Fleet asset utilization measures how frequently and how intensively a vehicle or piece of equipment is being used relative to what it was acquired to do. A vehicle that sits unused for weeks at a time while the fleet budget carries its insurance, depreciation, and maintenance costs is an underutilized asset. And in most public fleets, underutilized assets are more common than most leaders realize.
Identifying and addressing underutilization is one of the highest-leverage actions a fleet manager can take, because right-sizing a fleet reduces costs across every budget line while freeing capital for reinvestment in healthier assets.
Every vehicle on a fleet's roster carries costs regardless of whether it moves. Insurance, scheduled maintenance, registration, storage, and depreciation all continue. An underutilized asset that is not flagged and removed is effectively a recurring drain that produces no operational return.
According to the Government Fleet Management Alliance and other industry references, many public fleets carry asset counts that grew during budget-flush periods and were never reassessed when funding tightened. Fleet size expands incrementally through departmental requests, and shrinking it requires a deliberate, data-driven process that many agencies have not yet built.
Shae Davies, Fleet Manager for the City of Aurora, Colorado, offered a real-world example on the Fleet Success Show. Her fleet of approximately 3,800 assets had at least 230 vehicles showing up as underutilized, identified through fuel consumption data alone, without a full telematics platform in place. Her comment on the figure: the number is probably low.
There is a spectrum of methods available, ranging from basic to advanced.
Fuel consumption analysis is the most accessible starting point. Vehicles that show little to no fuel usage over a rolling 30, 60, or 90-day period are candidates for review. This method does not capture electric vehicles or assets used briefly and irregularly, but it gives an initial screen that most fleet management information systems can produce quickly.
Mileage and engine hours tracking moves the analysis a step further. Benchmarks vary by asset type and mission, but general thresholds for light-duty vehicles often start around 5,000 miles per year, with heavy equipment tracked by engine hours. Assets consistently falling below threshold for multiple consecutive periods warrant investigation.
Telematics provides the most granular view, capturing actual movement data, idle time, geographic range, and usage patterns. Agencies that have deployed telematics across their fleet can identify underutilization with much greater accuracy and defend the finding with a fuller data picture.
FMIS-generated reporting combines multiple data streams into utilization dashboards that fleet managers can use for ongoing monitoring. Platforms like RTA Fleet360 allow fleet leaders to track utilization patterns by asset class, department, and location, making it possible to build a defensible utilization case for rightsizing conversations with leadership.
Finding underutilized vehicles is the start of a process, not the end of one. The next steps matter.
Verify before acting. An asset that shows low fuel use may be assigned to a department that uses it for short, frequent trips, or it may be sitting idle on purpose during a seasonal work cycle. A brief operational review with the department responsible is worth doing before initiating any reassignment or disposal.
Build a consolidation or redeployment option. Underutilized vehicles can sometimes be reassigned to departments with higher demand rather than disposed of. A vehicle pulled from one unit can extend the life of a high-demand pool or support a department waiting on a replacement.
Pursue disposal for assets that cannot be redeployed. Surplus asset auctions, transfer to other agencies, and trade-in programs are all options depending on asset condition and age. The goal is to stop carrying the cost of assets that are not earning their place in the fleet.
Report the finding to leadership as a financial story. A rightsizing effort is not just an operational cleanup. It is a budget opportunity. Reducing fleet size by even 5 to 10 percent can meaningfully reduce insurance premiums, scheduled maintenance load, and storage costs. Presenting that story in dollar terms gives fleet leaders a platform for a productive budget conversation.
The ability to find, document, and act on underutilization data is one of the clearest demonstrations that fleet management is a data-driven business function, not an administrative department. Agencies that give fleet managers the tools and authority to right-size their operations on data rather than politics end up with healthier fleets, lower costs, and more defensible budget positions.
That requires treating fleet as a strategic partner in organizational planning, with access to leadership conversations about service delivery, capital planning, and fiscal responsibility.
This article was inspired by a recent episode of our podcast. Check out the full episode for even more tips and tricks: