If you run trucks for a living, you already know this: the vehicles don’t manage themselves.
Behind every on-time delivery, every safe trip, and every compliant logbook, there’s usually one person quietly pulling the strings in the background... the fleet manager.
Whether you’re thinking about stepping into that role, hiring for it, or just trying to understand what your fleet manager actually does all day, this guide will walk through the core responsibilities in plain language.
A fleet manager is the person responsible for everything related to a company’s vehicles and the people who drive them.
They’re the bridge between drivers, maintenance, dispatch, safety, and leadership. One day they might be negotiating a truck purchase. The next, they’re dealing with a breakdown, reviewing fuel reports, and answering questions about Hours-of-Service.
At a high level, a fleet manager’s job is simple to describe but complicated to do:
Everything else rolls up to those four goals.
One big part of the job is managing the vehicles themselves.
A fleet manager helps decide what vehicles the business should run. That means thinking about:
The wrong spec costs money every mile it runs. The right spec holds value, performs better, and keeps drivers happier.
Once the trucks are in service, the next job is keeping them there.
Fleet managers set preventive maintenance schedules based on the manufacturer’s recommendations, operating conditions, and past experience. They decide when trucks come into the shop, which repairs can wait, and when a truck needs to be sidelined before it fails on the road.
They work with in-house technicians, driver DVIR data, outside shops, or all of the above. And they’re responsible for making sure every service is documented and easy to pull if there’s ever a question about safety or compliance.
Eventually every vehicle hits a point where it costs more to keep it on the road than to replace it.
A fleet manager watches mileage, repair costs, and downtime to decide when to cycle a unit out. They also keep an eye on the market so they can time disposals and replacements intelligently, not reactively.
Fleet management is not just about machines. It’s just as much about people.
Fleet managers often work closely with HR or safety teams to bring on new drivers. That may include reviewing applications, sitting in on interviews, or designing onboarding checklists.
They help make sure new drivers understand:
Getting this right at the start can prevent a lot of headaches down the road.
Once drivers are on the team, the fleet manager makes sure work is assigned in a fair and efficient way.
They balance customer expectations, Hours-of-Service limits, and home-time needs. They work with dispatch to design routes that make sense, avoid unnecessary empty miles, and match the right driver and truck to the right job.
If a load falls through, weather hits, or a truck breaks down, the fleet manager is usually in the middle of the scramble to adjust.
Modern fleets use telematics, dashcams, and ELD data to understand how trucks are being driven.
A good fleet manager doesn’t just use that information to catch mistakes. They also use it to coach drivers, recognize good performance, and spot patterns that might indicate fatigue or bad routes.
They stay in regular contact with drivers, listen to feedback about equipment and schedules, and try to solve problems before they turn into turnover.
Fleet managers have a huge influence on costs, even if they’re not the ones signing the checks.
Every mile costs something — fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance, tolls, permits, and more.
A fleet manager watches all of these line items, not just as separate bills, but as part of a bigger picture: cost per mile and total cost of ownership.
They look for trends like:
Those trends guide decisions on specs, vendors, driver assignments, and policies.
Fuel is usually one of the biggest expenses in the trucking industry.
Fleet managers work to control it by:
They may also watch for signs of fuel theft or card misuse and tighten controls when needed.
Leadership wants to know what the fleet costs and why.
Fleet managers help build budgets for fuel, maintenance, equipment, and technology. They review actuals against those budgets and explain what changed. Maybe fuel spiked, parts prices went up, or a new contract increased miles.
They also bring recommendations back to leadership: “If we invest in X, we can save Y over the next year.”
If something goes wrong on the road, regulators and insurance companies will want answers. A big part of the fleet manager’s job is making sure those answers exist.
Fleet managers help ensure:
They keep an eye on CSA safety scores and violations and work with drivers and dispatch to keep those metrics trending in the right direction.
When there’s an audit, the clock starts ticking.
Maintenance records, inspection reports, accident files, logs, fuel receipts, and IFTA data all need to be organized and accessible.
The fleet manager is usually the person who designs the system for managing those records, whether it’s all digital or a mix of paper and software.
Ultimately, fleet managers are one of the first lines of defense against accidents, lawsuits, and reputation damage.
They:
Their decisions influence insurance premiums, customer trust, and driver retention.
