Where fuel goes on a truck

For a truck, fuel is among the biggest costs. A Business Daily article from August 2025 says fuel can be as much as 30% of fleet costs. Diesel was KES 227.76 a litre in Nairobi from 15 October to 14 November 2026, the regulator’s price as reported by Pulse Kenya. So a litre that is not accounted for is real money, and 60 litres is about KES 13,700. That last figure is our own arithmetic.

This guide lists the usual ways fuel goes missing on Kenyan roads. It then says plainly what a GPS tracker shows, and what only a fuel level sensor can measure.

How fuel goes missing

The two newspaper articles below are the sources for this list. Neither gives a count of how often each happens.

• Siphoning while the truck is parked. Fuel is drawn from the tank when the truck stands still (Business Daily).
• Siphoning on the road. The Standard describes fuel drained from tanks during trips, which operators struggled to explain. Business Daily adds that it can be drained through the return line while the truck is moving, which is hard to see by eye.
• Inflated claims. The Standard reports one 20-truck fleet whose drivers claimed 420 litres for a Nairobi trip that needed 360. That is 60 litres over, about 17% more than the trip needed. It is one fleet and one manager’s account. It does not show what your trucks do.
• False pump claims. Drivers say they bought more fuel than they did (The Standard).
• Drivers and pump attendants working together (Business Daily).
• Waste that is not theft. Engines left idling for long periods, and trips that leave the agreed route (Business Daily).
• Paper fuel logs, which are open to mistakes and to changing the numbers (Business Daily).

Slow roads cost too

Time spent stopped is a cost of its own. The Northern Corridor authority measured the median trip from Mombasa to Malaba, 933 km, at 70 hours, which works out to 13.3 km an hour. From Malaba to Kampala, 236 km, the median was 44 hours, or 5.4 km an hour. The report names the most common causes of delay: personal reasons, border crossing, food and rest, weighbridges, police stops and company checkpoints. These are medians for the first half of 2025, and they are measured, not estimated. The report does not say how much fuel is burned in the waiting.

What a GPS tracker alone shows

A GPS tracker shows where the truck is and has been, when it stopped, for how long, and whether it is moving or idling with the engine on (if the tracker is wired to the ignition). That is useful. A long stop at a place with no reason to stop, a route that leaves the plan, or hours of idling are all clues.

It is a clue, not proof. A GPS tracker does not measure litres. It cannot tell you that fuel left the tank, only that the truck was somewhere it should not have been.

Tracking also shows driving habits, and habits affect fuel. A US government field study of trucks fitted with a telematics system gave drivers feedback, training or incentives. It found fuel economy better by 5.4% for sleeper cabs and 9.3% for day cabs. That is a US study about driving, not about theft, and conditions here differ.

What a fuel level sensor adds

A fuel level sensor sits in the tank and measures how much is in it. This is what turns a suspicion into a number. According to The Standard, the sensor talks to the tracker over Bluetooth and runs on its own battery, which makes it harder to tamper with. Both articles say the system can then show:

• every refill and every drop, with the time and the place;
• an SMS alert when fuel is added or drained;
• fuel used against distance and load, whether the truck is full or empty.

The manager of the 20-truck fleet in The Standard’s article says a truck can save KES 5,000 to 7,000 a trip. That is one manager’s claim, and your figure will differ.

What it costs. Business Daily quoted KES 30,000 to 50,000 for a fuel sensor setup, depending on the vehicle and its specifications. That is one installer’s quote and not a price list. It also says smaller vehicles with narrow tanks need sensors made to fit, and that a Bluetooth sensor’s battery has to be replaced every five to seven years.

What it does not do. A sensor tells you about fuel. It does not tell you why. It still needs someone to look at the alerts, and to ask the driver.

What Fleetrift does and does not do yet

Any tracker you already own can show its stops, its routes and its idling on Fleetrift’s live map. Fuel records are on the Fleet plan and are still being built. Fuel level sensors are separate hardware that we can supply: ask us about them.

Work out what it could be worth

To see what tracking could save in fuel on your own vehicles, use the fuel savings calculator, or the four ready-made situations on the pricing page. They use Kenyan distances and pump prices, they list every number’s source, and every saving is an estimate, never a promise.