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Fuel represents roughly 21% of a trucking fleet’s total operating costs—and for fleets with under 50 vehicles, that percentage often hits harder than it should. While large carriers leverage bulk purchasing, sophisticated monitoring technology, and negotiated contracts, smaller operations typically rely on retail fueling, lack real-time tank visibility, and have limited protection against fuel theft. These factors compound into a cost disadvantage that most fleet managers never fully quantify.
The American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) 2025 Operational Costs of Trucking report confirms what many small fleet operators already sense: smaller truckload carrier fleets consistently face higher costs than their larger competitors. The disparity extends beyond economies of scale—it reflects fundamental differences in how fuel is purchased, monitored, and managed.
This article examines the hidden factors driving fuel cost disparities between small and large fleets, identifies the financial impact, and provides actionable strategies to close the gap.
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The cost gap between small and large fleets isn’t simply about buying power—it’s structural. According to ATRI’s 2025 data, fuel costs dropped to $0.48 per mile industrywide in 2024, yet smaller truckload carrier fleets continued to report higher overall operating costs than larger operations.
Three factors drive this disparity:
Retail vs. Wholesale Pricing. Small fleets typically fuel at retail truck stops, paying pump prices that include station overhead, marketing costs, and profit margins. Large fleets access wholesale or rack pricing through on-site tanks and bulk delivery contracts, bypassing these retail premiums entirely.
Technology and Infrastructure Gaps. ATRI’s research shows that fleets with 5-25 trucks handle only 48.2% of maintenance in-house, compared to 62.4% for fleets with 1,000+ trucks. This infrastructure gap extends to fuel management—smaller operations rarely have the tank monitoring systems, telematics integration, or automated delivery scheduling that large carriers use to optimize fuel purchasing.
Theft and Fraud Exposure. Without monitoring systems, small fleets often discover fuel theft only after months of losses have accumulated. The National Association of Fleet Administrators estimates fuel theft can account for up to 6% of a fleet’s total fuel cost. For a fleet spending $300,000 annually on fuel, that’s $18,000 in preventable losses.
The cumulative effect puts small fleets at a 10-15% cost disadvantage on fuel—money that flows directly from already-thin margins.
Every time a truck in your fleet fills up at a retail pump, you’re paying for more than diesel. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, distribution and marketing alone account for 19% of retail diesel prices.
Diesel Price Breakdown (EIA, November 2025):
That 19% distribution and marketing component represents the “retail premium” that small fleets absorb with every fill-up. Bulk purchasers eliminate most of this cost by taking delivery directly from distributors.
What does this mean in dollars?
For a fleet consuming 100,000 gallons annually at the current national average of $3.84 per gallon, that 19% distribution markup equals approximately $72,960 in retail-inflated costs. Even capturing half of that spread through bulk purchasing would save $36,000 annually.
The gap is also widening. EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook projects diesel crack spreads—the difference between wholesale and retail pricing—to rise from $0.52 per gallon in 2024 to $0.69 per gallon in 2025, reaching $0.84 per gallon by 2026. This means the cost advantage of wholesale purchasing is actually growing, not shrinking.
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Fuel theft isn’t just someone siphoning diesel from your tank overnight. It includes card fraud, driver side-fueling personal vehicles, inflated mileage reports, and systematic skimming that silently drains your fuel budget over months.
The numbers are significant:
Without real-time tank monitoring or fuel card controls, small fleets often lack the visibility to detect theft patterns. A driver filling personal vehicles twice weekly at $50 each stop costs $5,200 annually—and without transaction-level reporting tied to vehicle GPS data, that expense looks like normal fuel consumption.
The solution isn’t necessarily expensive. Modern fuel management systems can flag anomalies, enforce purchase controls, and provide the audit trail needed to identify problems before they compound.
Beyond pricing and theft, operational inefficiencies create fuel waste that small fleets rarely measure.
Idling burns approximately one gallon per hour for heavy-duty trucks, according to research from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. A single truck idling two hours per day at $3.50/gallon diesel costs over $2,500 annually—and that’s per vehicle. For a 30-truck fleet, unmanaged idling can represent $75,000 in wasted fuel.
