How Fleet Data Can Reveal Underused Vehicles and Equipment

Fleet vehicles and equipment can remain on a company’s asset list long after their operational role has changed. A truck may be assigned to a location where demand has declined, a service van may spend most workdays parked, or a specialized machine may be retained even though comparable equipment could handle its workload. These assets can continue generating ownership, insurance, registration, storage, and maintenance costs despite contributing relatively little to daily operations.

Fleet data helps replace assumptions with measurable evidence. By reviewing mileage, trip frequency, active days, engine hours, parking time, and visits to operational locations, businesses can identify assets that may be candidates for reassignment, sharing, replacement, or removal. This process is often called fleet rightsizing. The U.S. Department of Energy describes fleet rightsizing as evaluating fleet size and composition to maintain an appropriate vehicle inventory while reducing unnecessary fuel and maintenance costs.

What Does “Underused” Mean in Fleet Management?

An underused vehicle or piece of equipment is an asset whose recorded activity is low relative to its intended purpose, availability, operating cost, and the workload handled by comparable assets.

Low mileage alone does not prove that an asset is unnecessary. A mobile crane, generator, loader, or service truck may travel very little while performing valuable work at a fixed location. Likewise, an emergency-response vehicle or seasonal machine may need to remain available even when it is rarely dispatched.

For this reason, fleet managers should treat low activity as a signal for investigation, not an automatic recommendation to dispose of an asset. A reliable utilization review combines multiple data points with information about seasonal demand, operational risk, reserve requirements, vehicle capabilities, and future contracts.

Start with Mileage and Trip Frequency

Mileage is one of the clearest indicators of how frequently road vehicles are being used. When two similar vans serve comparable areas, but one consistently travels much less than the other, the difference may reveal an uneven workload or unnecessary vehicle capacity.

Wialon’s Trips report can display movement intervals with information such as trip beginning and end times, locations, duration, mileage, and speed. Reviewing these records over several weeks or months can help answer important questions:

• How many trips did each vehicle complete?
• On how many workdays was each vehicle active?
• How far did each vehicle travel?
• Did several vehicles repeatedly cover similar areas?
• Were some vehicles used only for occasional short trips?

Trip frequency provides context that total mileage cannot. A delivery van that completes many short urban trips may record fewer kilometres than a vehicle travelling between cities, but it may still be heavily utilized. Comparing both distance and trip count produces a more accurate picture of workload.

Use Engine Hours for Vehicles and Powered Equipment

Mileage is less useful for assets that perform work while stationary or move only short distances. Construction machinery, generators, pumps, loaders, and other powered equipment may accumulate considerable operating time without travelling far.

Wialon’s Engine Hours report shows periods of engine operation. Depending on the installed hardware and system configuration, engine hours can be calculated using supported ignition information or engine-hour sensor data.

Comparing engine hours across similar equipment can reveal important workload differences. If three comparable machines are assigned to the same type of work but one records substantially fewer operating hours, managers can investigate whether it is poorly located, seldom requested, unsuitable for current jobs, or simply unnecessary.

Engine-hour data can also prevent incorrect conclusions. A machine with almost no mileage may appear inactive in a distance-based report, while its engine-hour records show that it regularly performs stationary work. The Department of Energy similarly identifies mileage, trips, days used, and engine hours as key utilization measurements.

Examine Parking Time and Inactive Days

Long periods of parking can help reveal assets that are available but rarely dispatched. Wialon’s Parking report records intervals classified as parking, including when and where those intervals occurred.

A vehicle that remains at the company yard for most of the reporting period may deserve further review, especially if other vehicles of the same type are consistently busy. Managers can also calculate an active-day rate:

Active-day rate = days with recorded operational activity ÷ available workdays × 100

For example, if a vehicle recorded trips on only 4 of 20 available workdays, its active-day rate would be 20 percent. That figure should then be compared with similar vehicles and evaluated against the vehicle’s actual responsibilities.

The distinction between stops and parking is important. Wialon classifies them according to configured trip-detection settings, including minimum movement speed and minimum parking time. These parameters should be configured appropriately for each type of vehicle or equipment so that brief pauses are not mistaken for prolonged inactivity.

Compare Yard Time with Job-Site Activity

Location data can show whether an asset is merely travelling or actually reaching locations connected with productive work. Geofences can be created around yards, warehouses, customer properties, construction sites, or other operational areas.

A Wialon Geofences report records visits to defined areas. Depending on the report configuration, managers can review when an asset entered or exited a geofence and how long it remained there.

