A backhaul, or return load, is cargo a truck carries on the way back from a delivery, so that the return trip earns revenue and is not run empty.
Whether a backhaul is available affects the price of the outbound trip. If a truck is likely to find a return load near the delivery point, the outbound rate only has to cover its own costs; if not, the carrier prices in the empty running that follows. This is why the same lane can cost more in one direction than the other. On Turkey to Central Asia routes, where a round trip takes weeks, the return load is planned together with the outbound shipment.
