Eliot Vancil

“Nobody sees the cost of decentralized fleet operations on a single line of the budget. It shows up as a driver who spends 25 minutes at a station across town. A receipt that never makes it back to the office. A “miscellaneous fuel” entry that three people shrug at every month. None of it looks…

“Is our fuel usage normal?” is the question most fleet managers eventually ask, and it’s a fair one. Fleet fuel benchmarking answers it by comparing your fleet’s actual fuel metrics against industry standards, so you can see real efficiency gaps instead of guessing. This guide covers what benchmarking actually means, the metrics that matter, and…

Fleet managers often focus on price per gallon. The real losses hide elsewhere. Missed data, idle time, and inconsistent fueling habits quietly erode budgets in ways that never show up as a single line item. This guide breaks down five costs of poor fuel management for fleets that stay hidden until someone actually goes looking…

Running out of fuel for commercial fleets, where fuel can represent up to 40% of operating costs, creates a chain reaction of expenses. One incident can cost thousands in downtime, emergency delivery fees, driver overtime, repair costs, and lost contracts. A 20-truck fleet losing one hour per vehicle can incur over $2,000 in labor and…

HVAC fleets lose hours weekly on fuel stops, which diminishes job capacity and increases labor costs, with an example weekly loss scenario showing a 20-van fleet spending 25 hours fueling, equivalent to 1.25 hours per vehicle, due to detours, waiting times, and administrative tasks. A heavy-duty truck idles for about 1800 hours every year and…

HVAC fleets struggle during heat waves due to increased emergency service demand causing longer operation hours, higher fuel consumption from extended truck travel and idling, and slower technician response times from dispatch backlogs and frequent fuel stops, all of which elevate operational costs and reduce efficiency. The commercial HVAC market is growing fast, from USD…

Poor plumbing fleet management, characterized by limited vehicle visibility, weak dispatch logic, reactive maintenance, careless fuel tracking, and scattered data, reduces profits through increased operating costs per job, fewer daily job completions, more missed appointments, and lower customer satisfaction. Timely fixes create month-to-month savings. Delays, missed appointments, and rising fuel bills often trace back to…

Hidden fuel costs in landscaping fleets include losses from idling, unplanned route overlap, unscheduled fuel stops, and vehicle maintenance problems, which collectively reduce crew productivity and increase operating costs. These issues often stem from daily operating habits rather than just pump prices, impacting overall fuel spend and efficiency. Many landscaping fleets watch the pump price…