Ask two fleet managers what a truck costs and you will get two very different answers. The sticker price is public; the total cost of ownership (TCO) — what the vehicle actually costs per kilometre over its working life — is where operations are won and lost.
The big buckets
- Depreciation and financing. The gap between purchase price and residual value, spread over the holding period. Specification discipline matters: an over-specced truck depreciates just as fast as a right-specced one.
- Fuel or energy. Typically the largest single operating cost for long-haul diesel work, commonly cited in the range of a quarter to a third of total cost. Small percentage gains compound enormously at fleet scale.
- Driver costs. In most European markets this rivals or exceeds fuel. Utilisation — keeping the truck moving with a paid load — is the lever.
- Maintenance, repair and tyres. Predictable when planned, expensive when reactive. Contract maintenance converts volatility into a fixed rate. Parts sourcing strategy belongs in the same bucket — Vaden’s guide to choosing a spare parts manufacturer frames the OEM-versus-aftermarket decision well.
- Insurance, tolls and taxes. Route-dependent and increasingly emissions-dependent across Europe.
- Downtime. The invisible line item. A truck in a workshop still costs money — it just stops earning it.
Why cost per kilometre beats cost per truck
A vehicle that costs more to buy but runs more kilometres between failures, burns less fuel and holds its value can comfortably beat a cheaper truck on cost per kilometre. That is why serious buyers model the whole life: purchase, running costs, utilisation and resale — not the invoice.
The driver factor
Fleet studies consistently show double-digit differences in fuel consumption between the most and least efficient drivers on identical routes and equipment. Telematics-supported coaching is one of the cheapest TCO improvements available — no hardware on the truck changes, only behaviour.
What electrification changes
Battery-electric trucks invert the structure: capital cost is higher, while energy and maintenance costs are lower. The TCO case is strongest where daily routes are predictable, depot charging is cheap, and utilisation is high. As battery prices fall and charging networks mature, the crossover point keeps moving — which is exactly why TCO modelling, not sticker-price comparison, should drive the diesel-versus-electric decision.
Figures vary by market, duty cycle and financing terms. Use your own operational data wherever possible.
Cover photo: Andywallxyz via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
