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Right-Sizing Your Work Truck: How Fleets Stop Paying for Fear
Why duty cycle—not worst-case thinking—drives cost, uptime, and ROI
Leyhan Hansen & Omar B. Sandlin
January 21, 2026
Right-Sizing Your Work Truck the Smart Way
I’m already staring at the spec sheet when someone says it:
“Let’s size it up—just to be safe.”
I’ve heard that line in fleet offices, municipal bid reviews, and pre-PO calls more times than I can count. It sounds responsible. Conservative. Safe.
In reality, it’s one of the most expensive phrases in fleet truck specification.
Right-sizing a work truck isn’t about building for fear, hypotheticals, or five bad days a year. It’s about matching the truck to how it actually works—day after day—so fleets stop paying higher fuel consumption, unnecessary maintenance, and lost payload for capacity they rarely use.
To unpack what work truck right sizing really means in 2026, I worked with Omar B. Sandlin, a 30-year industry veteran who has lived on every side of this decision—ICE fleets, EV deployments, and vehicle reman programs.
Where Fleet Truck Right-Sizing Fails Most Often
According to Omar, the biggest mistake isn’t oversizing or undersizing by itself.
“The most common problem is mismatching the truck to the actual duty cycle, followed by oversizing.”
That distinction matters.
Most right-sizing failures don’t come from bad trucks or the wrong full-size chassis. They come from truck duty cycle analysis that never happened.
What fleets often miss:
Average vs. maximum payload
Stop frequency
Idle time vs. PTO time
Terrain (flat, hilly, urban congestion)
Route length and return-to-base frequency
Real usage patterns across the week
When those factors aren’t understood, fleet vehicles get spec’d for peak or hypothetical use—not daily reality.
The result shows up fast:
Excess fuel burn and higher fuel consumption
Accelerated component wear
Lower uptime and higher preventive maintenance cost
Truck drivers fighting the truck instead of working with it
This is how fleet truck right sizing quietly turns into oversized work truck problems that inflate cents per mile without triggering an obvious failure.
Watch the First Work Truck Upfit Industry Brief Video
The first episode of The Upfit Insider: Work Truck Upfit Industry Brief breaks down the industry moves most fleets don’t see coming—and why they matter before specs, budgets, and uptime are locked in.
The first episode of The Upfit Insider: Work Truck Upfit Industry Brief is now live:
This recurring briefing is built for fleet buyers, upfit managers, and decision-makers who want to understand where the market is moving before it hits specs, lead times, and service schedules.
In this episode, you’ll see:
Industry moves most fleets don’t hear about until it’s too late
Why certain upfit and supplier decisions quietly outperform others
How these shifts affect specs, installs, delivery timing, and uptime
If you manage heavy-duty fleet vehicles or need to size your fleet more precisely, this series helps you see around corners before money moves.
Buying Trucks for Peak Demand: The Hidden Cost
Omar doesn’t sugarcoat how common this is.
“Across municipal, utility, and private fleets, roughly 60–80% of trucks are spec’d for peak or ‘what-if’ scenarios rather than daily operating reality.”
Most of those trucks operate at 50–70% of their designed capacity on an average day.
That decision creates compounding cost across the truck’s life:
Upfront overspec: $15,000–$40,000
Fuel penalty: $20,000–$35,000
Maintenance impact: $10,000–$25,000
Legal payload loss: 1,000–3,000 lbs per truck
Total cost: $65,000–$150,000 per unit
This is classic truck overspec cost—and it shows up as:
Truck underutilization
Higher fleet truck operating cost
More trips per route
Lower cost-effective performance per ton
For a deeper look at how spec mistakes surface after the PO, see
👉 OEM Upfit Integration Problems: Why Fleets Pay After the PO
Oversized vs. Undersized Work Truck Issues
Oversized Work Truck Problems
Oversizing is usually driven by risk avoidance:
“We don’t want to be short on capacity”
Specs written by committee
Fear of complaints
But oversized trucks:
Lose legal payload
Burn more fuel even when lightly loaded
Create aftertreatment issues from low thermal load
Increase driver fatigue in tight routes—especially with crew cab or long wheelbase builds
Ironically, they often move less material per dollar and are less fuel efficient than properly sized units.
