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How to Benchmark Your Fleet Costs Against Industry Averages

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The short version

  • "Is my fleet expensive to run?" is a fair question, but a national average is a poor way to answer it.
  • I'm not going to quote you an "industry average" cost per mile. I haven't found a reliable one for small UK van fleets, and one I made up would be worse than none.
  • The best benchmark is you: each van against the others, and this year against last year.
  • Quotes, official fixed costs and the odd published figure make good sense-checks, as long as you know what's in them.

The trouble with industry averages

Search for fleet cost benchmarks and you'll find plenty of numbers. The trouble is knowing what they measure.

  • Does the figure include finance and depreciation, or only running costs?
  • Is it for cars, small vans or big vans?
  • A fleet of 500 or a fleet of 5?
  • Which year, and what was fuel doing at the time?
  • Who produced it, and what are they trying to sell?

Change any one of those and the number moves. A small firm with three vans doing short urban hops isn't the same animal as a national firm doing motorway miles. So when somebody says "the average is X pence per mile", my first question is: average of what?

I'm not saying published figures are useless. I'm saying they're a rough sense-check at best, and a trap at worst if you treat them as a target.

Benchmark number one: yourself, over time

This is the benchmark I trust most, because the definitions never change. You set them.

Pick a handful of measures and work them out the same way, every time:

Write them down every quarter or so. After a year you'll have a trend line, and it'll tell you more than any average. Is cost per mile creeping up? Did the new servicing arrangement help? Did that one van get worse?

The rule is simple: same method, every time. If you change what's in the figure, you've broken the comparison.

Benchmark number two: your vans against each other

This is the quickest win, and it costs nothing.

Line your vans up side by side on the same measures. Allow for age and the sort of work each one does, and then look for the odd one out:

  • One van with much higher maintenance than the rest. Is it old, or has it been unlucky, or is something being missed?
  • One with high fuel per mile. Is it the van, the driver or the routes?
  • One that's never off the road. What's it doing right?

I go through the fuel and maintenance side of this in Fuel Costs vs Maintenance Costs: Where Small Fleets Overspend.

Benchmark number three: the market, through quotes

Here's a benchmark people forget, and it's often the most useful one. If you want to know whether you're paying a fair price for something, ask for other prices.

  • Insurance: get quotes at renewal, using the same cover, so you're comparing like with like.
  • Finance or leasing: ask two or three providers for the same van, term and deposit.
  • Servicing and big repairs: a second quote on anything sizeable.
  • Tyres and consumables: a quick ring round.

It isn't glamorous, but it tells you what the market will charge you, today, for your vans, which is better than any national average.

Benchmark number four: figures you can verify exactly

Some costs aren't averages at all. They're fixed by the government, so you can check you're paying the right amount.

  • MOT fees have a legal maximum. GOV.UK lists the maximum fees, currently £54.85 for Class 4 and £58.60 for Class 7. If a garage charges more than the cap, something's wrong. Charging less is fine.
  • Vehicle tax rates are published. GOV.UK's rate tables show £360 for a standard 12-month payment on a light goods vehicle from 1 April 2026, with some older vans paying less. If your records show something different, find out why.

These aren't benchmarks of how well you're doing, but they're quick checks that nothing odd is slipping through.

Using published figures sensibly

If you do come across an industry figure, here's how I'd treat it:

  1. Check who published it and whether they've something to sell.
  2. Check what's in it: running costs only, or everything?
  3. Check it matches your kind of fleet: vehicle type, mileage, region, size.
  4. Check the date. Fuel and insurance move fast.
  5. Use it as a prompt, not a target. If you're miles away, ask why. If you're close, don't assume you're doing well.

And if you can't answer those questions, don't use the figure. It's the same rule I'd apply to any statistic.

What to do when something looks off

Say one van is well out of line. Don't jump to conclusions. Work through it:

  • Is it a one-off, like a single big repair, or a pattern over several months?
  • Is it down to the van, the driver or the work?
  • Can you find the cause in your records? If you can't, that's a finding in itself.

That last one is the real catch. Benchmarking only works if your numbers are trustworthy, and I cover how bad records quietly cost you money in 5 Ways Poor Record-Keeping Is Costing Your Fleet Money.

How to make it a habit

Here's a simple routine:

  • Monthly: record spend and miles per van.
  • Quarterly: work out cost per mile per van and compare vans.
  • Yearly: compare against last year, get fresh quotes on insurance and finance, and set one goal. For instance, "get the worst van's cost per mile down" or "stop any van going without a service."

With FleetGuv, the maintenance log per van keeps work due, work scheduled and costs, and exports as a CSV for Xero and QuickBooks. Pull that into a spreadsheet and the per-van comparison takes minutes, not an afternoon. It's built for small UK limited companies with small fleets, with no hardware needed. Starter is £25 a month flat for up to 5 vehicles and Growing Trade is £5 per vehicle per month for 6 to 20, as shown on our pricing page. If you're wondering what else a decent app should do, see Fleet Management App Features Every Small Trade Business Needs.

The bottom line

Don't chase an industry average. Measure your own vans the same way every time, compare them with each other, test the market with quotes and check the fixed figures. That gives you a benchmark that actually means something, because it's built from your own numbers.

The full guide is Fleet Costs and Budgeting for Small Businesses: The Complete Guide.

Written by Chris, Founder of FleetGuv

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