Fuel is typically a fleet's second-largest operating cost after labour. Most fleet managers know their total spend. Fewer can account for where it goes. Effective fleet fuel management starts with understanding where losses occur.

International fleet studies consistently estimate that 10-15% of fuel expenditure is lost to factors outside normal operations, such as inefficiency, waste, and unaccounted use. For a fleet spending S$50,000 monthly on fuel, that's S$5,000-7,500 unaccounted for.

As alarmist as this may seem, it's a pattern documented across multiple industry sources, and one our own telemetry data confirms.

What the Research Shows

Fleet fuel loss has been studied extensively across global markets, and the findings are consistent:

The National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA) estimates fuel theft alone accounts for up to 6% of a fleet's total fuel costs.¹ Dover Fueling Solutions puts forward a broader figure, including fraud and all forms of loss, at 6-10% of fuel moving through a site.² Motive's 2024 Physical Economy Outlook found that 14-19% of fleet payments were lost to fraud or theft, with enterprise fleets at the higher end,³ while WEX Inc cites 10% of annual fuel spend as a working benchmark for theft and misallocation.⁴

The consensus range of 10-15% reflects multiple data points converging on a similar conclusion: fleets without comprehensive monitoring are losing a significant, measurable portion of their fuel budget.

What Our Data Shows

Our Fleemo fleet telematics platform spans over 1,000 vehicles operating across hot-climate, high-congestion markets; conditions that mirror operations in Singapore and Southeast Asia. The patterns we measure align with global research, adjusted for local realities.

Of our findings, three particularly stand out:

1. Idle time varies dramatically by operating environment. Across our monitored fleet, idle time — engine running while stationary — ranges from 1.1% to 25.6% of total engine-on time. The high end reflects hot-climate operations where air conditioning runs continuously during loading, deliveries, and driver breaks. In tropical markets like Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, we'd expect similar patterns.

2. Driver behaviour accounts for measurable waste. 32.5% of drives in our dataset scored below 70% on driver behaviour metrics. We recorded 3.5 times more harsh braking events than harsh acceleration events, suggesting braking behaviour is the primary intervention point for most fleets. These patterns are mechanical, not geographic — aggressive driving burns excess fuel identically whether you're in Riyadh or Manila, not to mention the additional wear on brakes, tyres, and drivetrain components that compounds maintenance costs.

3. Recovery rates hold across diverse operating conditions. Our customer data spans markets with very different infrastructure, labour costs, and traffic patterns. Despite this variance, fleets implementing comprehensive monitoring consistently recover a substantial portion of identified leakage. Interventions, such as driver coaching, idle alerts, route compliance, and geofencing, work because they address universal mechanics rather than local nuances.

Four Categories of Fuel Leakage

Fuel doesn't disappear uniformly. It leaks through specific channels, each with different causes and remedies. Industry research and our own fleet data point to four primary categories:

Proportions based on industry research and Fleemo fleet data. Actual breakdown varies by fleet.

1. Driving Inefficiency

Harsh acceleration, speeding, and aggressive braking consume more fuel than smooth driving. The mechanics are straightforward in that rapid acceleration from standstill can consume 40% more fuel than gradual acceleration.⁵ A truck travelling at 120 km/h versus 100 km/h experiences roughly 27% worse fuel economy.⁶

Our data shows that fleets implementing driver behaviour monitoring and coaching typically achieve 15-20% fuel savings on this category alone. What is key is visibility, and our telemetry identifies harsh braking and acceleration events in real time, enabling targeted coaching rather than blanket training.

2. Idle Time

An idling engine consumes fuel while producing zero kilometres. In hot climates like Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, drivers running air conditioning during loading, deliveries, and breaks can burn through 50-80 litres monthly on idling alone per vehicle.

Our telemetry from hot-climate operations shows idle time ranging from 1.1% to 25.6% of engine-on time, a 23x variance driven primarily by AC usage and operational practices. Idle time monitoring gives fleet managers visibility into this variance — the first step toward reducing it.

3. Route Deviation

The gap between planned routes and actual routes driven accumulates quickly. Unauthorised detours, inefficient sequencing, toll avoidance, and personal errands all add kilometres that don't appear on job sheets.

