Fleet utilization is a simple metric: it’s how much of your fleet’s available capacity you’re actually using to generate revenue. In plain terms, it’s the percentage of time your vehicles are on the road, loaded, and earning versus sitting idle, running empty, or waiting for their next job.

High utilization means your trucks are busy, your assets are sweating, and you’re getting the most out of what you already own. Low utilization means you’re paying for vehicles, drivers, and maintenance that aren’t delivering value.

Impacts of Poor Fleet Utilization

• Cost of Ownership: Idle trucks still cost you. Insurance, tax, depreciation, and finance payments don’t stop just because a vehicle is parked.
• Lower Profit Margins: Every underused vehicle drags down your return on investment. You’re spreading your fixed costs over fewer paying jobs.
• Operational Inefficiency: Poor utilization often signals deeper issues. Bad planning, poor route optimization, or slow turnaround at depots and customer sites.
• Missed Opportunities: If your fleet is tied up with inefficient jobs, you can’t take on new, profitable work without adding more vehicles (and more cost).
• Driver Frustration: Drivers want steady work. Gaps in scheduling or too much waiting around can not only lead to higher turnover. Your drivers are an asset to your business too and leaving them under-utilized creates problems, costs and harms your reputation.

How to Improve Utilization

Improving utilization is about working smarter, not harder. By combining practical planning strategies with the right tools, you can unlock more capacity from the fleet you already own.

Use data to plan better
Telematics shows where your trucks are idle or running empty. Stratum’s planning dashboard combines this with jobs and resources so planners can see in real time who is where and what they are doing.

Optimize routes and dispatch
Poorly sequenced runs waste time. Stratum gives planners drag-and-drop tools to cluster jobs geographically, cut empty miles, and assign drivers and vehicles quickly. Job templates and automated resource allocation reduce admin so jobs move from order to dispatch faster.

Capture every billable action
Unrecorded extras like demurrage, waiting time, or additional runs drain profitability. With Stratum InCab, drivers log these in real time. They feed directly into the system so nothing is missed and everything is billed.

Cut dwell time and improve communication
Delays at depots or customer sites slow utilization. Stratum’s mobile tools let drivers receive job updates instantly and return PODs on the spot through scans, photos, or digital signatures. That means no delays waiting for paperwork and faster turnaround for the next job.

Stay on top of maintenance and compliance
Downtime from missed services or expired certificates is avoidable. Stratum keeps all vehicle and driver documentation in one place, with automated reminders for CVRTs, CPCs, and service schedules. That keeps trucks road-ready and downtime planned.

Driving Better Results

Maximizing fleet utilization does not mean more trucks or more hours. It means using the fleet you already have more effectively.

Stratum gives you both the visibility you need to spot these operation issues. And the control to put solutions into action. Smarter planning, clear processes, and the right technology unlock capacity, improve margins, and create space for growth.

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