Fleet management metrics are one of the most valuable tools in a modern fleet manager’s toolbox. From route optimization and fuel efficiency to safety and utilization, these metrics guide the daily decisions that keep operations efficient, compliant, and profitable.
But with so many potential data points to monitor, which fleet metrics are most important to track? These 8 KPIs for fleet managers are a good place to start.
Why Metrics Matter in Fleet Management
Fleet management metrics are the foundation for more informed decision-making. They allow fleet managers to:
- Understand the current state of their fleet
- Identify underlying issues that need to be addressed
- Develop strategies for improvement
- Measure the impact of tactical changes
Fleet management KPIs help you identify inefficiencies, streamline operations, cut costs, and keep your trucks rolling — all with measurable, data-backed decisions. Fleet management KPIs help you:
- Find and correct inefficiencies
- Streamline workflows
- Cut unnecessary costs
- Enhance safety
- Boost overall productivity and profitability
Tracking these KPIs is only half the battle — you also need tools that make the data accessible, actionable, and easy to interpret. That’s where an all-in-one TMS comes in. With real-time visibility into the metrics that matter most, fleet managers gain a clear window into their fleet’s operational health. This insight enables faster, data-driven decisions that reduce costs and support long-term growth.
Top KPIs Every Fleet Manager Should Track
With so much data available, it can be tough to know which fleet management metrics truly matter. The list below highlights some of the most impactful KPIs, but the right ones for your fleet will depend on your operation’s size, structure, and goals. Ultimately, any metric that supports data-driven decisions is worth tracking.
Fuel efficiency (MPG): Reduce fuel waste and emissions
Fuel is typically the first or second largest fleet expense, so tracking fuel efficiency – i.e., miles per gallon (MPG) is fundamental for reducing costs and fuel waste.
How to track MPG: The old school way to track fuel efficiency is to record odometer readings and the amount of fuel purchased each time a truck refuels. To calculate fuel efficiency, divide the distance traveled by the amount of fuel used. Today, telematics, fuel management systems, and fuel cards can do the math for you and automatically report the fuel efficiency of each vehicle.
What fuel efficiency can reveal: If a truck’s fuel efficiency is dropping, it could mean several things:
- The truck is behind on maintenance or needs repairs
- The truck is idling excessively
- Tires aren’t inflated properly
- Poor driving habits
- It’s time to retire the asset
Tracking and comparing the fuel efficiency between trucks of the same make and model can help you identify the most inefficient trucks in your fleet.
How to use the metric: Drops in fuel efficiency can serve as early warnings for maintenance issues like dirty air filters, bad spark plugs, or failing sensors. Fixing these issues reduces fuel consumption, and those savings can add up quickly. Improving fuel efficiency also reduces carbon emissions, which supports sustainability goals and regulatory compliance.
Vehicle utilization: Maximize asset usage and service life
How often are your fleet assets being used? Vehicle utilization answers this question.
How to track utilization: You can measure utilization in mileage or engine time.
What utilization can reveal: Vehicle utilization rates reveal two key things: when a truck needs preventive maintenance, and whether it’s being used to its full capacity.
How to use the metric: Vehicle utilization can help you service vehicles at the proper intervals (e.g. every 3,000 miles). This is important because servicing trucks too soon wastes money and consumables, and servicing them too late can lead to breakdowns, safety issues, and reduced fuel economy. Moreover, utilization rates can help you make the case for adding units to the fleet, relocating underused assets, or selling unnecessary assets. Ideal utilization rates will vary depending on the type of vehicle, industry, and use case, but consistent underutilization (e.g., <50% of available time) is often a red flag.
Maintenance compliance
Maintenance compliance measures how well assets are staying on their preventive maintenance schedules and how often they need maintenance outside of these schedules.
How to track maintenance compliance: You can track maintenance compliance when trucks enter and exit the shop. You can track two kinds of maintenance: scheduled and unscheduled.
