REVENUE PER KILOMETER DRIVEN: THE FORGOTTEN INDICATOR IN PROFITABILITY MANAGEMENT OF ROAD FREIGHT CARRIERS

Resumo

Purpose: to examine why cost per kilometer driven (CPK), the dominant indicator in road freight carrier management, is insufficient for pricing, fleet allocation, and contract renegotiation decisions when not paired with revenue per kilometer driven (RPK), and to propose a consistent methodology for calculating RPK linked to the idle-capacity rate (empty kilometers driven). Design/methodology/approach: a systematized literature review, conducted following the PRISMA protocol, on performance measurement, pricing, procurement, and capacity utilization in road freight transportation, with searches covering publications from 2021 to 2026. The final academic corpus (n = 12) was complemented, in a dedicated section, by regulatory and market-institutional sources. Findings: the reviewed literature shows that the financial dimension of performance measurement systems in the sector is dominated by cost metrics, that capacity utilization recurs, but in a scattered, non-standardized way, and that the revenue-per-distance indicator—widely practiced in the market under the name revenue per mile—lacks rigorous methodological treatment in academic research. An illustrative scenario, anchored to price ranges observed in the Brazilian market, shows that two routes with equivalent cost can present a per-kilometer margin more than four times higher under a moderate backhaul rate once analyzed through the RPK lens. Originality/value: the article proposes RPK, formalized and linked to CPK and the idle-capacity rate, as a complementary and inseparable axis of performance measurement systems currently centered on cost, offering both a theoretical synthesis and a research agenda together with a managerial implementation roadmap.