Blog · Board and management reporting · Logistics
Compare maintenance spending, downtime and repeat repairs by vehicle from work-order exports. Follow the spreadsheet steps, reconcile costs and use mileage to make fair comparisons.
Analytical fleet maintenance management compares recorded maintenance cost, downtime and repeat repairs using work orders and vehicle usage. Start with a consistent reporting period, then calculate the measures by vehicle and reconcile them to the source totals. The result is a review list with evidence behind each vehicle's position.
Use October 2026 work orders for a US regional delivery fleet. Compare vehicles doing similar work; keep class, powertrain, age and duty cycle alongside the numbers. The Department of Energy's fleet rightsizing guidance recommends examining mileage, vehicle purpose, age and downtime when evaluating individual vehicles.
For this report, maintenance cost includes parts and labor on completed work orders. It excludes fuel, insurance, depreciation and accident repairs. Apply the same boundary to the usage comparison and to the maintenance ledger control.
A broader fleet report adds operating context.
If the export lists individual parts and labor lines, first summarize them to the work-order ID. Otherwise, a repeated header total can multiply the cost. Retain the original IDs so you can trace a summary back to its component rows.
The example uses these spreadsheet columns: A work order, B vehicle, C type, D parts, E labor, F downtime hours and G repeat flag. Enter 1 for a confirmed repeat corrective repair and 0 otherwise.
| Work order | Vehicle | Type | Parts (USD) | Labor (USD) | Downtime hours | Repeat flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WO101 | V101 | Preventive | 180 | 120 | 2 | 0 |
| WO102 | V101 | Corrective | 500 | 300 | 8 | 0 |
| WO103 | V101 | Corrective | 120 | 180 | 3 | 1 |
| WO104 | V202 | Preventive | 200 | 100 | 2 | 0 |
| WO105 | V202 | Corrective | 350 | 250 | 5 | 0 |
| Total | 1,350 | 950 | 20 | 1 |
WO103 is a second brake repair on V101 within this fleet's chosen 30-day repeat-review window. The maintenance supervisor confirmed the connection to WO102 from the recorded component and work description. Review prior-period orders when applying that window near the period boundary.
In H2, calculate work-order cost and fill down through H6:
=D2+E2
Keep downtime separate from billed labor hours. For this report it means scheduled operating hours when the vehicle was unavailable. Merge overlapping repair intervals before summing them, and exclude hours outside the operating schedule.
Use a separate summary sheet, rather than repeating mileage on every work order. In columns A through D, enter vehicle, period miles, scheduled operating hours and maintenance cost. The usage rows supplied by the fleet manager are:
| Vehicle | October miles | Scheduled operating hours |
|---|---|---|
| V101 | 4,000 | 160 |
| V202 | 6,000 | 160 |
| Total | 10,000 | 320 |
Check odometer readings for replacements, reversals and missing entries. A vehicle with no recorded miles needs an exception label; dividing by zero must not turn its maintenance cost into an apparent zero.
In D2 of the summary sheet, sum work-order costs for the vehicle in A2:
=SUMIFS(Orders!$H$2:$H$6,Orders!$B$2:$B$6,A2)
In E2, sum downtime. In F2, count corrective orders. In G2, sum confirmed repeat flags:
=SUMIFS(Orders!$F$2:$F$6,Orders!$B$2:$B$6,A2)
=COUNTIFS(Orders!$B$2:$B$6,A2,Orders!$C$2:$C$6,"Corrective")
=SUMIFS(Orders!$G$2:$G$6,Orders!$B$2:$B$6,A2)
Name the source sheet Orders; expand ranges and copy formulas for your export.
In H2, I2 and J2 respectively, calculate maintenance cost per mile, downtime share and repeat corrective-repair share:
=IF(B2=0,"",D2/B2)
=IF(C2=0,"",E2/C2)
=IF(F2=0,"",G2/F2)
Format H as currency and I and J as percentages. The denominators differ deliberately: miles measure usage, scheduled hours measure availability, and corrective orders measure the repeat-repair population.
| Vehicle | Cost (USD) | Downtime hours | Corrective orders | Repeats | Cost/mile (USD) | Downtime share | Repeat share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V101 | 1,400 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 0.35 | 8.1% | 50.0% |
| V202 | 900 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0.15 | 4.4% | 0.0% |
| Fleet | 2,300 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 0.23 | 6.3% | 33.3% |
Ratios use unrounded inputs. Cost per mile is shown to two decimals and percentages to one decimal, with halfway values rounded up. For example, V101 downtime is 13 / 160 = 8.125%, displayed as 8.1%.
The fleet ratios divide totals: 2,300 / 10,000 = $0.23 per mile; 20 / 320 = 6.25% downtime; and 1 / 3 = 33.3% repeat corrective work. Averaging vehicle cost-per-mile figures would give ($0.35 + $0.15) / 2 = $0.25, which overweights the lower-mileage vehicle.
Parts of $1,350 plus labor of $950 must equal the $2,300 work-order cost total. That must equal $1,400 + $900 in the vehicle summary. Reconcile it to the ledger for the same completed-order population, explaining accruals, unposted invoices and credits separately.
V101 warrants review because its cost per mile, downtime share and repeat share all exceed V202's. The maintenance supervisor should inspect the brake repair sequence; finance should confirm credits and compare the longer cost history. Use cost variance analysis for a separate comparison against an approved budget.
Do not compare unlike powertrains without context. The Department of Energy's maintenance comparison explains that all-electric vehicles generally require less maintenance than conventional vehicles because they have fewer moving parts and fewer fluids to change.
Bring your work-order export and a vehicle usage sheet for the same period. Covirage maps the columns, and its tools compute and check maintenance cost, downtime and repeat-work comparisons; the external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account and bring a sample of your own files.
See Covirage for shipping and logistics teams for the business context.
Start with a work-order export containing vehicle IDs, dates, repair categories, costs and downtime. Add a vehicle usage sheet with mileage and scheduled operating hours for the same period. A maintenance ledger export provides the independent check on recorded spending.
Divide maintenance costs for the reporting period by miles traveled during that period. Define whether the cost includes internal labor, outside repairs, parts and credits. For the fleet total, divide summed costs by summed miles rather than averaging vehicle ratios.
Use a written rule, such as another corrective repair on the same vehicle and component within a defined review window. Confirm the connection from work-order notes. A later unrelated repair is not a repeat merely because it concerns the same vehicle.
It identifies a vehicle for review, but does not establish the replacement decision. Consider duty cycle, age, warranty credits, replacement cost and operational need. A major repair in one short period can distort the ratio, so inspect a longer history before deciding.