Fuel remains the single largest line item in most fleet operating budgets. The 2024 Fleetio Benchmarking Report found that fuel accounts for roughly 50% of total fleet costs, and with diesel averaging $3.70 per gallon throughout 2024, a fleet of forty trucks easily burns through six figures in fuel every month. Most of that spending is necessary, but a meaningful percentage leaks out through inefficiency, unauthorized purchases, and poor fueling habits that nobody tracks closely enough to fix. Fleet managers who want to reduce these expenses need tools that bring real cost visibility to every gallon purchased. The Citgo fleet card for fuel management gives businesses transaction-level data, purchase controls, and reporting dashboards that make excess spending visible and correctable.
Where fleet fuel dollars actually go
Breaking down fuel expenses reveals multiple layers of cost beyond the price at the pump. Route selection affects per-mile consumption. Driver behavior, including hard acceleration, speeding, and excessive idling, increases fuel burn per trip. Vehicle condition plays a direct role: underinflated tires, dirty air filters, and deferred engine maintenance all reduce fuel efficiency.
The 2024 NACFE Fleet Fuel Study documented these effects across dozens of fleets representing roughly 75,000 trucks. Top-performing fleets averaged 7.77 MPG, a 2.0% year-over-year gain. The national average sits closer to 6.9 MPG. That gap between best-in-class and average performance represents thousands of dollars per truck annually in wasted fuel.
All-in trucking costs hit $2.26 per mile in 2024, holding essentially flat from 2023. Non-fuel operating costs rose 3.6%, meaning fuel efficiency gains offset increases elsewhere. For fleet operators, that context makes fuel optimization one of the most direct paths to protecting already-thin margins.
Driver controls that reduce overspending
Uncontrolled fuel spending creates invisible budget pressure. Without limits, drivers choose the most convenient station regardless of price. Some fuel up more often than necessary. Others purchase premium grades when regular meets the vehicle’s specifications.
Fleet cards let managers set restrictions that guide spending without micromanaging daily operations. Per-transaction caps prevent oversized purchases. Fuel grade restrictions keep drivers buying the correct product. Daily transaction limits stop excessive fill-ups. Station network restrictions eliminate purchases at overpriced locations.
These controls work passively. Drivers following normal procedures never encounter a declined transaction. The system only intervenes when someone attempts a purchase outside defined parameters. This approach preserves driver autonomy on routine fill-ups while catching the exceptions that inflate monthly fuel expenses. The result is a spending framework that operates continuously without requiring manager review of every individual receipt. It also adds a layer of security: unauthorized transactions never process, so the risk of fraud stays low without adding convenience barriers for compliant drivers.
Fuel tracking that catches problems early
Paper receipts and credit card statements tell you what was spent after the fact. They do not tell you whether that spending was efficient. Fleet fuel cards close this gap by recording detailed data at every transaction: gallons pumped, fuel type, price, station location, driver ID, vehicle number, and odometer reading.
When this data flows into a dashboard, patterns become clear. A vehicle consuming 15% more fuel than its fleet average stands out immediately. A driver regularly fueling at premium prices at off-network stations triggers a flag. A sudden change in one truck’s consumption rate could indicate a mechanical issue that, left unaddressed, will cost far more in repairs than in diesel.
NACFE’s benchmark fleets achieved $5,178 in annual fuel savings per truck by combining tracking data with efficiency improvements. That figure used 2021 diesel prices of $3.29 per gallon. At 2024 prices, savings climb even higher for each of those vehicles. The key is consistent monitoring rather than periodic spot checks, which miss the gradual creep of inefficiency over weeks and months. Fleet managers who optimize fueling habits and track transactions at this level of detail build solutions that reduce costs year after year.
Strategic purchasing across the right stations
Where drivers fuel up affects the per-gallon cost. Prices at stations along major interstates often run 10 to 30 cents higher per gallon than stations a few exits off the highway. A fleet card tied to a specific network steers drivers toward partner stations where negotiated discounts apply.
Volume-based rebate structures reward consistent purchasing. Fleets that consolidate fill-ups at approved network locations accumulate rebates that reduce the effective cost per gallon over time. For a fleet buying 20,000 gallons per month, even a five-cent-per-gallon rebate returns $1,000 monthly, or $12,000 over a year.
The station network should match the fleet’s operating territory. Regional fleets with predictable routes benefit most from branded programs that offer deeper discounts at specific locations. Broader operations need universal access to avoid sending drivers on detours that burn additional fuel just to reach an approved station. Evaluating network fit is a straightforward exercise: map your most common routes against the card program’s station locations and calculate whether detour costs outweigh per-gallon savings.
Reporting that connects fuel to routes and revenue
Raw transaction data becomes a management tool when organized by the right categories. Fleet card reports break down costs by vehicle, driver, department, route, and time period. This structure lets managers compare fuel costs against revenue generated on each route to identify which runs operate at acceptable margins and which consume disproportionate resources.
Connecting fuel card data with telematics produces sharper analysis. GPS records show the actual path driven while fuel data shows the resources consumed. When a driver takes a longer route that adds fifteen miles and three extra gallons per trip, the combined data quantifies the cost of that deviation in specific dollar amounts.
The Verizon Connect 2024 Fleet Technology Trends report found that 55% of surveyed fleets reported reduced fuel costs after adopting telematics and route optimization. Fuel cards contribute the spending data that makes those optimizations measurable. Without accurate purchase records, managers are working with estimates rather than confirmed expenses.
Building a fuel reduction plan with lasting impact
Fuel cost reduction is not a one-time project. Prices shift, routes change, and driver rosters turn over. The fleets that sustain lower fuel expenses treat monitoring as a continuous process rather than a quarterly review.
Fleet cards provide the infrastructure for that ongoing effort. Monthly reports establish baselines. Cost-per-mile calculations track trends over time. Driver-level data supports coaching conversations grounded in specific numbers rather than general feedback. Station-level pricing data informs network decisions as contracts come up for renewal. Technology adoption across the trucking industry has risen from 17% in 2003 to 42% in 2023, according to NACFE. Fleets at the leading edge of that curve consistently report better fuel efficiency and lower per-mile costs. The combination of fleet cards, telematics, and route planning creates a system where every fueling decision feeds back into improved operations across the business. Each data point strengthens the baseline, making future forecasts more accurate and future savings easier to identify
