Bringing fuel and maintenance cost under control

Background

A heavy fleet of 135 trucks and trailers was running on paper fuel vouchers and verbal repair approvals. Fuel and maintenance together were the second largest cost in the business and the least understood.

The challenge

Vouchers were issued without a consumption benchmark, so there was no way to tell a heavy route from a leak or a diversion. Repairs were approved without a history, which meant repeat failures on the same asset went unnoticed for months.

What we built

Every litre is now registered against a vehicle, driver and trip, with a float allocated per driver and settled like any other advance. The system computes consumption per vehicle, route and trip and flags anything outside the benchmark.

Maintenance was brought into the same platform: preventive schedules, corrective work orders, spare part consumption and downtime, all held per asset.

How it rolled out

We started with a single depot for one month to establish realistic benchmarks per route, then extended registration to the whole fleet. Drivers kept using a paper slip at the pump for the first weeks while dispatchers entered it the same day.

Where it stands today

All 135 units are monitored daily, 100% of fuel issues are logged against a vehicle, and abnormal consumption is visible on the same day rather than at the end of the month.