May 1, 2026
Vehicle costs in restoration include monthly loan or lease payments, insurance, fuel, maintenance and repairs, registration, and depreciation across the company’s fleet — typically the second or third largest overhead category in a restoration company, behind facility costs and administrative salaries.
A mid-size restoration company with 8–15 service vehicles carries $15,000–$30,000 per month in vehicle overhead. That’s $180,000–$360,000 annually — often the second largest overhead line item. Despite this scale, most restoration companies manage fleet reactively: buying when needed, maintaining when something breaks, tracking costs through whatever receipts happen to arrive. Companies that manage fleet proactively reduce vehicle overhead by 15–25% without reducing service capability.
Start with a complete vehicle inventory. For each vehicle, calculate: year/make/model/mileage, monthly payment or depreciation, annual insurance cost, average monthly fuel, annual maintenance — producing a total monthly cost of ownership alongside revenue attributed to that vehicle. This reveals which vehicles are earning their keep and which are candidates for disposition or right-sizing.
Unplanned repairs are 3–4x more expensive than the same work done proactively. A preventive maintenance program requires scheduled service intervals by mileage and time, pre-trip inspection protocols, centralized maintenance records, and fleet management software (Fleetio, Samsara). The monthly software cost is typically recovered many times over in avoided repair cost.
Assign a fleet fuel card to each vehicle — cards generate transaction-level reports identifying inefficiency and enabling cost tracking without receipt management. Route optimization software reduces both fuel cost and technician non-billable time. When acquiring new vehicles, fuel efficiency should be an explicit selection criterion.
Leasing conserves capital and provides newer vehicles with warranty coverage but limits mileage and flexibility. Purchasing provides equity and flexibility but requires more upfront capital. Consult your CPA — the tax treatment of each option varies significantly.
Fleet utilization is the percentage of available vehicle-days that vehicles are actively used for revenue-generating activities versus sitting idle. Measuring utilization by vehicle reveals which vehicles in the fleet are underperforming relative to their cost.
Full-featured solutions: Fleetio, Samsara, Verizon Connect. Minimum viable: a shared spreadsheet with every vehicle, service interval, last service date, and next service due. The tool matters less than the discipline of consistent tracking.
Mike McCabe is The Profit Detective — a 36-year restoration industry veteran and Fractional Operations Manager at Floodlight Consulting Group.
Most engagements pay for themselves within the first week.