line action the dispatcher can execute today: post to DAT with specific rate floor, call Broker X about lane Y, pull committed-pool return from Shipper Z, or hold for a better candidate tomorrow
7. Summarize the weekly impact — Roll up estimated empty miles saved, backhaul revenue added, and net margin improvement across the full plan. Break out which trucks gain the most

Output requirements:

• A short executive summary: total empty-mile exposure this week, proposed savings, number of actions
• A ranked opportunity table: truck, drop, candidate backhaul, deadhead-in, RPM, estimated margin, action owner
• Triangulation plans shown as labeled legs (Leg 1 / Leg 2 / return) with HOS and rate math
• Feasibility flags listed separately so they are not lost in the table
• The one-line action assignment per opportunity is in imperative voice ("Post DAT, floor $2.15/mi, 0500 MT pickup Wed") so the dispatcher can work from it directly
• An internal-notes block documenting assumptions (fuel cost used, benchmark source, HOS snapshot timestamp)
• Saved to outputs/ if the user confirms

Example Output

[This section will be populated by the eval system with a reference example. For now, run the skill with sample input to see output quality.]