Turnload · Guide
Idle trailer cost: what a standing semi-trailer costs you
The idle trailer cost is easy to miss, because nobody sends you an invoice for it. A semi-trailer is an asset of about €30,000 that only earns when it moves loaded. Every day it stands, that capital does no work, the running costs keep coming, and at some terminals the meter is already running. Here is how to put a number on it.
What “idle” means here
An idle trailer is a semi-trailer standing still with no tractor unit attached: at a depot, a terminal, a port or a customer’s yard.
This is not about engine idling, and it is not about empty kilometres. Empty running is a different problem, and a well-measured one: in 2024, 21.6% of EU road freight vehicle-kilometres were driven empty (Eurostat, 2025). That is a truck moving without a load. A standing trailer is not moving at all, so it never shows up in those figures.
Europe runs about 3.1 million semi-trailers (Luman, 2026), and no public statistic says how many days they stand. The cost sits on each owner’s balance sheet instead.
The three costs of a standing trailer
1. Capital that does no work
€30,000About what a new curtainsider costs: over €30,000 at the 2022 peak, and prices have normalised since (Luman, 2026). It earns only when it moves loaded. Standing, it is money committed to an asset that produces nothing, and you still had to buy it.
2. Costs that keep running
$2,000–4,000 a yearWhat underutilisation costs per trailer in US networks, roughly $5.50–11 for every idle day. It is a US benchmark, but the principle travels well: depreciation, insurance and parking don’t stop when the trailer does (REPOWR, 2025).
3. Idle time that is already billed
Terminals already put a price on standing time. One example: at DFDS’s Rotterdam terminal a unit stands free for 72 hours, then the daily charge starts and steps up (DFDS, 2026):
| Time at the terminal | Charge |
|---|---|
| First 72 hours | Free |
| After 72 hours | €31 a day |
| From day 9 | €91 a day |
Check what your own terminals charge. Every day of that is idle trailer cost you can read off an invoice.
What one standing day costs
A standing trailer saves wear on tyres and brakes. The costs that run by the calendar keep coming. Our calculation for a new curtainsider at about €30,000 (Luman, 2026), kept for ten years:
| Cost | Per year | Per standing day |
|---|---|---|
| Depreciation, time-related share | €1,105 | €3.03 |
| Cost of capital | €1,183 | €3.24 |
| Insurance | €800 | €2.19 |
| Tax and inspections | €550 | €1.51 |
| Total | €3,638 | about €10 |
That is about €10 for every day a trailer stands, before any terminal charge. Twenty trailers standing for a week: about €1,400. Maintenance, tyres and brakes (about €2,400 a year) are left out, because they follow the kilometres, not the days.
Assumptions: residual value €13,000 after ten years, 65% of depreciation counted as time-related, 5.5% interest on the average capital tied up. Your own figures will differ; the method stays the same.
How to calculate your idle trailer cost
You don’t need new data. Your fleet system already knows how many trailers you own and how often each one moves. Enter your fleet and utilisation in the calculator below: it shows the capital standing idle today, and the investment a higher utilisation saves you.
The KPIs that show it
- Trailer utilisation rate: how often trailers are actually in use, against the time they are available.
- Trailer detention time: how long trailers stand at yards, customer sites, depots or terminals.
- Trailer-to-tractor ratio: how many trailers you hold for each truck. The higher it is, the more units are waiting for a tractor at any given moment.
- Loaded vs. deadhead ratio: time spent moving loaded against time spent moving empty.
Track the first two per unit and per location, and you know which trailers stand, where, and for how long. That list is where cutting the cost starts.
Bringing the cost down
There are two ways to cut idle trailer cost: own fewer trailers, or make the ones you own work more days. The second keeps your capacity for the busy weeks.
Turnload does the second. You flag which trailers are standing, where, and since when. Turnload finds a return load or a repositioning move on lanes you already run, by road or by sea. Every handover runs on one set of terms, with a timestamped record of who has the unit and in what condition. You expose only your own idle equipment: no prices, no customers, no order book.