Route optimisation software vendors claim 20-30% efficiency gains, but real-world results in congested cities are more modest. Manila's 71% congestion rate⁷ and Jakarta's 53%⁸ mean theoretical optimal routes often aren't achievable. Industry studies show typical mileage reductions of 10-25%⁹, with congested urban environments at the lower end of that range.

Our GPS monitoring shows that the bigger opportunity isn't algorithmic optimisation, it's visibility into deviation. Geofencing alerts flag when vehicles leave designated areas; route compliance reporting shows actual versus planned kilometres. Knowing that a vehicle drove 180 km instead of the planned 140 km is the first step toward understanding why.

4. Unaccounted Use

This category covers fuel that leaves your budget through deliberate action, namely filling personal vehicles, siphoning from tanks, fuel card fraud, inflated mileage reports, and selling fuel.

According to Motive's Physical Economy Outlook 2024, 44% of fleet leaders know fraud is impacting their business but aren't sure how to find it, and internal misuse is more commonly reported than external theft.¹⁰ The typical pattern isn't dramatic: small amounts, repeated consistently, adding up over months. A driver filling a personal vehicle once weekly at S$50 per fill costs S$2,600 annually.

Our GPS coverage enables after-hours alerts and rapid vehicle recovery — essential capabilities for fuel theft prevention. Industry research shows GPS-equipped vehicles achieve recovery rates exceeding 90%, compared to under 60% without tracking.¹¹ Insurance providers typically offer 15-30% premium discounts for fleets with GPS tracking installed.¹²

What's Recoverable

Not all leakage is recoverable. Some fuel will always be lost to factors outside operational control, such as traffic conditions, weather, and legitimate customer wait times. But the controllable portion is substantial.

Our customer data shows fleets implementing comprehensive monitoring typically recover up to 85% of identified leakage within the first year. Here's how that breaks down by intervention:

Based on verified Fleemo customer results. Actual results vary by fleet.

For a fleet spending S$50,000 monthly on fuel:

For most fleets, that figure exceeds the cost of implementing the monitoring systems that enable it.

See Your Numbers

Industry benchmarks provide context, but every fleet is different. Vehicle types, operating conditions, driver profiles, and existing tracking methods all influence where leakage occurs and how much is recoverable.

Our Fuel Cost Leakage Calculator translates these benchmarks into fleet-specific estimates. Enter your fleet size, monthly spend, average kilometres, vehicle type, and current tracking method to see:

Your leakage breakdown — where fuel is likely disappearing, based on your fleet profile

Your efficiency comparison — how your consumption compares to standard rates for your vehicle class

Your recovery projection — what's realistically achievable based on what we've measured with other fleets

The Bottom Line on Fleet Fuel Management

Fuel leakage isn't a single problem with a single cause. It's the cumulative result of driver behaviour, operational inefficiencies, environmental factors, and gaps in oversight. And each draining a portion of your budget in ways that don't show up on any invoice. The 10-15% industry benchmark isn't a worst-case scenario; it's the norm for fleets operating without comprehensive visibility.

What our data demonstrates is that these losses are largely recoverable, and interventions such as real-time monitoring, driver coaching, idle alerts, and route compliance tracking, aren't complex. The mechanics of fuel consumption are universal, which means the solutions that work in one market translate to another. The first step is measurement — understanding where your fleet sits relative to benchmark efficiency, and where the opportunities lie. TTMI’s Fuel Cost Leakage calculator is designed to give you that starting point.

Sources

1. National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA), Fleet Fuel Theft Benchmarks

2. Dover Fueling Solutions, Fuel Fraud and Loss Prevention

3. Motive, Physical Economy Outlook 2024

4. WEX Inc, Fleet Fuel Theft and Misallocation Report

5. US Department of Energy, Fuel Economy Guide: Driving More Efficiently

6. US Department of Energy, Fuel Economy and Speed

7. TomTom, Traffic Index 2023: Manila

8. TomTom, Traffic Index 2023: Jakarta

9. TMW Systems-Appian, cited in Fleet Equipment Magazine, Route Planning for Fuel Efficiency

10. Motive, Physical Economy Outlook 2024

11. Thatcham Research, GPS Tracking Recovery Study; National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), Vehicle Recovery Statistics

12. WEX Inc, GPS Fleet Tracking and Insurance Premiums; One Step GPS, Insurance Discount Research