Volvo Trucks North America recently announced Load Finder, a load board to help carriers reduce deadhead or empty miles. The load board is free compared to subscription-based competitors and is geared toward helping both new carriers entering the freight market and established fleets looking to increase their utilization.
Load Finder works by aggregating available loads from more than 40 sources among different load boards and direct brokers, allowing carriers to search for freight without needing to log into multiple platforms.
FreightWaves spoke with Madeline Sullivan, product marketing manager at Volvo Trucks, about the release. The first question: This appears to be the first instance of an original equipment manufacturer offering load board capabilities for customers.
To make the load board, Volvo Trucks collaborated with Canadian-based freight tech startup Class8 to co-develop the data and feed the load recommendations. For Volvo’s customers, this integration is part of Volvo Connect, the company’s fleet management platform.
“When we partnered with Class8 to offer this service, we did have an exclusivity agreement for a year to be the only OEM that offered this,” said Maddie Sullivan, product marketing manager for Volvo Trucks. “Right now it’s just us and Mack that offer the service.”
The tool’s development emerged from Volvo’s Innovation Lab, which connected with Class8 at a Plug and Play “deal flow” event—essentially speed dating between companies and startups addressing specific industry pain points like empty miles.
Since beginning a pilot program in January 2025 with about 10 Volvo customers, Load Finder has facilitated more than 21,000 accepted loads for Volvo users. However, the service has been affected by current market conditions, according to Sullivan.
The push comes as recent research from the American Transportation Research Institute noted approximately 16 percent of all non-tank truck operations consist of “deadhead miles.” This occurs when trucks haul empty trailers without a load, resulting in wasted fuel, increased emissions and higher operating costs.
“Deadheading represents lost time, lost money and unnecessary environmental impact for our customers and for the industry,” said Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America, in a release. “With Load Finder, we are offering a simple, free service that helps fleets improve utilization, lower costs and reduce emissions.”
According to the release, Load Finder doesn’t require any additional hardware or software and works on both desktop and mobile devices. For fleets with their own Electronic Logging Devices and Transportation Management Systems, they can connect these platforms via API.
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