- Scheduled maintenance refers to routine, planned service for fleet vehicles based on time intervals (e.g., every 6 months), mileage (e.g,. every 10,000 miles), and engine hours (e.g., every 500 engine hours). It includes preventive tasks designed to keep vehicles running efficiently and safely, such as oil changes, tire rotations, brake inspections, and fluid checks. To measure scheduled maintenance compliance, use this formula: Maintenance compliance rate = (Number of completed PMs on time ÷ Total number of scheduled PMs) × 100%.
- Unscheduled maintenance refers to the times in between when trucks visit the shop for repairs. This metric helps you identify problematic vehicles and find ways to reduce downtime.
What maintenance compliance can reveal:
If a truck is out of compliance with PMs, it could have mechanical issues that could cause expensive repairs and compromise driver safety. Poorly maintained vehicles also have reduced fuel economy, which could be costing your fleet.
How to use the metric:
Tracking on-time maintenance helps you stay on top of vehicle health, prevent expensive repairs and crashes, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
Driver behavior
The way a driver operates a vehicle can impact both safety and vehicle health.
How to track driver behaviors: Fleet managers typically use telematics/GPS tracking devices to identify unsafe driver behaviors, like hard cornering, speeding, rapid acceleration, and sudden braking. Video telematics can help you root out drivers that are distracted, under the influence, or falling asleep at the wheel, as well as record the circumstances of a crash.
What driver behavior monitoring can reveal: Monitoring driver behavior tells you who the safe drivers are in your fleet and which drivers need coaching.
How to use the metric: Poor driving behaviors jeopardize personal safety and cause additional wear and tear on vehicles. Use driver behavior data to coach drivers on specific behaviors to reduce safety and vehicle impacts. In addition to behavior correction, you should also use behavior data to recognize and reward consistently safe drivers. Some fleets use driver scorecards, which are generated by telematics and fleet software platforms, to gamify the experience and encourage healthy competition between drivers. Driver behavior monitoring and coaching also demonstrates a focus on safety, which some insurers reward with lower premiums.
Safety incidents and accident rate
Tracking the number and severity of safety incidents — including collisions, near misses, and roadside violations — can help you identify root causes and reduce risk.
How to track safety and crashes: You can consult a variety of sources to paint an accurate picture of your safety incident and accident rate. These include telematics data and dash cam video, incident reports from drivers and managers, Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs) for lost license points and violations, and claims and insurance data for costs and liability outcomes.
What safety violations and crash rates can reveal: These metrics can help you identify the factors that lead to crashes. For instance, recording crashes over time may show that the same driver – or vehicle type – is repeatedly involved in incidents, or that crashes tend to happen along a specific route or time of day.
How to use the metric: Accidents don’t just endanger drivers — they lead to costly repairs, vehicle downtime, lawsuits, and rising insurance premiums. When you understand the root cause of crashes, you can work to change them. Crash and safety incident rates can signal the need for driver coaching and training, changes to safety policies, reroutes, or vehicle and/or equipment changes. Tracking and acting on these metrics is critical for protecting drivers, reducing liability, and lowering costs.
Total cost of ownership (TCO): Measure full vehicle lifecycle costs
TCO measures the true cost of operating a vehicle over its entire lifecycle, not just the sticker price. It includes vehicle acquisition, fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, licensing, and eventual resale value.
How to track TCO: Calculating TCO requires tracking a host of metrics, including:
- Acquisition cost: Purchase or lease price, plus upfitting and delivery fees
- Fuel costs: Based on actual fuel usage, MPG, and fuel type
- Maintenance and repairs: Including PMs, unscheduled repairs, tires, etc.
- Depreciation: Loss in value over time (which is typically the largest cost)
- Insurance and licensing: Recurring administrative costs
- Resale or disposal value: Subtract this from total lifetime costs to determine net TCO
To calculate the TCO of a vehicle, combine all of its costs in the above categories over a defined period (e.g., per year or over the full lifecycle of the vehicle).
