Fleetio’s analysis of 1.2 million commercial vehicles finds older assets driving outsized service spend, while most fleets remain cautious on AI adoption.
Fleetio has released its 2026 Fleet Benchmark Report & State of Fleet Management. The report paints a clear picture of the pressures facing today’s fleet managers. These include rising costs, aging equipment, technician shortages and growing regulatory complexity. And these trends are occurring while carriers search for ways to cut downtime and control maintenance spend.
Now in its third year, the benchmark report aggregates anonymized data from 1.2 million vehicles covering 17.5 billion miles, $7 billion in service spend and 9 million work orders.
Fleetio supplemented the data with survey feedback from more than 600 fleet professionals across multiple industries.
The result is a broad snapshot of how fleets are operating -- and where they’re feeling the strain.
When asked about their biggest challenges, fleet leaders cited cost pressures first and foremost. More than half of respondents (54.4%) pointed to rising costs as their top concern.
Regulations and emissions mandates followed at 46.1%, while 35.1% cited the transition to electric vehicles and supporting infrastructure. Technician shortages (32.5%) and parts and vehicle availability (28.9%) rounded out the list.
Taken together, the responses reflect a maintenance environment where fleets are juggling higher operating costs and tighter labor and supply constraints -- often at the same time.
Older Vehicles Driving Disproportionate Spend
One of the report’s clearest findings centers on vehicle age and its impact on maintenance budgets.
Vehicles more than 10 years old account for approximately 12.1% of total miles logged in the dataset — but consume roughly 33.5% of total service spend.
Fleetio estimates service costs average about $0.20 per mile for vehicles between zero and five years old, compared to $1.10 per mile for vehicles more than 10 years old.
That doesn’t necessarily mean older assets are a bad investment. Fleetio notes that when properly maintained, older vehicles can still make financial sense thanks to slower depreciation and deferred acquisition costs. But without tight maintenance controls, aging equipment can quickly drain budgets.
For fleet managers operating in a high-interest-rate environment, the data underscores the need for more strategic lifecycle planning. This is especially true as acquisition costs remain elevated.
Maintenance Bottlenecks Persist
The report also highlights operational friction points that can delay service and extend downtime.
Respondents cited communication gaps (31.5%), technician availability (27.4%), and unscheduled service volume (25.2%) as the leading reasons maintenance falls behind schedule.
Fleetio’s internal data shows a median time-to-start for work orders of 31 minutes, but an average of 6.7 days. This indicates that while some jobs move quickly, others linger in the queue, the company said. Those delays translate directly into asset downtime and lost productivity.
Despite these challenges, 44.3% of fleets said they perform on-time maintenance “reasonably well.” Only 9.7% reported true consistency as a clear strength.
Fleetio found that many fleets see room for improvement in maintenance execution, particularly around coordination and capacity planning.
AI Adoption Still in Early Stages
Artificial intelligence is another area where fleets are testing the waters but not diving in fully, according to the report.
Fleetio found that 53.3% of respondents said they are researching or piloting AI capabilities.
However, just 5.6% report using AI broadly across their operations.
Half of respondents cited concerns about accuracy and reliability as their primary hesitation around adoption.
That cautious approach mirrors what many fleet technology providers are seeing across the industry. There is strong interest in predictive analytics, automation and AI-driven insights, but a desire for proven, dependable tools before committing at scale.
A Data-Driven View of Fleet Operations
Fleetio positions the benchmark report as a tool to help fleets make focused, data-backed improvements.
By combining large-scale operational data with practitioner feedback, the report aims to provide context for decision-making. This includes asset replacement timing, maintenance workflows, and technology investments.
Fleetio will host a webinar panel on March 5, 2026, featuring survey respondents to discuss additional findings and outline practical steps fleets can take to strengthen operations using the data.
The full 2026 Fleet Benchmark Report & State of Fleet Management is available at fleetio.com.
