What the industry benchmarks actually say about fuel efficiency

What the industry benchmarks actually say about fuel efficiency

Benchmarking only works if you know what you are benchmarking against.

Here are documented, published fuel efficiency benchmarks for vehicle categories common to African commercial fleet operations. These are drawn from manufacturer fuel economy data, fleet management industry publications, and telematics company aggregated datasets.

Light commercial vehicles (pickups, 4x4s, 1-tonne load)

If your light commercial fleet is averaging above 14 L/100km in mixed urban/regional driving, there is a statistically significant inefficiency to investigate — most likely in driver behaviour, tyre pressure management, or vehicle load.

Medium trucks (5–10 tonne payload, rigid body)

Heavy trucks (articulated, 20–40 tonne payload)

The gap between “real-world fleet average” and “well-managed fleet benchmark” in every category above represents the recoverable inefficiency — the portion attributable to driver behaviour, maintenance condition, tyre pressure, load management, and route choice rather than the inherent physics of the vehicle.

The numbers in practice

For heavy trucks, that gap represents 5–8 litres per 100km. On a truck covering 8,000km per month, that is 400–640 litres. At $1.30 per litre: $520–$832 per truck per month. On a 20-truck fleet: $10,400–$16,640 per month in recoverable fuel spend.

These are not projected savings. These are the documented differences between average-performing and well-performing fleets operating the same vehicle types on comparable routes, measured by telematics companies including Geotab, Samsara, and MiX Telematics in their published fleet performance reports.

Your fuel consumption is measurable. The benchmark exists. The gap between where you are and where a well-managed fleet sits is almost entirely recoverable through process — not technology, not capital expenditure, not new vehicles.

Do you know your fleet’s litres-per-100km by vehicle type?

Sources

Geotab Fleet Benchmarking Report (2024); MiX Telematics Fleet Performance Data (2023); Samsara Connected Operations Report (2025); manufacturer published fuel economy specifications.