To calculate the total cost of operating each vehicle in your fleet over a given mileage, you need to consider not just the purchase price. You’ll also need to take account of the Whole Life Costs – in other words, the total costs of running and owning the vehicles.

Here’s why. Car A may seem like a bargain if it costs £1,000 less than Car B. However, if Car A then costs £3,000 more to run over a given period, when taking into account depreciation, servicing and fuel, then Car B will be the more cost-effective option.

The Whole Life Costs take into account all the related factors over the holding period: the acquisition price, level of depreciation, servicing and maintenance costs, plus running costs – including likely fuel expenditure. They’re the only accurate way of calculating the true cost of running a vehicle. Which means you need accurate Whole Life Costs if you’re to make the most cost-effective decisions when acquiring fleet vehicles.

Depreciation is one of the largest elements of Whole Life Costs, for more information on this and the other elements of Whole Life Costs please use the tabs below.

Alternatively, to calculate the total cost of operating each vehicle in your fleet, use our Whole Life Cost calculator.

Launch the Whole Life Cost calculator