By Erin Gilchrist, Vice President of Fleet Evangelism, IntelliShift
March 19, 2025
Mid-sized fleets face a unique challenge—balancing efficiency with rising operational costs and increasing compliance demands. Unlike 
major enterprise fleets with access to expansive industry insights, mid-sized fleets often operate with limited visibility, making it harder to control costs, optimize vehicle use, and ensure driver safety.
One powerful tool that can level the playing field is benchmarking. By leveraging data from telematics and industry reports, fleet managers can assess their performance against similar operations, uncover inefficiencies, and implement strategies to enhance productivity and profitability.
The Role of Benchmarking in Fleet Performance
Operational costs continue to be a top concern for fleet managers, with fuel expenses alone accounting for roughly 22% of total costs. However, many mid-sized fleets rely solely on internal metrics, which limits their ability to identify waste or compare their performance with industry peers.
Benchmarking solves this by offering a broader perspective. With comparative data, fleet managers can:
- Pinpoint Operational Weaknesses: Excessive idling, inefficient routes, and irregular maintenance schedules often go unnoticed without industry benchmarks to highlight inefficiencies.
- Gain Competitive Insight: Understanding how peer fleets adopt new technologies, streamline driver training, and manage expenses provides a roadmap for improvement.
- Enhance Cost Management: Fuel benchmarking helps fleets analyze consumption trends and implement strategies such as optimized routing and driver behavior coaching.
- Improve Safety Protocols: Nearly half of fleet managers rank driver safety as a priority. Benchmarking safety metrics help identify gaps in compliance and accident prevention efforts.
- Optimize Vehicle Use: Benchmarking vehicle utilization rates ensures that assets are maximized effectively, reducing unnecessary expenditures and improving operational efficiency.
How Telematics Elevates Benchmarking Efforts
Telematics plays a vital role in benchmarking by providing real-time, actionable insights into fleet performance. These systems collect and analyze data on key metrics such as fuel consumption, driver habits, and vehicle utilization, allowing fleet managers to compare their results with industry standards.
For example:
- Fuel Efficiency Insights: Telematics tracking can identify issues like excessive idling, inefficient routing, or underperforming vehicles, helping fleets take targeted action to cut fuel costs.
- Driver Behavior Monitoring: Identifying unsafe driving patterns—such as harsh braking or speeding—enables the development of targeted safety programs.
- Proactive Maintenance Scheduling: Preventative maintenance benchmarking helps fleets avoid unexpected breakdowns and reduce service costs by ensuring vehicles are serviced at optimal intervals.
Despite the benefits, some fleets hesitate to adopt benchmarking due to concerns about cost or complexity. However, with access to anonymized industry data from fleet management platforms and trade associations, even small and mid-sized operations can implement benchmarking without heavy investments in new technology. By tapping into these shared resources, fleets can make data-driven decisions without the burden of extensive internal data collection.
For benchmarking to be truly effective, fleet managers must compare their data against businesses with similar operations. Industry-specific benchmarking ensures that fleets can measure performance based on relevant standards rather than broad, generalized metrics. This allows for more actionable insights, helping fleet managers address challenges unique to their industry while ensuring continuous improvement in efficiency and cost management.
Consider a landscaping fleet struggling with equipment utilization. By benchmarking against industry data, the company discovers that its mowers are used only 60% of the time, while industry averages suggest they should be at 80%. A deeper dive reveals that inefficient scheduling and job assignments are the root cause. By leveraging benchmark insights to optimize routing and scheduling, the fleet increases equipment usage, reducing unnecessary asset purchases and improving profitability.
Addressing Common Benchmarking Barriers
While benchmarking provides significant value, many fleet managers may hesitate due to perceived challenges such as data collection, lack of benchmarking resources, or concerns about implementation. However, there are solutions to overcome these hurdles:
- Start Small: Begin with a few key metrics—such as fuel efficiency, vehicle utilization, and maintenance costs—before expanding benchmarking efforts.
- Leverage Available Industry Data: Many fleet management platforms and trade associations offer anonymized data sets, eliminating the need for fleets to collect and analyze everything themselves.
- Automate Data Collection: Telematics and fleet management software can streamline benchmarking by automatically tracking and reporting critical performance metrics, reducing the manual workload.
By addressing these barriers, fleet managers can more easily unlock the full potential of benchmarking.
The Future of Benchmarking: A Competitive Advantage
The transportation industry is evolving, and mid-sized fleets must be proactive to keep up. Benchmarking is no longer just a best practice—it’s a necessity for staying competitive. By leveraging real-time data and industry comparisons, fleet managers can make informed decisions that reduce costs, enhance safety, and improve efficiency.
As technology advances, benchmarking will become even more powerful. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will refine data analysis, making it easier to spot trends and act on insights in real time. More specialized tools will allow fleets to benchmark against companies with similar operations, making the data even more relevant.
For mid-sized fleets looking to thrive in an increasingly data-driven world, adopting benchmarking today isn’t just about solving current challenges—it’s about securing a strong foundation for long-term success.
To learn more about how benchmarking can help your fleet, visit IntelliShift.com