This information helps distinguish several different situations:

• A vehicle with low mileage but frequent customer-site visits may be efficiently serving a compact territory.
• A machine with few location changes but substantial time at active job sites may be performing valuable stationary work.
• An asset that remains at the storage yard while comparable units visit job sites regularly may be underused.
• Two vehicles repeatedly visiting the same locations at similar times may indicate an opportunity to consolidate assignments.

Geofence activity connects usage data with operational purpose. Instead of asking only whether an asset moved, managers can ask whether it was present where the work was expected to occur.

Review Historical Routes Before Drawing Conclusions

Summary figures can identify unusual patterns, but historical routes can help explain them. Wialon allows managers to display previous vehicle tracks on a map and review markers associated with recorded activity.

Route history may show that a low-mileage vehicle serves a small but essential territory, while another vehicle travels long distances because of inefficient assignment. It may also reveal that multiple assets are being dispatched from different yards to overlapping service areas.

This step is important because utilization is not simply a measure of movement. A heavily travelled vehicle is not necessarily being used efficiently, and a vehicle with limited movement is not necessarily providing limited value.

Compare Similar Assets, Not the Entire Fleet

Meaningful comparisons should be made between assets that perform similar work. A pickup truck, excavator, refrigerated van, and standby utility vehicle have different operating patterns and should not share a single utilization threshold.

Fleet managers can group assets by factors such as:

• Vehicle or equipment type
• Department or branch
• Assigned territory
• Primary task
• Payload or capability
• Seasonal role

Within each group, managers can compare mileage, trips, engine hours, active days, yard time, and job-site visits. Wialon’s dashboard can display mileage trends for selected units, helping managers see whether activity is balanced or concentrated among a small number of assets.

Relative comparisons are often more useful than a single company-wide target. If most service vans operate on 18 days per month but one operates on only five, the difference creates a clear reason to investigate.

Account for Seasonality and Operational Exceptions

A short reporting period can produce misleading results. Snow-removal equipment may be inactive during summer, landscaping assets may have limited winter use, and construction equipment may wait between project phases. A vehicle may also be temporarily inactive because of repairs, staffing shortages, or a delayed contract.

Whenever possible, businesses should review several months of information and compare equivalent periods from different seasons. Managers should also document legitimate exceptions, including:

• Emergency or reserve vehicles
• Seasonal equipment
• Specialized assets required for specific contracts
• Vehicles awaiting repair
• Newly acquired or recently reassigned assets
• Equipment held to meet regulatory or customer requirements

Operational staff and drivers should be consulted before major fleet changes. They may know why an apparently underused asset must remain available or why recorded activity does not reflect its full business value.

Turn Utilization Findings into Better Fleet Decisions

Once an asset has been confirmed as underused, the most appropriate response depends on the cause. A business might reassign it to a busier branch, place it in a shared pool, change dispatch practices, use rentals during short demand peaks, postpone a planned purchase, or dispose of surplus equipment.

The goal is not simply to reduce the number of assets. It is to maintain enough properly equipped vehicles and machines to complete the work reliably without paying for unnecessary capacity. Historical fleet data also provides evidence that can support budgeting and purchasing decisions. If workload has repeatedly been handled without using a particular asset, managers may have a stronger basis for avoiding a replacement purchase when that asset reaches the end of its service life.

After making a change, the same measurements should be reviewed again. Fleet utilization is not a one-time calculation. Customer demand, contracts, staffing, territories, and seasonal conditions change, so an efficient fleet today may become unbalanced later.

Create a Repeatable Utilization Review

Wialon reports can be configured around selected vehicles, equipment, and reporting periods. Results can also be exported in formats such as XLSX, PDF, and CSV, making it easier to compare activity, document decisions, and share findings with operations or finance teams.

A practical review may be conducted monthly for operational adjustments and quarterly or annually for purchasing and fleet-sizing decisions. Using the same asset groups, reporting periods, and evaluation criteria each time makes trends easier to recognize.

Make Every Fleet Asset Accountable

Fleet data can reveal which vehicles and equipment are working regularly, which assets are carrying most of the workload, and which ones may no longer justify their place in the fleet. By combining trip history, mileage, engine hours, parking information, geofence visits, dashboards, and exportable reports, businesses can make rightsizing decisions based on operational evidence rather than guesswork.

Forall Tracking can help your business configure Wialon tracking and reporting tools around your vehicles, equipment, locations, and utilization goals. To learn how fleet data can support better asset allocation and purchasing decisions, contact us today.