What TCO can reveal: As vehicles age, their TCO increases. Tracking this year over year can reveal when a vehicle is becoming too expensive to operate and has surpassed its useful life.
How to use the metric:
Tracking TCO helps fleet managers make smarter purchasing, maintenance, and replacement decisions. Fleet managers can use TCO data to compare vehicle makes and models to inform purchasing decisions, set TCO benchmarks by vehicle type or department to track and control expenses, and identify high-cost outliers to dispose of.
Compliance and regulatory metrics
Compliance and regulatory metrics include ELD compliance, HOS tracking, maintenance compliance, and inspection readiness. These are especially critical for DOT-regulated or interstate commercial fleets.
How to track maintenance compliance: Telematics and fleet management systems track compliance and regulatory metrics, including:
- HOS compliance: ELDs automatically record drive time, rest breaks, and duty status to stay within HOS limits.
- Maintenance compliance: Track preventive maintenance (PM) schedules and ensure driver vehicle inspection reports (DVIRs) are submitted and resolved.
- Inspection readiness: Maintain digital records of inspections, repairs, and certifications to prepare for roadside checks or DOT audits.
- Driver qualification files (DQFs): Document medical cards, licenses, and training to demonstrate they are up to date.
- Violations and citations: Monitor roadside inspection results, CSA scores, and tickets.
What compliance and regulatory metrics can reveal: The simple answer is that they reveal whether your fleet complies with the law. However, they can also be a bellwether for larger issues, like unsafe drivers or equipment issues.
How to use the metrics: Compliance metrics help you spot issues early and prevent costly DOT fines, audits, out-of-service events, and risks to driver safety. Demonstrating your commitment to safety and compliance can also help you attract and keep clients and protect your brand reputation.
Delivery metrics
Aside from price, what do customers care about most? Performance. Metrics like on-time delivery rate, service window adherence, and missed appointments help measure how well you’re delivering on customer expectations.
How to track delivery metrics: Dispatching and routing software, telematics, and delivery confirmations can help you track metrics like:
- On-time delivery rate: The percentage of deliveries completed on or before the committed time.
- Service window adherence: The extent to which your fleet meets delivery time windows.
- First-time delivery success rate: Determine how many times drivers didn’t deliver or had to reschedule deliveries.
What maintenance compliance can reveal: Missing delivery targets can indicate issues with
routing, scheduling, or driver performance and provide opportunities to improve route planning, communication, or staffing.
How to use the metrics: Identifying delivery trends provides opportunities to improve routing efficiency, reduce late arrivals, coach drivers or field techs on time management and communication, and set and track performance goals for service reliability.
Best Practices for Data-Driven Fleet Optimization
Optimizing fleet operations starts with choosing the right metrics, but the more important activity is turning them into action. These best practices related to fleet management metrics can help.
Use technology to track metrics
It’s nearly impossible to accurately track fleet management metrics manually. As you know, fleet managers don’t have time for tasks like that! Technology is a must for tracking metrics and reporting on trends. GPS tracking/telematics, dash cams, fuel management systems, fuel cards, fleet information systems, and transportation management systems can calculate and record metrics automatically.
Set benchmarks
Continually track metrics over time so you can determine benchmarks, find outliers, test improvements, and demonstrate progress.
Communicate results
Metrics are just as useful for communication as they are for operations. Share reports and dashboards with your team and leadership to highlight performance, flag issues, and drive accountability.
Gain a Competitive Edge with PCS Software
Tracking the right KPIs is only part of the equation. Acting on them is where the real impact happens.
Our integrated fleet management platform gives you real-time visibility into the metrics that matter most. With automated reporting, live dashboards, and alerts, you can spot issues early, helping to streamline operations and make faster, more informed decisions — all without the burdens of manual data collection.
Want to see how an all-in-one TMS can help you run a more efficient fleet? Schedule a free demo today.
