Running cost per truck from your ledger
How a transporter sees each truck's running costs in its own ledger, using accounts per truck or fleet group, budgets and the lines behind them.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Every fleet has a truck the drivers quietly avoid. It is always in the workshop, it drinks more diesel than its sister units, and it has needed a full set of tyres twice this year. The owner suspects it costs more than it earns, but the books show only "Fuel", "Tyres" and "Repairs" for the whole fleet, so the suspicion never becomes a number.
Knowing what each truck costs to run is what lets a transporter price lanes properly, decide when to replace a unit, and spot a problem before it eats a contract's margin. This article explains how a transport business in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya can get that view from its own Achekam ledger, without a separate fleet system.
Accounts per truck or per fleet group
Each business has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts, and accounts can be added, renamed or switched off. The simplest way to see cost per truck is to give the big running costs an account per truck.
Not every cost needs splitting. Three tend to vary most between units:
- fuel;
- tyres;
- repairs and maintenance.
Insurance, licences and tracking fees are usually similar per truck and can stay pooled, or be shared out once a year for analysis.
| Approach | Accounts | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Per truck | Fuel, tyres and repairs for each registration | Fleets of a handful of trucks, or owners deciding about specific units |
| Per fleet group | The same costs per group, such as long-haul, local distribution, tippers | Larger fleets where units in a group do similar work |
| Mixed | Per group, plus per truck for units under review | A fleet with one or two problem trucks |
Name accounts with the registration number, because that is what appears on fuel slips and workshop invoices: "Fuel: [registration]", "Tyres: [registration]". When a truck is sold, switch its accounts off rather than deleting them, so last year's figures still report.
Posting fuel, tyres and repairs to the right truck
Accounts per truck are only as good as the postings. The weak point is usually the supplier bill or the uploaded slip.
A business records supplier bills line by line with VAT, so a workshop invoice covering two trucks can be split across both trucks' repair accounts. Ask workshops and tyre suppliers to show the registration on every invoice line; most will, if asked. Fuel cards and depot accounts often list each fill by registration too.
Slips and invoices uploaded to Financial Intake become suggested postings. AI can suggest, but only a person approves and posts, and that person must check the account as well as the amount. A fuel slip posted to the wrong truck makes two trucks' figures wrong. If your drivers fill up with cash, have them write the registration on each slip before handing it in.
Budgets per account and period
A business can set a budget per account and period and compare it with actual figures from its ledger. With per-truck accounts, that becomes a running-cost budget per truck.
Base each truck's budget on what it is expected to do, not on last year's average. A truck on a long-haul lane will burn more fuel than one on local deliveries, and a unit due for a major service will have a high repair month. The ACCA's article on budgeting explains flexible budgeting and how fixed and variable costs are budgeted across different levels of activity, which is exactly the problem with trucks whose kilometres change month to month.
Compare budget and actual monthly. A truck that is consistently over on repairs is telling you something; a truck over on fuel may be telling you about the driver, the route or a fault.
The ledger lines behind each figure
Management accounts show an income statement for a chosen period beside the period before, added up from the business's journals and exportable as PDF or CSV. With per-truck accounts, each truck's fuel, tyres and repairs appear as their own lines, this month against last month.
When a figure looks wrong, go to the detail. The general ledger lists every posted line, so you can open "Repairs: [registration]" and see each invoice behind the month's total: which workshop, which date, which job. The trial balance shows each account for all time, for a period or at a date, which helps with the bigger question: what has this truck cost since it was bought?
Nigerian and Kenyan transporters should note that the ledger screens currently show every amount in rand and the chart is stored in ZAR, so label exported reports in naira or shillings.
To complete the picture, add each truck's depreciation, which is covered in depreciating a transport fleet, and compare the total with the revenue the truck earned.
When per-truck accounts are worth the effort
Per-truck accounts cost effort every month: more accounts to choose from, more care at capture, more lines to read. They are worth it when:
- you are deciding whether to replace or sell a specific truck;
- you price lanes or contracts and need real costs per unit;
- one or two trucks seem to cost much more than the rest;
- drivers are assigned to specific trucks and you want to compare;
- a lender or investor asks for fleet economics.
For a fleet where every unit does similar work and none is under review, fleet-group accounts give most of the insight for a fraction of the effort. When the fleet's total fuel bill suddenly jumps, tracing a jump in fuel costs shows how to find the cause in the ledger.
Start small: pick the three trucks you have doubts about, give them their own fuel, tyre and repair accounts from next month, and compare them with the rest of the fleet after a quarter.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