Driver fueling time adds operational drag. Research cited in Work Truck magazine found that fleet owners spend 62 hours per year per vehicle on refueling activities. A gas station stop adds more than 20 minutes to each trip, and drivers average two miles of detour per fill-up. Multiply that across your fleet and the productivity loss becomes substantial.
Maintenance-related fuel waste compounds costs further. Underinflated tires alone can reduce fuel efficiency by up to 3%, according to U.S. Department of Energy data. Small fleets without rigorous preventive maintenance programs often unknowingly operate vehicles that consume 5-10% more fuel than properly maintained equipment.
Large fleets invest in telematics, idle-reduction technology, and driver monitoring systems that make these inefficiencies visible. Small fleets often don’t see the waste until it’s already impacted their margins.
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Closing the fuel cost gap doesn’t require the resources of a mega-fleet. Five strategies can deliver meaningful savings:
Eliminating retail markup is the most direct path to fuel savings. By taking delivery of bulk fuel to an on-site tank, you access wholesale pricing that bypasses the 19% distribution and marketing premium built into pump prices.
Example: A 30-truck fleet consuming 150,000 gallons annually at retail ($3.84/gallon) spends $576,000 on fuel. Switching to bulk purchasing at even a modest $0.20/gallon discount saves $30,000 annually—with larger spreads yielding proportionally greater returns.
For fleets without existing tank infrastructure, many fuel suppliers offer equipment leasing programs that eliminate the capital barrier to entry.
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Real-time tank monitoring provides visibility that prevents both theft and operational disruption. Modern systems automatically schedule deliveries based on consumption patterns, flag anomalies that could indicate theft, and eliminate emergency fuel situations.
Diesel price volatility makes budgeting difficult. EIA projects prices will average $3.70/gallon in 2025, but monthly swings of 20% or more aren’t uncommon.
Fixed-price contracts lock in your fuel cost for a defined period, eliminating budget uncertainty. Cap-price contracts set a maximum price you’ll pay while allowing you to benefit if market prices drop below the cap. Either approach provides the predictability that small fleets need to quote jobs and manage cash flow confidently.
Mobile fueling brings fuel directly to your trucks during off-hours, eliminating the driver time and vehicle wear associated with retail station stops.
According to Geotab research cited in Work Truck, mobile fueling saves 1.9 pounds of CO₂ emissions per vehicle by skipping gas station trips—but the operational benefits matter more to most fleets. When drivers start their shifts with full tanks, you eliminate the 20+ minutes per fill-up that would otherwise come out of productive hours. For a 30-truck fleet with vehicles filling up twice weekly, that’s over 100 hours of driver time recovered monthly.
Mobile fueling also provides detailed per-vehicle reporting and eliminates card fraud exposure at retail locations.
The advantages large fleets have built—bulk pricing, monitoring technology, dedicated account management—shouldn’t be out of reach for operations with 20, 30, or 50 trucks.
The right fuel partner provides infrastructure, expertise, and technology that small fleets can’t build internally. This includes market monitoring to identify optimal purchasing timing, consolidated invoicing that simplifies accounting, and priority service during supply disruptions that can leave retail-dependent fleets stranded.
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At Shipley Energy, we work with trucking fleets across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Mid-Atlantic region to close the gap between small-fleet costs and large-fleet advantages.
Our commercial and wholesale fuel programs provide access to bulk pricing without requiring major capital investment. We offer tank and equipment leasing for fleets that need on-site storage infrastructure, along with real-time monitoring that automates delivery scheduling and provides consumption visibility.
For fleets in Berks, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York counties, our mobile fleet fueling service delivers fuel directly to your vehicles—eliminating driver downtime at retail stations while providing detailed per-vehicle reporting.
Our fixed-price and cap-price contract options give you the budget certainty to quote jobs confidently, and our team monitors market conditions to help you make informed purchasing decisions.
With over 90 years of fuel delivery experience, a fleet of 150+ delivery vehicles, and 16 bulk locations, we have the infrastructure to support your operations reliably—and the expertise to help you reduce fuel costs without adding complexity to your business.
Ready to reduce your fleet’s fuel costs? Contact Shipley Energy‘s commercial fuel team to discuss bulk pricing, mobile fueling, and monitoring solutions tailored to your operation.
