Data from Fleetio highlights the most common fleet maintenance services and their cost composition for 2024–2025. Tire replacements remain the most expensive, while towing and roadside assistance show the highest quarterly cost increases, driven largely by labor intensity.
Image: Automotive Fleet
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Data from Fleetio highlights the most frequently performed fleet maintenance activities, highlighting key cost and labor patterns. The data covers these maintenance categories: DOT inspection, engine and air filter replacement, engine oil & filter replacement, fuel filter replacement, tire replacement, and towing/roadside assistance.
For these categories, costs have remained largely stable throughout the 2024–2025 period. However, key service categories continue to show meaningful variation in both cost structure and labor intensity. Tire replacement remains the most expensive routine service for fleets.
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From a cost composition perspective, services can be categorized into labor-driven and parts-driven
DOT inspections and towing are primarily labor driven, with labor accounting for more than 80% of the total cost. In contrast, tire replacement is about 90% parts, while oil and filter services maintain a balanced cost split between labor and materials.
Photo: Fleetio
categories. DOT inspections and towing are almost entirely labor-dependent — labor accounts for more than 80% of total cost — while tire replacement is about 90% parts, illustrating how materials, rather than time, drive cost increases.
Services such as oil and filter replacements fall in the middle, with a near-even split between parts and labor. This balance indicates efficiency gains from standardized processes; however, these categories still represent a significant portion of annual maintenance budgets due to their frequency.
Quarter-over-quarter comparisons reveal moderate volatility, with towing and roadside assistance showing the sharpest increases, averaging a 4.2% rise per quarter. That uptick aligns with inflationary trends in field labor and rising dispatch costs. By contrast, DOT inspections and engine oil changes have seen minimal movement, underscoring the relative predictability of standardized preventive maintenance tasks.
Together, these patterns suggest that fleets will continue to manage a dual challenge: inflation in parts-intensive categories and time-based labor costs in service-heavy ones.
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Average Quarter-over-Quarter Change in Service Cost (2024-2025)
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