Al-Rabita Land Transport: Cutting cost per kilometer by 28% across a 60-truck fleet
Trip expenses, commissions, fuel, and maintenance for a 60-truck fleet ran on disconnected files — trips returned losses nobody noticed while driver commissions were settled manually each month amid constant disputes. We implemented an integrated land-transport system computing profitability per trip, route, and contract, with maintenance linked to odometers.
28%
Reduction in cost per operating kilometer
60
Trucks tracked down to the liter and kilometer
100%
Accuracy in driver commission settlement
Background
Al-Rabita has hauled freight between cities and ports for over twenty years, operating a sixty-truck fleet on fixed transport contracts with factories and ports alongside variable loads booked through the freight market. Drivers work on a commission system tied to trips and distance, and the company runs two workshops for preventive and corrective maintenance. The fleet grew gradually from ten trucks, but its management still rested on trip sheets drivers returned and a manual settlement office recording everything after the fact.
The challenge
Drivers collected trip expenses in cash before departure — diesel, tolls, road fees, and allowances — with the paperwork reaching the office days or weeks later, if at all. Nobody ever knew a specific trip's margin at any moment; some routes were returning losses swallowed by blended average revenue. Preventive maintenance ran on supervisors' memory and whiteboard notes, so catastrophic breakdowns kept recurring. Settling sixty drivers' commissions was a spreadsheet consuming two days a month and igniting endless disputes, each party armed with its own numbers.
The solution
We deployed a trip system giving every trip a pre-approved electronic card: contract or spot-market rate, planned expenses by category, and direct linkage to truck and driver data. Diesel and toll costs post immediately with scanned documents, so no advance closes without matching. The system computed each trip's profitability the moment it closed, accumulating across routes and contracts to reveal every activity's true margin. Maintenance linked to truck odometers, firing preventive work orders automatically at set kilometer intervals, while driver commissions calculated directly from trip closures with no side spreadsheets.
Implementation
The rollout took ten weeks. Three went to entering contracts, route rates, and opening odometer readings for all sixty trucks, plus the approved expense catalog per trip. Four more ran trip cards with the office's manual settlement in parallel, reconciling numbers trip by trip until everyone trusted that the system favored neither side. Finally, manual settlement was retired for good and a daily profitability dashboard launched for operations managers, under one strict rule: no trip departs without a pre-approved card.
The outcome
First-months data revealed nine routes running at zero or negative margin after full costing; some were repriced, others suspended with trucks redeployed, and cost per operating kilometer fell 28% within six months. Catastrophic breakdowns dropped 60% once automated preventive maintenance took over scheduling from memory. Driver commissions are now paid on the first of each month instead of the fifth, with zero disputes since go-live — every driver sees his trip's calculation the moment it closes.
Lasting impact
Accepting any transport contract is now a calculated decision: the rate enters the system and its expected margin appears before signature, giving management a numbers-based negotiating stance instead of goodwill. The company also began renting two external trucks for peak seasons rather than buying, once the true cost of owning versus renting became precisely known. And driver performance reports — fuel discipline and maintenance-route compliance — became an accepted input into promotions and bonuses.
Next step
Ready to drive digital transformation in your organization?
Share your requirements, and our team will deliver a comprehensive proposal and transparent pricing within one business day.