Fleet Management Cost Analysis: Doing the Due Diligence

When it comes to understanding the real cost of delivering goods, most businesses struggle with attribution. It’s easy to lump together expenses that aren’t directly tied to delivery—or worse, miss out on major contributors altogether. That’s why a methodical approach to fleet management cost analysis is so important. Without a clear structure, you risk skewing your view of profitability, making decisions based on incomplete or misleading data.

When evaluating fleet cost, it’s not enough to focus only on obvious expenses like fuel and vehicle upkeep. Effective fleet cost management requires a complete view that captures all cost centers tied to delivery operations. In the tech world, the concept of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) helps businesses account for both direct and indirect costs. While licensing and hardware are typically included, it's easy to miss important but less visible expenses—such as the staff needed to manage the system, ongoing maintenance and upgrades, or critical protections like security and privacy for sensitive data.

Overlooking these factors can lead to a distorted understanding of your technology investments and the same principle applies to managing a fleet. This blog provides a high-level framework for identifying all the relevant expenses and ensuring you're accurately capturing the “T” in TCO for fleet cost management.

The direct AND indirect costs of fleet management

For fleet management, there are sources of costs that are obvious to some folks, some are not. At DispatchTrack, when we perform any sort of cost analysis, we’re very careful about capturing all of the direct AND indirect costs to ensure an accurate picture of the economics.  Let’s break down the key components following our methodology:

A. Vehicle Related Expenses

• Fuel: One of the most visible line items—but still frequently underestimated. Fuel costs fluctuate with distance traveled, traffic conditions, and vehicle efficiency.
• Maintenance: Typically estimated at 20% of fuel costs, and tied directly to usage. Includes routine services like oil changes, tire replacements, and wear-and-tear repairs based on mileage.
• Recurring Costs:  All of the other recurring costs associated with a vehicle (e.g. registration, testing, insurance, etc) that could be boiled down to a fleet management cost per vehicle metric for easy forecasting.

Vehicle related expenses may be obvious and easy to track and measure, but remember to capture the recurring costs as well which could be substantial

B. Labor Costs

• Drivers: The frontline personnel responsible for executing deliveries, managing on-site services, and maintaining safe driving practices. 
• Dispatchers: Staff who coordinate routes, manage daily driver assignments, and handle in-route updates or disruptions.
• Warehouse Staff: Employees responsible for loading, unloading, staging inventory, and ensuring accurate order fulfillment.
• Customer Service Teams: Representatives who field delivery-related inquiries, resolve issues, and manage pre- and post-delivery communication with customers.
• Sales Reps: The sales reps who arranged the delivery and confirming satisfaction
• Management: The executive team leading the fleet
• Recurring Recruiting and Training:  Costs related to recruiting and training team members 

Labor costs should be captured for the team members that have both direct (Drivers) and indirect (Customer Service) that contribute to the success of your deliveries

C. Software Costs

Software should be allocated based on usage and tied back to delivery operations:

• Delivery Management Software: Platforms that coordinate dispatching, routing, real-time tracking, proof of delivery, and customer communication throughout the delivery lifecycle.
  
  
• Telematics and GPS Tracking: Tools that monitor vehicle location, driver behavior, route progress, and engine diagnostics to improve safety, compliance, and efficiency.
  
  
• ERP Platforms: Enterprise Resource Planning systems that integrate logistics data with inventory, finance, and customer systems (this may need to be approximated based on other applications that ERP is tied to)
  
  
• Recurring Maintenance and Upgrades: Rarely does software stay static.  Newer versions, upgrades, and scale may be needed down the road

Try your best to accurately capture all software costs directly related to logistics. For software that is only partially related to your deliveries, approximate the costs as best as you can.

D. Capital Investments

• New Vehicles: Trucks, vans, or other vehicles purchased or leased specifically for delivery operations, including any upfitting required for specific goods.
• New Warehouses: Distribution or storage facilities constructed or leased to improve delivery speed, reduce mileage, or support increased delivery volume.
• Delivery Equipment (e.g., Fork lifts, Flat Bed, Trailers) : Tools used by drivers and warehouse staff to complete specialized deliveries efficiently
• Fleet hardware:  All of the mobile devices (phone, scanners, navigation, compliance)  and other hardware that your fleet personnel will need to execute in the field

Capital investments are typically significant, long-term expenses but they still need to be factored into your cost analysis. To accurately reflect their impact, these costs should be amortized over the useful life of the asset, ensuring they’re properly attributed to the deliveries they support.

E. Third-Party Delivery Support

• 3PL Service Costs, Including Any Software: The base delivery fee is just one piece of the puzzle. Additional costs often include access to delivery tracking portals, mobile apps for proof of delivery, customer communication tools  
• Integration or Reconciliation Tools: To maintain visibility and interoperability across internal and external fleets, most businesses rely on some form of integration, whether it's custom-built with APIs, a popular middleware, or a professionally managed service.