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What Does Retail Fueling Cost?

THE FLEET PROBLEM

Your Employees Shouldn't Be Paid to Buy Fuel.

Every retail fueling stop consumes more than diesel. It consumes paid labor, vehicle time, administrative effort, and productive capacity before the employee gets back to the work they were hired to perform.

Paid LaborEmployees remain on the clock while traveling, waiting, and fueling.
Vehicle DowntimeRevenue-producing vehicles are unavailable while they leave the route.
Administrative TimeReceipts, fuel cards, reconciliations, and exceptions add back-office work.
Lost Productive CapacityEvery fueling trip competes with customer work, delivery time, and service capacity.

YOUR OPERATION

What Is Retail Fueling Costing Your Operation?

Annual Retail Fuel Stops1,560
Paid Fueling Hours / Year520
Equivalent 8-Hour Workdays Lost65
Estimated Labor Cost Tied to Retail Fueling$39,000
And that's only employee time.

This quick estimate does not include vehicle mileage and wear, administrative burden, fuel-card management, or lost productive capacity.

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Illustrative estimate only. Loaded labor cost is calculated using a $75/hour industry benchmark informed by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employer-compensation data for transportation and warehousing. The benchmark may be higher or lower than your actual labor cost. Estimated labor cost tied to retail fueling is not a representation or guarantee of Fleet Performance Services savings. Actual costs, operational improvements, and savings vary by customer and operation.

THE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT CHANGED

The Economics of Labor Changed.
Your Fueling Model Should Too.

The last five years changed what employee time costs, how difficult qualified people can be to replace, and how valuable productive capacity has become. Yet the traditional retail-fueling model still asks employees to leave productive work to procure fuel.

01

THE ECONOMICS CHANGED

LABOR GOT MORE EXPENSIVE.
THE OLD FUELING MODEL DIDN'T CHANGE.

Over the past five years, employers have faced pandemic disruption, inflation, wage pressure, competition for skilled workers, and rising benefit costs.

Yet many companies still use increasingly expensive employees to perform a task that produces no customer value: driving somewhere to buy fuel.

$49.04/HR1Average employer compensation in transportation and warehousing.
~5.7%2Peak year-over-year private-industry wage growth during the post-pandemic labor shock.
3.4%3Private-industry wages and salaries were still rising year over year in March 2026.
When labor was cheaper and easier to replace, inefficient fueling was easier to ignore. Today, every hour matters.

WHAT MOST FLEETS DON'T MEASURE

The pump transaction is only one part of the trip.

Paid employee timeNonproductive vehicle milesFuel-card administrationReceipt reconciliationVehicle wear and operating costLost productive capacity
02

THE LABOR MARKET CHANGED

HIRING IS HARD.
WASTING THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE IS OPTIONAL.

Employers across transportation, construction, and manufacturing continue competing for people who can operate vehicles, equipment, facilities, and customer operations.

392,0004Transportation, warehousing, and utilities job openings — June 2026.
305,0004Construction job openings — June 2026.
481,0004Manufacturing job openings — June 2026.

ANOTHER VARIABLE ENTERED THE DRIVER MARKET

Commercial-driver eligibility rules tightened in 2026.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules adopted in 2026 tightened eligibility and verification requirements for non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses, including employment-based immigration-status verification requirements.5

The rule does not itself determine a person's immigration status or work authorization. It does add another regulatory variable to the commercial-driver labor environment.

Your employees were hired to drive routes, install equipment, build projects, make deliveries, serve customers, and generate revenue.

They weren't hired to stand at a fuel pump.

REDESIGN THE FUELING MODEL

The fuel still has to move.
Your people don't.

OLD MODELMove the fleet to the fuel.
Employee
Leaves Work
Drives to Fuel
Waits
Fuels
Receipt
Returns
Fleet Performance Services MODELMove the fuel to the fleet.
Fleet Stays
Fleet Performance Services Arrives
Fuel Delivered
Delivery Verified
Digital Record
Employee Works

THE BETTER OPERATING MODEL

STOP SENDING YOUR PEOPLE TO RETAIL FUEL STATIONS.
SEND FLEET PERFORMANCE SERVICES TO YOUR FLEET.

MOVE THE FUEL. NOT THE FLEET.Find My Fueling Solution →
Sources & Context

1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 2026. Transportation and warehousing averaged $49.04 per hour in total employer compensation.

2 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index, June 2022. Private-industry wages and salaries increased 5.7% over the preceding 12 months.

3 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index, March 2026. Private-industry wages and salaries increased 3.4% year over year.

4 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, June 2026 preliminary data.

5 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Final Rule: Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Driver's Licenses, February 13, 2026.

Statistics describe broader U.S. labor-market conditions and are provided for educational context. Individual industries, employers, geographic markets, labor costs, workforce conditions, and operational results vary.