How to Track Fuel Costs for a Small Fleet

Fuel is usually one of the biggest running costs of a small fleet, and one of the easiest to lose track of. Receipts pile up in vans, fuel-card statements don't say which vehicle got the fuel, and by the time the monthly bill arrives, nobody remembers why one truck used twice as much as the others.

Here's a simple system that works whether you run three vans or fifty.

1. Log every fill-up against a vehicle

The single most useful habit is that each fill-up is recorded against a specific vehicle, at the pump, by the driver. Each entry needs:

• Vehicle
• Date
• Odometer reading
• Gallons, and price per gallon or total cost
• Whether the tank was filled all the way
• Station, and fuel grade if you run mixed vehicles
• A photo of the receipt

The odometer is the part drivers skip and the part you need most. Without it you can't calculate miles per gallon or cost per mile, and you can't tell a thirsty vehicle from a busy one.

2. Watch three numbers per vehicle

MPG over time

Each vehicle has its own normal. A van that drops 15% below its own average for a couple of tanks has a problem: tires, brakes, a sensor, a heavier load, or fuel going somewhere other than its tank.

Fuel cost per mile

This lets you compare vehicles doing different amounts of work. One truck can spend twice as much on fuel as another and still be more efficient if it drove three times as far.

Price paid per gallon

Compare what each driver pays with what others pay in the same area. A driver who always fills at the most expensive station on the route is costing you real money over a year, and is easy to fix once you can see it.

3. Make logging take seconds

Drivers will log consistently only if it's fast. What helps:

• Phone, not paper. The receipt photo is taken at the pump, not found crumpled in a door pocket two weeks later.
• Drivers see only their vehicles. Fewer choices, fewer entries against the wrong van.
• Odometer required. Make it part of the entry, not an optional extra.
• Check weekly, not monthly. A quick look each week catches a missing entry while the driver still remembers the fill-up.

4. Review monthly, by vehicle

Once a month, look at a table with every vehicle side by side: fuel spend, miles driven, MPG and cost per mile. Then sort by cost per mile. The vehicles at the top are where to look first, whether that means maintenance, a different route, or retiring the vehicle.

Fuel is only part of the picture. Put it next to maintenance, repairs and insurance to see each vehicle's full cost per mile.

How Milebook handles it

On Milebook's Fleet plan, each driver gets their own login and sees only the vehicles you assign them. They log fuel from their phone with a receipt photo. You get a fleet dashboard for any date range with fuel, cost per mile and distance for every vehicle, MPG trends, a ranking of the stations your drivers use by price, and reminders when service is due. It costs $4 per vehicle a month, with a 14-day free trial and no card needed.