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Backloads and available truck capacity
Trucks head back along Australian routes every day, often with room to spare. Search planned carrier trips on your route, then post your freight and ask the carrier for a quote.
See trucks already travelling your route.
Flexible dates can create more possible trip matches.
Free to search
View planned trips without posting a job.
Route-led matching
Start with where and when your freight needs to move.
No automatic booking
The carrier confirms fit, timing, and price.
Start with the practical answer
A backload puts your freight into spare space on a truck already travelling your route, usually on its run home. You'll also hear it called backloading or a return load. Because the truck is going that way anyway, it suits freight with clear details and a little date flexibility.
Your pickup or delivery window can move slightly.
You know the freight size, weight, and handling needs.
The pickup and delivery sites can safely take the truck.
A planned carrier trip follows the same direction.
The delivery has a fixed or urgent deadline.
Special handling or equipment is not yet confirmed.
The freight cannot share capacity with other goods.
No planned truck matches the required route.
Important: A backload is not automatically cheaper or faster. Distance, detours, truck fit, handling, access, timing, and carrier availability all affect the quote.
For shippers
Clear details help the right carrier recognise whether their spare capacity can take your freight.
Pickup, delivery, preferred date, and how much flexibility you have.
Item or cargo type, quantity, dimensions, weight, and useful photos.
Forklift, ramps, crane, loading help, gate width, ground, and site limits.
Fragile goods, temperature control, permits, inductions, or fixed bookings.
Powered by FindTruck
Get your freight details ready here, then search live carrier trips and ask for a quote through FindTruck.
Enter your route and an optional ready date to see trucks already planning that trip.
Review route, dates, truck type, spare capacity, and the anonymised trip details.
Post your freight details so the carrier can confirm suitability and send a quote.
Popular corridors
Jump straight to a busy interstate route
For carriers
Running home empty or repositioning for the next job? Post your truck, route, dates, and spare capacity so shippers can find the trip. You stay anonymous on the public board.
Show where the truck is already going.
Set fixed or flexible pickup and delivery dates.
Describe the capacity and freight you can consider.
Loadshift marketplace insight
Nearly 1 in 3 trucks on Australian roads are running without cargo, so filling an empty leg puts otherwise lost kilometres to work.
Common questions
Use these answers to set expectations, then let the carrier confirm the actual job.
A backload is freight carried in spare truck capacity on a journey the carrier already plans to make, usually on the return leg. In Australia you will also hear it called backloading or a return load. The carrier still needs to confirm that the route, dates, truck, and handling requirements suit the freight.
Not always. A backload can suit freight that fits a trip a carrier already plans to make, but distance, detours, truck fit, handling, access, timing, and carrier availability all affect the quote. Compare the quotes you receive rather than assuming a backload is the lowest price.
The more your pickup and delivery windows can move, the more planned trips can match your route. A little date flexibility usually opens up more possible matches, but you can still search with fixed dates and let the carrier confirm what works.
Freight that fits the spare space a carrier has, that both sites can safely load and unload, and whose size, weight, and handling needs are clear. Fragile, oversized, or specialised freight can still move, but the carrier confirms suitability, equipment, and timing before quoting.
Enter your route and an optional ready date to see trucks already planning that trip, then post your freight so the carrier can confirm the fit and send a quote. If no planned trip matches, you can post your freight and receive quotes through the normal Loadshift flow.
They describe the same idea from different sides. An empty leg is the part of a trip a carrier would otherwise run with spare or no load, often the return leg; a backload is the freight that fills that space. The carrier still confirms the route, dates, and fit before quoting.
Ready to check the route?
Browse trucks first, or post your freight to receive quotes through the normal Loadshift flow.
