6 Ways To Cut Fuel Costs In Your Delivery Business

Fuel is expensive again. In the week of October 12, 2026, US regular gasoline averaged $4.33 a gallon and on-highway diesel averaged $6.18, according to the EIA. That's $1.27 and $2.51 more than a year earlier.

Large distributors are responding by cutting miles. UNFI runs about 2,000 delivery vehicles out of nearly 50 distribution centers, and says its fleet platform helps it "optimize delivery routes and reduce unnecessary miles" (Supply Chain Dive). UNFI also hedges its fuel costs, a financial tool outside the scope of this post. What any fleet can control is how far it drives.

The cheapest gallon is the one you never burn. Here are six ways to lower your bill.

1. Cut miles first: optimize your routes

Every mile you take out of your route plan is fuel your drivers don't burn, whether the tank holds gasoline or diesel. Route optimization uses software to plan the order of stops across all your drivers at once, within constraints like delivery time windows, vehicle capacity, and shift length.

ColdSnap Logistics runs refrigerated delivery routes across three states.

"Routific helped us save around 1,700 gallons of fuel and hold a 99% on-time rate. That reliability won us a three-year contract." — Derek Rapkin, founder, ColdSnap Logistics

MI Farm Cooperative distributes produce from 25 farms around Traverse City, Michigan, and plans its van routes with Routific.

"It's so easy for us to input the orders and then understand what is our most efficient route. We're not wasting miles on the van, we're not wasting gas, we're not wasting employee time." — Christine Straley, MI Farm Cooperative

To put a price on a mile, divide your fuel price by your vehicle's miles per gallon. At $6.18 for diesel, a truck averaging 10 mpg spends about 62 cents a mile on fuel.

💡 Pro tip: You can check for wasted miles before buying anything. With a free trial of Routific you can easily upload a day's orders, optimize routes, and see the results for yourself.

2. Drive smoother and slower

Speeding, hard acceleration, and hard braking lower fuel economy by roughly 15% to 30% at highway speeds and 10% to 40% in stop-and-go traffic, according to the US Department of Energy. Fuel economy also usually drops quickly above 50 mph, and slowing down by 5 to 10 mph can improve it by 7% to 14%.

Slower driving takes longer, so build it into the plan. Dropping from 60 to 55 mph over 100 highway miles adds about nine minutes.

Idling burns a quarter to half a gallon of fuel an hour, depending on engine size and AC use. The DOE says switching off for any stop longer than a minute saves money, assuming no more than about 10 engine starts a day. A multi-stop driver will exceed that unless the vehicle has a start-stop system, so the long waits (loading, queues, breaks) are where switching off pays.

Driver feedback devices improve fuel economy by about 3% on average, and about 10% for drivers who actively use them to save fuel. If your vehicles have them, a monthly bonus for the most fuel-efficient driver gives drivers a reason to look.

3. Keep tires and oil to spec

Three checks from the DOE's maintenance advice:

• Tire pressure: Keeping tires at the recommended pressure improves mileage by 0.6% on average, and up to 3%. Mileage drops about 0.2% for every 1 psi of under-inflation.
• Motor oil: The manufacturer's recommended grade improves mileage by 1% to 2%.
• Check engine light: It can signal a problem that reduces fuel economy, so get it looked at.

More on fleet maintenance for small delivery businesses.

4. Match the vehicle to the load

An extra 100 pounds can lower fuel economy by about 1%, according to the DOE, and the effect is bigger on smaller vehicles. An overloaded van burns more fuel on every mile. A vehicle that's too big for the job carries its own extra weight around, and can be harder to park on narrow streets.

Set load sizes and vehicle capacities in your route planner so each route fits the vehicle that drives it. In Routific, that's loads and capacities.

5. Deliver when the roads are empty

Delivering at night or early in the morning means less stop-and-go driving. In a 2020 report on city last-mile delivery, the World Economic Forum modelled night-time delivery cutting delivery costs by 28% and congestion by 15% in its most ambitious scenario. It only works where customers can receive orders outside business hours.

Toronto's Greenhouse Juice takes orders until midnight for next-day delivery, and its drivers start their optimized routes early in the morning.

6. Take the pressure off elsewhere: drivers, pricing, and pickup

Keep the drivers you have

Hiring and training new drivers costs time and money. Decent hours, scheduled breaks, and routes that are realistic and fair all help with driver retention.

Price delivery to match the cost

Same-day and next-day delivery are convenient, but not always necessary. Batching all deliveries to one area on one day, with a discount for customers who wait, cuts driving. It's also worth checking your delivery fees against what each route now costs in fuel.

Offer pickup

In-store or curbside pickup, or delivery to a locker, takes an order off the road entirely.

💡 Ready to drive fewer miles? Routific plans optimized routes for all your drivers at once, within your time windows and vehicle capacities. Start free with up to 100 orders a month.