Undersized Work Truck Issues
Undersizing is less common—but more painful when it happens.
It shows up as:
Extra dumps
Route overruns
Missed pickups
Emergency rentals
Fleets feel undersizing immediately, so it gets corrected faster. Oversizing quietly cuts costs in reverse—bleeding budgets for years.
How “Right-Sized” Changed: ICE, EV, and Reman
Ten years ago, right-sized meant:
“Can it handle the worst day?”
Today, that definition doesn’t survive cost scrutiny.
ICE Fleets
Right-sized now means:
Smaller engines with smarter gearing
Balanced axles and lighter frames
Thermal efficiency over raw horsepower or towing capacity
Oversizing is no longer a safety net—it’s a reliability risk that drives higher cents per mile.
EV Work Truck Sizing
EVs forced discipline overnight.
Battery weight, range, and duty cycle are inseparable.
“Every extra pound, stop, and inefficiency has a measurable cost.”
That’s why many EV fleets are better right-sized on day one than legacy ICE fleets.
Remanufactured Work Trucks
In fleet reman strategy, right-sizing becomes intentional correction.
“What does this truck need to be for the next 5–7 years—not what it was built to be 12 years ago?”
This is where reman programs unlock real cost savings by fixing original spec mistakes instead of repeating them.
Early Signs a Truck Is the Wrong Size
Wrong-sized trucks rarely fail catastrophically.
“They fail economically.”
Watch for:
Chronic under-utilization (below 60–70% payload)
Frequent regens and “ghost” maintenance issues
Route creep and missed pickups
Driver workarounds
EV range anxiety where models said it should work
Telematics usually confirms the problem within 60–90 days.
When caught early, fleets still have options:
Fleet route optimization
Operational changes
Retrofit or re-configuration
Reman or redeployment
For cost control once a truck is already in service, see
👉 How to Handle Work Truck Repair Costs Before They Handle You
The One Question Fleets Should Ask Before Signing
If a buyer could ask only one question, Omar is clear:
“On an average day—not a worst day—will this truck operate in its most efficient performance band for most of its life?”
That question forces real answers about:
Average payload
Route length
Stop count
Terrain
Real compaction behavior
If the answer relies on hypotheticals, the truck isn’t right-sized.
For buyers unfamiliar with how job-ready fleet vehicles are actually built, this guide helps:
👉 What Is an Upfitter? How Work Truck Upfitters Build Job-Ready Vehicles
About Omar B. Sandlin
Omar B. Sandlin brings more than 30 years of hands-on experience across commercial vehicles, upfitting, electrification, and vehicle remanufacturing. His career spans leadership roles across cranes, bodies, electric platforms, switching systems, and lifecycle programs—giving him a rare, system-level view of how trucks perform long after delivery.
He’s known for helping fleets size vehicles based on real usage patterns, not fear-based assumptions—reducing lifetime operating cost, improving reliability, and extending asset value through smarter sizing and smarter resets.
FAQ
What is work truck right sizing?
Work truck right sizing means matching the truck, body, and systems to real daily duty cycles—not peak or hypothetical use—to reduce total cost of ownership.
Why do fleets buy trucks for peak demand?
Risk avoidance, legacy specs, and procurement pressure often push fleets to overspec for rare worst-case days.
How does oversizing affect fleet operating cost?
Oversizing increases fuel consumption, preventive maintenance cost, legal payload loss, and downtime—often adding $65K–$150K per truck.
Are EV work trucks harder to right-size?
EVs demand precision. Range, weight, and duty cycle must align, making poor sizing mistakes visible immediately.
Can remanufactured work trucks be right-sized?
Yes. Reman programs allow fleets to correct original spec mistakes and realign assets to current operations.
Wrap-Up
Right-sizing isn’t about buying a truck that can handle everything.
It’s about buying a truck that thrives on normal days—and survives peak days through strategy, not brute force.
Before the next PO goes out, ask yourself:
What’s the most expensive truck decision you’ve had to live with?
—
Leyhan
Founder, The Upfit Insider
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