Is Your Trucking Fleet Financially Healthy?

If you’re a small- to medium-sized fleet owner reading this as 2026 dawns, congratulations!

You’ve weathered one of the longest-recorded freight recessions in history – as well as the post-COVID-19 economic collapse. And that’s not to mention the outgoing year. Regardless of your political stance, 2025 was an economically challenging year for the trucking industry. And while we all hope for an improving economy in the new year, the fact is that current signs point to continued freight stagnation, inflation, and general economic uncertainty across sectors.

All of which means now is a good time to take a critical look at your fleet and get a realistic sense of its financial health.

And your day-to-day operations already give you a pretty good idea of where you stand, says Sean Smith, senior director, FinTech solutions, Truckstop.com.

How to Measure Your Trucking Fleet’s Financial Health

Too many fleet owners use their bank account balances as their primary indicator of financial health, Smith says. 

“The problem is, your bank account is a lagging indicator of financial health – not a leading indicator. Fleet owners need to be more concerned with the front-loading of their gross margin than the cash that is deposited at the end of the week, month, or quarter.”

In other words:

• Do you have strong, consistent cash flow coming in? 
• Can you easily cover day-to-day expenses without needing credit?
• Are your operating expenses comfortably covered each month?
• Do you have cash reserves on hand equal to two to three months of expenses?
• Are you routinely collecting customer payments within 30–45 days of billing?

Smith says understanding the difference between your income statement and balance sheet can help you gain insight into how your operations are really going.

“The balance sheet shows you where your money is at a given time,” Smith explains. “And your income statement shows you how your business is performing from a revenue and expenses perspective. 

"You need to think of both of those aspects of your fleet financial health when you’re analyzing your business, and not just the balance sheet."

Running a Lean and Agile Trucking Business

Given today's economic uncertainty, Smith says his primary advice to trucking fleet owners is to “stay lean and liquid.”

An extremely high percentage of small businesses in the U.S. today are only three pay cycles away from being forced to implement layoffs, shutdowns, or even bankruptcy, he says.

“In light of that fact, if you’re a fleet owner, you should be most concerned about staying lean and staying liquid.

“Right now, I’d advise fleets to keep your headcount low and maybe bring on contractors if you need additional help. The important thing is to have some capability to easily turn things down if things start to change for the worse. 

"You want to be able to easily scale your operations up or down right now as the economy and your business changes."

Running lean equates to staying agile, Smith explains. 

“Things will eventually start to turn better,” he says. “And when they do, you want to be able to lean into those good times. Because that’s one of the reasons we’re all in this business. 

"But to ‘get’ when the ‘getting’ is good and take advantage of a strong freight market, you’ve got to hang on during the down times. Staying lean gives you the ability to do that.”

Get Outside Perspective on Your Fleet Financial Health

One common problem Smith sees is that truck fleet owners too often try to do everything themselves. That can lead to financial blind spots that can come back to bite you.

“You’re the owner,” he says. “You’re probably driving a truck some of the time. And you’re handling dispatching. And you’re handling sales. It’s hard to do all of that stuff by yourself.”

Smith says it is vital that you have access to an expert who can help you fully understand what is happening with your business and cash flow.

The Importance of Cost Per Mile Analysis

“You need to know what your cost per mile is,” he says. “You need to know what your payments are and when they’re due each month. Do you know how much you’re making on your loads? Is your rate per mile correct? 

"All of those metrics are really like a problem-solving exercise for a fleet owner. And if you don’t know what problems you need to solve, you’re going to be in a really tough spot.”

Knowing what your fleet’s cost per mile is can answer those questions, Smith says.

That’s because understanding your cost per mile gives you granular insight into your day-to-day operations. It helps you understand how fixed costs (such as truck payments, insurance, permits, and office overhead) line up against variable costs; fuel, maintenance, tires, tolls, and other day-to-day cash outflows.

More than anything, you’ll know whether your equipment is making you money or costing you money simply to operate.

Why Visibility into Your Trucking Fleet's Metrics Matters

Your trucks should be generating income, not simply keeping up with loan payments. To achieve this, your revenue per mile must consistently exceed your cost per mile by 15% to 20% or more.

