THE TOTAL COST OF
COMPANY-PROVIDED VEHICLES:
HOW MUCH IS YOUR COMPANY TRULY
SPENDING ON ITS VEHICLE PROGRAM?
FUEL EXPOSURE
Fuel is perhaps the greatest expense for a company-provided vehicle program. According to our
annual benchmark report, fuel accounted for 23% of vehicle program costs in 2019. Which is to be
expected, right? Your mobile workforce travels, and you can't drive anywhere without gas. But, with a
company-provided vehicle, it's impossible to tell if that gas is ge ng them to places for business and
not personal des na ons.
Fuel cards don't help much. Companies generally have rules to keep employees from filling their tanks
over the weekend, but there is s ll wiggle room for them to fuel up at the beginning and end of each
week, or gassing up mul ple vehicles.
Employees capturing business mileage is one way to ensure your company accounts for personal-use
fuel costs. But, even with that record, it's rarely compliant with IRS regula ons, making it impossible
to capture fringe benefit taxa on.
Company-provided vehicle programs are expensive. Over the past 20 years, overall vehicle purchase
costs have risen over $10,000, from $21,047 in 2000 to $34,000 today. But what does a fleet of company-
provided vehicles cost? It should be a simple math problem. Just take the number of vehicles, mul ply it by
the expense of the leases. Right? Actually, no. The costs of a fleet vehicle may seem cut and dry, but there's
more to it than the cost of a standard lease. From idle vehicle costs and maintenance to fuel and liability,
remember that simple number and see how it grows with each new expense.
