Fleet Management KPIs You Should Be Tracking: A Comprehensive Guide

Fleet Management KPIs You Should Be Tracking: A Comprehensive Guide
Posted by PS Energy Group on

Fleet performance can’t be improved without being measured. And that’s where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. Tracking and measuring the right KPIs helps fleet managers identify inefficiencies and opportunities, spot and understand trends, and make informed, data-driven decisions that drive efficiency across all areas of fleet operations.

What Are Fleet Management KPIs?

Fleet management KPIs are quantifiable and specific measurements that are meaningful and actionable. To be effective, they must:

  • Make clear what’s measured and how it’s measured
  • Be tied to the company’s overall goals
  • Give everyone from top to bottom a clearer picture of what success looks like within the organization

What’s the Difference Between Fleet Management KPIs and Metrics?

It’s easy to confuse fleet management KPIs with metrics. They are both used to measure performance and success. The difference is that fleet management metrics measure a specific fleet process, like average repair time or breakdown rate. In contrast, KPIs are a subset of metrics aligned with a strategic business goal, like increasing efficiency or reducing maintenance costs.

What’s the Importance of Fleet Management KPIs?

Tracking KPIs is important in understanding how your fleet is running. It can provide insights on improving performance, managing costs, mitigating risk, improving operational efficiency, and helping guide decision-making.

Consider this example. Say you want to lower vehicle maintenance costs — a common KPI in fleet management. To do that, you’ll need supporting metrics like vehicle age, mileage, and service frequency. Without tracking these, it’s hard to develop a proactive maintenance program that extends vehicle lifespan and reduces unexpected downtime.

Top Fleet Management KPIs to Track

It’s important to note that not all fleets have the same goals or operational priorities, so the KPIs tracked can differ from fleet to fleet. That said, there are key KPIs that every fleet should be tracking, which we have grouped into three categories: safety, efficiency, and compliance.

Safety KPIs

Safety is a fleet’s top priority, protecting drivers, the public, and the business. Fleet vehicles are involved in accidents at a significantly higher rate than personal vehicles due in part to higher mileage and time on the road.

Driver behavior is consistently identified as the leading cause of fleet vehicle accidents, so it’s no surprise that the top safety KPIs are directly tied to driver behavior, including:

  • Speeding incidents
  • Corner handling incidents
  • Harsh acceleration and braking incidents
  • Crashes

You can combine these data points into a single safety incident rate KPI. To calculate, divide the total number of safety incidents by the total miles driven, then multiply by 1,000,000.

How Safety KPIs Help You Manage Risk and Improve Driver Behavior

To ramp up safety, fleet managers like you can turn the data captured from these safety KPIs into action for proactive risk management and continuous driver improvement by:

  • Identifying risk patterns
  • Improving accountability
  • Supporting targeted training
  • Reducing accidents and costs
  • Creating a culture of safety

Efficiency KPIs

Fuel management, maintenance, vehicle depreciation, and utilization are some of the biggest operational challenges for fleet managers. So, tracking the right KPIs in these areas is key to optimizing operations, reducing costs, and increasing productivity.

To meet challenges head-on, efficiency KPIs to track include:

  • Cost per mile: The total operational cost of running your fleet per mile. To calculate, divide the total operational costs by the total miles driven.
  • Fuel efficiency: This is the average distance your fleet can travel per unit of fuel consumed. Divide the total distance traveled by the total fuel consumed to get your full efficiency rate.
  • Vehicle utilization rate: This KPI measures whether your fleet is effectively used. Divide the total hours billed by the total billing hours available and then multiply by 100 to get this percentage.
  • Maintenance cost per vehicle: The total cost for maintaining each vehicle in your fleet. Find the cost by dividing the total maintenance expenses over a specific time period to understand the average expense for each vehicle.
  • Idle time: The total time a vehicle spends not actively moving. Calculate your fleet’s idle time percentage by dividing total idle time by total operating time and multiplying it by 100.
  • Empty miles: This KPI represents the distance your fleet travels without carrying a load or driving revenue. To calculate the percentage, subtract revenue miles from total miles, divide by total miles, then multiply by 100.

What Efficiency KPIs Help You Optimize

With the data captured from these efficiency KPIs, you can:

  • Capture all costs per unit of distance
  • Track how vehicles are consuming fuel
  • Identify inefficient routes, vehicle issues, or risky driver behaviors
  • Ensure vehicles aren’t sitting idle
  • Optimize fleet size
  • Reduce idle time for improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions
  • Identify overused or aging assets that may need replacement
  • Know how much is spent on maintaining each vehicle

Explore top maintenance metrics to track for better fleet health here.

Compliance KPIs

Ensuring regulatory adherence, operational safety, and risk mitigation are key to productive, safe, and profitable fleet operations. With tightening and multiplying regulations and an increasing focus on safety and the environment, prioritizing compliance is more critical than ever.

Tracking these key compliance KPIs enables you to tackle compliance issues and challenges more effectively:

  • Hours of Service compliance (HOS)
  • Vehicle inspection compliance
  • Driver vehicle inspection reports completion rate
  • License and certification expiration rate
  • Compliance training
  • Scheduled maintenance compliance

One KPI you can also use to determine driver compliance and adherence to road safety laws and regulations is the road safety compliance rate. This KPI can help determine if more training or corrective actions are needed.

Calculating your road safety compliance rate requires subtracting the number of safety violations from the total number of trips and then dividing that result by the total number of trips.

How Compliance KPIs Support Safer, Smoother Operations

The data captured from these compliance KPIs brings numerous benefits that help keep fleet operations running smoothly, customers serviced, and business reputation intact, including:

  • Adherence to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) or local regulations to prevent fatigue-related incidents
  • Reduced risk of breakdowns, fines, or violations during roadside inspections
  • Thorough safety checks and proactive vehicle issues identified
  • Preventing compliance breaches due to expired driver credentials
  • Awareness of laws, policies, and changes in regulations by drivers and staff

How ELDs Make Tracking Fleet Management KPIs Easy

Tracking and measuring KPIs has never been easier thanks to modern fleet management technology — especially electronic logging devices (ELDs). These platforms capture real-time fleet data, simplifying KPI tracking while improving accuracy.

ELDs do more than automate HOS compliance and help prevent violations — they empower you to run safer, smarter, and more efficient operations. The real value of ELDs lies in turning data into action. Easy-to-set alerts help you catch and resolve issues before they escalate.

Interested in learning more ways to improve your fleet? Explore our resource library for the latest industry best practices.