Year-end is when most building centre owners look hard at their numbers. Inventory gets counted, margins get reviewed, the accountant starts asking questions.

The fleet usually gets a glance at best. That's a mistake, because the trucks are often one of the biggest costs in the business that rarely gets measured properly. An hour spent on five numbers now can tell you which trucks to keep, which to replace, and whether to do it before your year-end.

1. Cost per kilometre for each truck

Add up everything each truck cost you this year: fuel, repairs, tires, insurance, licensing and its payment or depreciation. Divide by the kilometres it ran.

The truck with the highest number isn't necessarily the oldest one. Sometimes it's a newer truck doing the wrong job, or a truck that sits most of the week. I wrote earlier this year about a Saskatchewan dealer who found one truck costing $3.17 a kilometre. Numbers like that only show up when you do the division.

2. Repair cost trend

Compare each truck's repair costs this year to last year. A truck whose repair bill jumped 50% or more is telling you something. Repairs rarely get smaller as a truck ages.

When repairs in a year start to approach what a replacement payment would cost, it's time for a serious keep-or-replace conversation.

3. Days out of service

Count the working days each truck spent in the shop or waiting for parts. Downtime costs more than the repair: pushed deliveries, overtime on other trucks, rentals, and contractors who go elsewhere.

If you don't track this today, start in January. Even a rough count tells you which trucks you can rely on.

4. Utilization

How many days did each truck go out, and how full was it? A truck that runs two days a week, or runs half-empty most of the time, is a candidate to sell, replace with something smaller or share across stores.

A fleet that's busy every day with no slack is the opposite problem. It's one breakdown away from missing deliveries.

5. Age and kilometres against your replacement plan

List every truck with its age, kilometres and what you expect it to need in the next year. Then decide which ones you're replacing in 2027 and when.

This is the number that matters most for timing. The new federal Productivity Mega Deduction lets you write off the full cost of an eligible truck in the year it goes into service. Interest rates are rising. The 2027 emissions rules are expected to raise new diesel prices. If a truck is due for replacement, your accountant can tell you whether it makes sense to have the new one delivered before your year-end or after.

Share it with your team

Once you have the numbers, show them to your yard manager and your drivers. The people running the trucks every day usually know why one costs more than another, whether it's a route, a habit or a problem they've been nursing along. Their answers will make your replacement decisions better.

Put it in one place

All five numbers fit on one page per truck. Our fleet cost tracker does most of the math for you: cost per kilometre, fixed versus running costs, maintenance alerts and a keep-or-replace calculation.

If you'd like a copy, or want to sit down and go through your fleet before year-end, give me a call. It's one of the most useful hours you'll spend on the business this month.