In the past, fleets ran on clipboards, phone calls, and a lot of memory. Today, they run on data.
Most fleets now rely on some combination of:
A fleet manager’s job is to bring those tools together into something usable, not just “more screens.”
They decide which tools to adopt, how to roll them out to drivers and office staff, and which metrics actually matter for their operation.
Data on its own doesn’t fix problems. The fleet manager has to interpret it.
They might use reports and dashboards to answer questions like:
The best fleet managers don’t just look at reports. They use them to change policies, adjust routes, fine-tune PM schedules, or build new training.
No two days look exactly the same, but there are patterns.
Morning might start with overnight alerts, emails from drivers, and a quick scan of dashboard notifications: any violations, breakdowns, or accidents?
Midday often means fielding calls from shops, vendors, and drivers, approving repairs, and juggling schedules after a truck goes down or a customer changes a delivery time.
Afternoon might shift toward analysis and planning: reviewing fuel and maintenance reports, checking upcoming renewal dates, and preparing updates for leadership on costs, safety, and performance.
In between all of that, things go wrong. Weather rolls in, a driver gets sick, a part is backordered, a customer needs a hot shot load. The fleet manager is usually the one connecting all the dots to keep the fleet moving.
It’s a high-responsibility job, but when it’s done well, a lot of problems never reach the surface.
The job calls for a mix of technical knowledge and people skills.
Good fleet managers tend to be:
They have to think in the short term (“How do we get this load covered today?”) and the long term (“What will our fleet look like in three years?”).
Fleet managers are under more pressure than ever: higher equipment costs, more regulations, tight margins, and driver shortages.
Some of the biggest challenges include:
This is where modern fleet technology, used well, becomes more than “just another system.”
Tools like ELDs reduce paperwork and give accurate HOS and DVIR data to work with. Dashcams provide context around incidents and help with coaching and claims.
Onboard air scales cut down overweight tickets and wasted trips to the scale. Automated IFTA reporting saves hours every quarter and reduces mistakes.
Fleet visibility platforms pull GPS, hours, and load information into one place so managers can see what’s happening and react quickly.
When these tools are integrated instead of scattered, they help fleet managers work smarter, not just harder. They don’t replace the role, they give fleet managers better information to do what they already do best: protect drivers, control costs, and keep freight moving safely.
A good fleet manager is more than “the person who handles the trucks.” They’re a central part of how the business runs.
When they have clear responsibilities, solid processes, good people, and the right technology behind them, the whole fleet feels the difference on the road, in the shop, and on the bottom line.
A fleet manager monitors vehicle status, checks driver logs and safety alerts, reviews maintenance needs, responds to issues on the road, assigns routes, and coordinates repairs. They also spend part of the day analyzing data, handling paperwork, and communicating with drivers, shops, and leadership.
They oversee vehicle maintenance, driver scheduling, safety, route planning, cost control, compliance, and record-keeping. Their job is to keep trucks safe, drivers supported, and operations efficient.
Small fleets sometimes share the role between owners, dispatchers, or safety managers. Once a fleet grows, a dedicated fleet manager becomes essential to avoid compliance issues, downtime, and preventable costs.
Strong communication, time management, knowledge of vehicle maintenance, comfort with software and data, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. A good fleet manager supports drivers and uses data to guide decisions.
Usually yes. They help determine who runs which loads, how routes are structured, and how to balance productivity with safety and Hours-of-Service requirements.
They optimize routes, enforce reduced idling, review fuel cards, plan preventive maintenance, monitor telematics data, and address problems early before they become expensive breakdowns.
Most use a combination of ELDs, dashcams, GPS tracking, fleet visibility platforms, maintenance software, and tools that automate IFTA and fuel tracking.
They use ELDs for HOS, DVIRs for pre-trip/post-trip inspections, log accuracy, GPS for real-time locations and route analysis, and dashcams for coaching, verifying incidents, and improving safety. Together, these create a full picture of driver behavior and vehicle performance.
Higher fuel and equipment costs, driver shortages, compliance changes, more data to interpret, and the constant pressure to reduce downtime while keeping safety first.
Most start as drivers, technicians, dispatchers, or admin staff in transportation. Experience with fleet operations, strong organizational skills, and knowledge of safety and maintenance are key. Certifications like ASE or CAFM also help.