I am wanting to know how often commercial truckers in the United
States drive freight/cargo/etc ( a 'semi' {18 wheeler} not a UPS truck
or etc..) to a destination, then return back to their home base with
no cargo. Or, to put it another way, how common is it that a trucker
drives half of a round trip with no income producing 'load'?
Cheers, and thanks.

Hello.

Here are a variety of estimates and statistics relating to truckers'
"empty return" trips.

"Shippers tend to buy truck capacity in one direction. When the truck
returns empty, it costs shippers more while carriers earn less. In
fact, almost 19% of all trucks on the road are unfilled, says Frank
Bernhard, an analyst at Omni Consulting Group LLP, a consulting firm
in Davis, Calif.
That wasted capacity costs U.S. firms $30 billion per year, says Kevin
Lynch, founder, president and CEO of Nistevo. "
Source: Computerworld.com: "Online Exchange Helps Trim Shipping Costs"
http://www.computerworld.com/industrytopics/transportation/story/0,10801,55263,00.html

"Presently, 30% of all trucks go empty...
Low inventory levels, JIT, quicker delivery, etc have all resulted in
an increased number of shipments. But it also has resulted in many
trucks travelling empty or less than full on the return trip.
Underutilized capacity may be as high as 50% and costs the industry
billions of dollars in lost revenue annually."
Source: "The Transportation Industry," hosted by American University
http://www.american.edu/carmel/as7601a/ti.html

"National statistics indicate that 30 percent of all trucks on the
road are empty."
Source: "Business-to-Business Fulfillment Grapples With Complexity,"
hosted by Businessweek.com:
http://www.businessweek.com/adsections/chain/2k/logcomplexity.htm

"Between 8 percent and 15 percent of all trucks on the road are empty,
according to Ting Piper, an e-logistics analyst for IDC."
Source: "Fill It to the Brim," hosted by business2.com
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,14518,FF.html

Here are a couple sources from outside of the U.S, in case you're
interested:

"Lorries running empty on return runs, account for between 25 – 30 per
cent of all trucks on the road."
Microsoft UK - eLogistics
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/casestudies/listing_CaseStudies.asp?CustomerName=eLogistics

"Scientific studies have shown that 22% of all trucks return empty or
often partially loaded. The number of empty trips may even rise due to
increasing demands by freight shippers."
Source: International Transportation Communication
http://www.transp.ro/about_en.htm

search strategy: "of all trucks", "of trucks", empty, return

I hope this helps.

Great answer.

Sometimes backhaul scheduling becomes an
art, and the industry had a new service developed
about 3 years ago who one of their objectives was
to match back hauls with customers who needed
those routes regardless of the carriers.

Also, you can get creative.  The CEO of a small
waste company in Dallas, Paul Ossa of International
Business Enterprises combined shipping waste 
over the border then bring back auto parts on the
back haul, completely changing the economics
for his competitors.

Want to think of a big back haul problem, look
at importing stuff (doing some deals at the moment).
Millions of containers of goods are imported into
the United States - but no where close to as much
stuff is exported out.  That is a lot of empty containers!