By Bill Bishop, SVP Sales and Marketing/Lead Analyst
July 1, 2026
Top Fleet Managers Pressured by World of Changes
Every quarter for the past few years, our team here at FLD has compiled what we call our Fleet Manager Sentiment Index, which is a deep dive into seven topics important to the entire industry. Compiled by querying a group of top fleet managers that comprise our Customer Advisory Board, each subject voted on a 1 (not confident) to 5 (very confident) scale on each of the seven topics. For the past year, we have included important topics like fuel costs, the US economy, and the supply chain and, in an effort to keep it fresh, we’ll be adding important new topics like sustainability before we compile our next Index at the end of Q3.
Considering the world we live in today, our group of top fleet managers had a lot to consider when we asked them their thoughts for our Q2 Index just a few short weeks ago.
Global strife.
Economic gyrations.
Spiraling costs.
The only thing our panel, and doubtless their fleet colleagues, can count on these days is that – in reality – they really can’t count on anything at all. This is a condition that’s been hanging around the fleet space for the better part of six years. And although there are several reasons for this, it was primarily kicked off with the advent of the Pandemic. It’s been an extremely challenging half decade for the top fleet managers who comprise our quarterly Fleet Manager Sentiment Index.
As we sit here at the half-way point of 2026, it seems the only thing our distinguished customer advisors – and likely their colleagues across the industry – can look forward to are growing challenges that show little signs of abating.
Top of the list?
Doing more with less – a phenomenon that seems to have crept into the fleet space as corporate downsizing and changes to the way companies run fleet have altered the industry landscape. Gone are the large fleet fiefdoms many company’s deployed, replaced by procurement and data driven professionals who bear little resemblance to the “car guys and gals” who once populated the majority of fleet manager ranks.
Beyond the need to do more with less, what else are top fleet managers feeling these days? And – for our purposes – how have their opinions changed concerning the seven top indicators we follow in our quarterly fleet manager sentiment index?
Important questions for sure, so before we get too far into the back half of 2026, let’s take a moment to perform a dipstick – if you will – on the current state of the fleet industry and our panel of top fleet managers:
Safety
Safety has always been paramount for fleets but has taken on hyper-importance over the past few years, driven as much or more by liability as the need to keep people safe – though it’s hard to find a corporate PR department that would admit that. It’s something all fleets are laser-focused on and while we’ve only measured this important performance indicator twice – in Q1 and Q2 this year – conversations with fleet managers assure us the focus on safety will not only continue but likely become a bigger priority in the quarters and years ahead.
Service and Maintenance
Of the seven key topics we measure, fleet managers have turned decidedly negative on the state of vehicle service and maintenance. From a measurement of 3.35 in Q3 2025 to a drop in confidence to 2.2 in Q2 2026, we’re hearing unhappy fleet managers tell us how fed up they are with the rising costs of repairs, increases in service cycles and at times, just plain getting ripped off by repair shops. Toss in anxiety over a looming service tech shortage and it’s not hard to see why this issue will be a pain point for years to come.
Vehicle Acquisition
A thorn in the side of fleets for much of 2021-2024, new vehicle acquisition has gone from a nightmarish moving target to one of the Index’s most stable indicators, with our group of top fleet managers starting off the year fairly confident (a 3.15 in Our Q4 2025 reading) to slightly even more so at the halfway point of 2026.
Fuel Costs
While the numbers don’t necessarily show the meaningful drop in confidence around fuel prices, the backstory is a bit more critical, and it has everything to do with the current conflict in the Middle East. This is a situation that has driven fuel prices up from a comfortable national average of $2.87 in January to roughly $4.20 at the start of June – meaningful number and one our group of customer advisors and their peer’s industry wide could hardly have seen coming as we started the year.
The US Economy
From presidential decisions that sometimes last less than a few hours, to regulatory measures that seemingly come out of nowhere, fleet managers tell us they really aren’t sure what to expect out of the US economy. Especially given that global conflict is pressuring it in ways not seen in a generation. Hardly the kind of environment that engenders positive feelings about the state of economic affairs. This is a fact that can be seen in a drop in overall confidence in the US economy in our Index of roughly 12%, which was measured earlier this year prior to the war in the Middle East.
Talent Availability
Since the early days of starting this poll roughly two years ago, the fleet managers we query have never been overly high on the availability of talent for everything from drivers to new hires in their operations. A fact that may be related to the near constant state of disruption the industry has experienced since – but certainly not solely because – of the pandemic. Whether your favorite boogeyman is FMC consolidation, changes in the requirements for open positions, or truly the lack of available talent, the Q4 2025 reading of 2.85 differs very little from the equally unimpressive 2.65 score result gleaned from recent voting.
Supply Chain
For the most part, fleet managers report little or no systemic issues within their supply chains, a far cry from the crippling effects of Covid felt just a few years ago. And while almost all of our customer advisors report occasional hiccups, most characterize those situations as “one off,” with none of our fleet managers feeling threatened by this segment of their world.
Eyes Peeled. Changes Ahead.
As always, TeamFLD marvels at the ability of our customer advisors to help us keep our finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the fleet industry, as well as filling us in on the tidbits and real-time anecdotes that breathe life into the numbers we accrue quarterly.
In turn, this real world information helps us keep both our valuable customers – as well as the industry at large – updated and in the know about the most relevant topics of the day. And why – in a continual effort to stay current and fresh – we will be saying hello to a brand new topic of utmost importance – sustainability – and goodbye to talent availability with a thank you for giving us a deeper dive into fleet manager sentiment around this subject for the past few years.
Until our Q3 measurement around the important Fall conferences, here’s hoping all your roads are safe and your uptime 100%!
About the author
Bill Bishop is SVP of Sales and Marketing at FLD and the company’s lead analyst. He has published his quarterly White Metal Market Report for 9 years and is a regular contributing expert to a number of top industry publications. He can be reached at [email protected].
To view the Fleet Manager Sentiment Index and compare it to previous quarters, click here.
To download Bill’s most recent White Metal Market Report, click here.