That has to be a continuous evaluation process, cautions Paul Rosa, senior vice president of procurement and fleet planning at Penske Truck Leasing. 

“A lot of fleet owners get caught in the trap of running [total cost of ownership] numbers once and thinking they’re on cruise control from then on out. TCO is a continuous evaluation process.”

Costs go up over time, Rosa says. And that can cost you money that you weren’t spending a few months ago. On the other hand, some aspects of your business can improve over time. And that can mean that you’re not taking advantage of some cost savings. 

Another good financial tactic is to simply stay on top of things. That means gritting your teeth and checking on your finances often.

“We do quarterly business reviews with our customers,” explains Brian Antonellis, senior vice president of fleet operations for Fleet Advantage. “We take in data constantly and scrub it on a weekly and monthly basis to make sure there are no errors.

"If you’re looking at your data at least quarterly, you can really get into a space where you’re spotting key issues before they start costing you money.”

Smith is even more aggressive.

“I like to do month-to-month comparisons,” he says. “I think the more you look at the data, the more feedback you get. And the better chance you have of making the right change at the right time. That can really help you a lot in an uncertain economy.”

With that philosophy in mind, Truckstop.com sends out weekly cash flow updates to its customers to help them better understand how their businesses are doing.

“That can tell you how much cash you have on hand and how much money you have coming in for a given week – this is something that you need to take action on,” Smith says. “These are the kind of tangible, actionable things that can help fleet owners have a real impact when it comes to managing their finances.”

What if Your Fleet is in Financial Trouble?

Incredibly, it can be difficult to spot warning signs that you’re in financial distress until disaster strikes.

“We’ve all been there,” Smith says. “Money isn’t coming in, and you can only hammer the broker over the phone so many times. Which is why it is so important to understand where you stand financially every single day.”

And that comes down to "visibility."

“Do you have any meaningful visibility beyond today?” he asks. “If not, you may need some professional help to give you a broader view of the financial world.”

That help can, in turn, allow you to spot and attack weaknesses in your business before they become fatal.

Some things the manager of a healthy fleet should know include;

• Your fixed costs (truck payments, insurance, permits, office overhead) 
• Your variable costs (fuel, maintenance, tires, tolls, driver pay) 
• What your long-term cash reserves are for, including major repairs and equipment replacement
• Your revenue per mile.

The 3% Rule

What should you do if you see red flags popping up in your fleet financials, or even if the headlines just make you nervous?

In that case, Smith says he is a big proponent of what he calls the 3% rule.

“It’s a fast and simple way to start back on the road to financial stability,” he explains. 

“If things start to get tough, you just go around your business and look for ways to try and cut 3% off of every aspect of your business you can. It’s a small number. And it should be manageable for everyone to apply to pretty much any aspect of their business.”

In practice, this means, say, getting another 3% increase in your per-mile rate. Or going to your lender and asking to refinance a truck loan for 3% less.

“You simply look for ways to save 3% on anything you can,” Smith explains. “Tires. Fuel. Running your truck a little bit longer every day. Or finding a way to run a truck an additional day a week. Maybe you can hang onto a truck 3% longer than you normally would before replacing it. Those kinds of things. 

"They’re small. And they don’t impact your daily operations much at all. But if you find enough things to gain a 3% improvement on, it can really add up to significant savings over time.”

It's Not Too Late to Improve Your Trucking Company's Financial Health

All in all, don’t despair. Given the long freight slump, the mere fact that you’re still in the game and have lasted this long is great news and cause for optimism.

“The main thing is just to get started on actively managing your fleet’s financial health,” Smith says.

If you don’t know where things stand, or you’re simply afraid to look, the main thing is to take action now, before it’s too late.

“People get into trucking to be truckers – not be accountants,” he says. “I get that. But if you don’t remember the last time you made an entry into your QuickBooks, I would hire a part-time booker for $20 an hour on a contract basis to help get yourself squared away.”

Fleet finances are a lot like blocking and tackling in football, he adds. 

“You have to know what invoices you have open,” he explains. “Are you invoicing on time? You need to know how your customers are. Are they paying you on time? Or do you need to fire some customers?

"Once you have a handle on those very basic questions, you can then start to level up with your finances and put yourself in a strong position to weather whatever 2026 is going to throw at us.”