I dispatch for a trucking company. I'm trying to find a formula to work out the percentage difference between loaded miles and empty miles. For example: One driver drives 200 miles. 150 loaded and 50 empty. That's 75% loaded. I need a formula to figure out that same situation but with numbers that aren't quite so round. I tried $$\left(\frac{x-y}{\frac{x+y}{2}}\right)\cdot 100$$ but it didn't work out the way I'd hoped. Any help would be great. Thanks.
[Math] Percentage difference between loaded miles and empty miles
percentages
Best Answer
Let $L=$Loaded Miles and $U=$Unloaded Miles.
The percentage of loaded to unloaded would be $$100 \times \frac{L}{U+L}$$
For example if (as in your example) $L=150, U=50$ then percentage of loaded miles is \begin{eqnarray} 100 \times \frac{150}{150+50} &=& 100 \times \frac{150}{200} \\ &=& 100 \times 0.75 \\ &=& 75\% \end{eqnarray} This works on the premise you know at least two values from Total Miles, $U$ and $L$.