Running an in-house delivery operation involves a long list of visible and hidden costs. The financial and operational toll adds up fast, from fuel and driver wages to vehicle depreciation and underutilized capacity.
That’s why Dispatch built the Fleet Cost Calculator.
This transparent, interactive tool helps you assess the actual cost of your final-mile deliveries and compare them against the efficiency of Dispatch’s on-demand model.
This blog will explain the core methodology behind the calculator and how it’s designed to help businesses like yours make better, data-driven decisions
What the Dispatch Calculator Measures
Our tool is based on industry benchmarks, national cost averages, and flexible inputs you can customize. It breaks down costs into five key areas:
1. Driver Employment Costs
Labor is one of the most significant and often underestimated expenses in delivery operations. This includes:
- Hourly wage (e.g., $23/hour in our default example)
- Includes payroll taxes, benefits, and admin overhead
- Assumes full work shifts, idle time, and labor-related inefficiencies
2. Fuel Usage & Mileage
Based on vehicle type, the calculator comes pre-filled with average miles per gallon (MPG), but you can edit these values to reflect your fleet’s actual performance:
- Pickup Truck: 18 MPG, Cargo Van: 12 MPG, Box Truck: 8 MPG
- Fuel price defaulted to $3.28/gallon (editable based on your ZIP code)
3. Fleet Utilization Rates
How often your vehicles are used is critical in determining overall cost-efficiency:
- Users specify what percentage of their fleet is used consistently each day
- Lower utilization increases per-delivery cost by spreading fixed costs over fewer jobs
- The tool shows how underused vehicles drain profitability
4. Routing and Volume Assumptions
Your daily delivery patterns directly impact mileage, fuel usage, and cost-per-stop. You enter:
- Number of routes per vehicle per day
- Average stops per route
- Estimated miles per route
- Weight per route
These inputs scale the cost model dynamically and show how delivery density and distance directly affect ROI.
5. Vehicle-Related Costs
Owning and operating a fleet comes with fixed vehicle expenses that persist regardless of usage:
- Assumes standard depreciation, maintenance, insurance, and lease rates
- Considers differences by vehicle class (car, pickup, van, truck)
- Helps quantify annual fixed costs even when trucks sit idle
6. Routing and Stop Density
Delivery density and route structure affect how efficiently your fleet operates and how costs scale:
- You enter stops per route and the number of routes per day
- Calculator scales costs based on workload, load size, and drop density
- Automatically calculates cost per delivery
The calculator automatically converts these into operating costs using pre-set formulas and ties them to a vehicle cost model. This helps businesses visualize how their delivery footprint affects cost-per-stop and how scaling affects ROI.
Why The Fleet Cost Calculator Is Valuable
Get Clarity on True Costs
Most businesses underestimate delivery costs by overlooking fleet idle time, variable fuel expenses, and driver inefficiencies. The calculator brings these costs to the surface.
Evaluate Strategic Scenarios
Whether you’re managing three vehicles or 300, you can model:
- What happens when route volume drops?
- How does cost change during peak season when volume increases?
- Is there ROI in outsourcing low-density or long-distance routes?
Visualize ROI from Dispatch
After running the numbers, Dispatch overlays its own pricing and routing model so you can:
- Compare estimated cost-per-delivery directly.
- Identify where on-demand delivery can lower your overall spend.
- See the impact of offloading specific routes to Dispatch.
This Is a Cost Estimation Tool
The Dispatch Fleet Cost Calculator is designed to provide estimates, not exact quotes, for your in-house delivery fleet costs and the comparative costs of using Dispatch’s on-demand delivery service. Many underlying assumptions are based on national averages and do not account for specific routes, delivery addresses, package weights, time windows, or geographic complexities.
Its primary purpose is to help you understand the full spectrum of operational costs in managing your fleet, from wages and fuel to vehicle utilization and overhead. If you’re ready to dive deeper, we recommend scheduling a strategy call so we can run a customized pricing analysis based on your actual delivery data.
Ready to Explore a More Strategic Way to Deliver?
At Dispatch, we’re more than a delivery provider; we’re a partner in helping you optimize your logistics. Whether you need full-fleet replacement or targeted support for high-cost deliveries, the calculator is your first step toward a smarter final-mile strategy. Let’s dig into your real-world costs together—route by route.