Fleet Management Benchmark

Automotive Fleet Fact Book data shows top-quartile US light commercial fleets achieve total cost per vehicle under $8,000 per year for mid-size vans, including fuel, insurance, maintenance, registration, depreciation, and overhead. Average fleets run at $11,000-$14,000 per vehicle, and bottom-quartile fleets exceed $16,000 per vehicle. The single biggest differentiator between quartiles is telematics adoption, fleets with full telematics rollouts almost always sit in the top half, while fleets running without trip-level data almost always sit in the bottom half regardless of vehicle choice.

Aim for 75-85% utilization on a commercial fleet. Below 60% means you are running too many vehicles for the work available, every vehicle added below that break-even point costs $7,000-$11,000 per year in fixed costs (insurance, registration, depreciation, finance) with no matching revenue. Above 90% is dangerous territory because you have no slack for breakdowns, driver sickness, or demand spikes. NAFA data shows operators who actively track and manage utilization typically cut fleet size by 10-15% within 6 months, freeing $75,000-$220,000 of capital on a 20-vehicle fleet without losing any service capability.

Yes, telematics typically pays back in 4-8 months even on fleets as small as 3-5 vehicles. Modern systems cost $15-$30 per vehicle per month and deliver $75-$180 per vehicle per month in fuel, maintenance, and insurance savings through route optimization, harsh-driving alerts, idle-time reduction, and lower premiums from insurers who offer 10-25% discounts for telematics-monitored fleets. The reason most small fleets skip telematics is a mistaken belief that the savings only matter at scale, but per-vehicle ROI is actually highest on small fleets because the owner is usually also the dispatcher and sees the savings directly rather than diluted through layers of management.

The economically optimal replacement point for most US light commercial vehicles is 4-5 years or 120,000-150,000 miles, but cycles vary significantly across sectors. Last-mile delivery fleets benchmark at 3-4 years due to high stop-start mileage, while utility and trades fleets typically run 5-7 years. Top-quartile operators in the Automotive Fleet Fact Book replace 18-25% of their fleet annually as part of a rolling cycle. Beyond year 5, Automotive Fleet data shows maintenance costs typically rise 8-15% per year per vehicle while depreciation flattens, so the "savings" from holding on to an old vehicle disappear into repair bills. Running a disciplined rolling replacement cycle also keeps most of the fleet under warranty, spreads capital expenditure evenly across years, maintains brand image, and typically reduces total 10-year cost per vehicle by 15-25% compared to a reactive "replace when it dies" approach.

The three most expensive compliance failures are: (1) DOT inspection failures that cascade into out-of-service orders ($500-$1,500 fines plus operating authority risk), (2) hours-of-service infringements on ELD-equipped fleets ($100-$500 per offense, with repeat offenders triggering FMCSA investigation), and (3) speeding and harsh-braking events that drive up insurance premiums and accident frequency. Automotive Fleet data shows fleets with driver compliance scores below 6/10 pay 20-35% more in insurance premiums and have 2-3x the accident rate of high-compliance fleets, a gap worth $700-$2,000 per vehicle per year even before you price in the FMCSA risk.

This free benchmark scores your fleet across 8 Automotive Fleet-backed dimensions and shows exactly where you sit versus top-quartile peers, so you can see whether the biggest saving is in telematics, replacement cycles, fuel management, or utilization rather than guessing. Once you know your weak spots, our fleet cost calculator quantifies the annual saving from closing each gap, our vehicle cost calculator prices individual vehicle alternatives, and our EV vs gas tool benchmarks the switch savings at a total-cost-of-ownership level. Together the tools turn a vague "we should cut fleet costs" goal into a prioritized, quantified action plan.