Truck fuel consumption in litres per 100 km, per km and per hour - and how to turn it into cost per km

A truck’s fuel consumption is quoted three ways: litres per 100 km for road haulage, litres per km for pricing, and litres per hour for machines that work while standing still. The only sourced benchmarks are non-GCC test data - ICCT measured 29.9-32.6 L/100 km for EU tractor-trailers - so this article gives you the sourced anchors, the arithmetic, and the method for measuring your own fleet.

Key takeaways

• ICCT track testing (briefing paper, May 2018) measured a typical EU 40-tonne tractor-trailer at 32.6 L/100 km and the best-performing unit tested at 29.9 L/100 km over the EU regulatory long-haul cycle. EU motorway data, not GCC construction data.
• NACFE’s 2022 Annual Fleet Fuel Study reported a fleet-wide average of 7.24 mpg for participating US fleets, about 32.5 L/100 km by our conversion, against a US national average of 6.24 mpg, about 37.7 L/100 km.
• UAE diesel is AED 3.80 per litre for August 2026, up AED 0.20 from July (UAE Fuel Price Committee, effective 1 August 2026). Saudi diesel is SAR 1.79 per litre, set in Saudi Aramco’s January 2026 annual review and unchanged since (GlobalPetrolPrices.com, 17 August 2026).
• US DOE/Argonne benchmarks (US data, not GCC measurements) put heavy-duty idling at about 0.8 gallon per hour, roughly 3.0 litres per hour by our conversion - about AED 11.40 per idle hour at the August 2026 price, our illustrative calculation.
• Tolls ride on top: Salik costs AED 6.30 per peak crossing and AED 4.20 off-peak with VAT included since 1 June 2026; Darb charges AED 4 per crossing, with the Ghantoot and Al Qurm gates billing 24/7 since 4 May 2026.
• Every AED-per-km figure in this article multiplies a sourced price by an illustrative consumption - the consumption side is a planning figure until you measure your own trucks.

How many litres per 100 km does a truck actually use?

Honest answer first: nobody publishes measured consumption benchmarks for GCC construction trucks, so the citable numbers are European and American test data, and we label them as exactly that. They anchor the order of magnitude; they do not describe a laden tipper queueing at a crusher in August heat.

The two sources worth quoting:

• ICCT track testing (May 2018). The International Council on Clean Transportation commissioned testing of tractor-trailers in the EU and the US. Over the EU regulatory long-haul cycle at regulatory payload, the typical EU 40-tonne tractor-trailer consumed 32.6 L/100 km and the best-performing unit tested 29.9 L/100 km - a 9% gap between average and best hardware on the same cycle.
• NACFE Annual Fleet Fuel Study (2022). The North American Council for Freight Efficiency reported its participating fleets at a fleet-wide average of 7.24 mpg, flat from 2018 through 2021 - about 32.5 L/100 km by our conversion - while the US national fleet average stood at 6.24 mpg, about 37.7 L/100 km.

Both describe line-haul tractors cruising on highways. A GCC construction fleet runs a harsher cycle: laden one way and empty back, low average speeds, air conditioning that never switches off, and long stationary periods with the engine running. Expect your measured numbers to sit above these benchmarks, sometimes far above on short laden hauls - which is why the section on measuring your own fleet matters more than any table.

What the benchmarks are still good for: the ICCT’s 9% spread between typical and best-performing hardware on an identical cycle is a sourced reminder that identical work does not mean identical burn. If two of your 6x4 tractors on the same route differ by 15%, the route is not the explanation.

How do you convert litres per 100 km into cost per km?

One formula does all the work:

Fuel cost per km = (litres per 100 km ÷ 100) × price per litre.

The prices are sourced and current: UAE diesel is AED 3.80 per litre for August 2026, approved by the UAE Fuel Price Committee effective 1 August and up AED 0.20 from July’s 3.60 (announcement carried by WAM and state media, 31 July 2026). Saudi diesel is SAR 1.79 per litre, set in Saudi Aramco’s January 2026 annual review - a 7.8% rise on 2025’s SAR 1.66, per Saudi Gazette - and unchanged through August per GlobalPetrolPrices.com (17 August 2026). We log the UAE’s monthly settings on the fuel price tracker.

The consumption column below is illustrative planning figures, not measured benchmarks - substitute your own fleet’s measured values:

Consumption (illustrative)	Per km	UAE fuel cost/km (AED 3.80/L)	KSA fuel cost/km (SAR 1.79/L)
30 L/100 km	0.30 L	AED 1.14	SAR 0.54
35 L/100 km	0.35 L	AED 1.33	SAR 0.63
45 L/100 km	0.45 L	AED 1.71	SAR 0.81
55 L/100 km	0.55 L	AED 2.09	SAR 0.98

Read the worked example across the middle row: a truck burning 35 L/100 km - an illustrative figure - at the sourced AED 3.80 per litre costs 0.35 × 3.80 = AED 1.33 per km in diesel alone. The same truck in Saudi Arabia runs SAR 0.63 per km, roughly a third of the UAE figure at current exchange rates, which is why a cost model copied across the border misprices every job.

Two habits keep the formula honest. First, reprice monthly in the UAE: the committee moved diesel down AED 0.73 in July and back up AED 0.20 in August, and a per-km model built on last month’s price misquotes every trip. Second, remember fuel is only one component - industry guidance consistently puts fuel at roughly a third of a heavy truck’s total running cost, and the true cost per km method for tippers walks through the other two-thirds.

Why does per-hour consumption matter for dump trucks and mixers?

Because a dump truck or mixer spends much of its day burning diesel without covering distance, and litres per 100 km cannot see that. A tipper queueing at a crusher, a mixer holding at a pump with the drum turning on PTO, a truck idling for cab cooling in summer - the odometer stands still while the tank drains. Divide that day’s litres by its kilometres and you get a monstrous L/100 km figure that explains nothing. Divide by engine-hours and the day makes sense.

The one per-hour figure with a named source is idle burn: the US Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory put heavy-duty truck idling at about 0.8 gallon per hour, roughly 3.0 litres per hour by our conversion, within a published range of 0.6 to 1.5 gallons per hour (US DOE/Argonne, 2015 - US long-haul data, not GCC measurements). At August 2026 prices that is about AED 11.40 or SAR 5.37 of diesel per idle hour, our illustrative calculation. Working burn under load or on PTO is higher, and we will not invent a number for it: manufacturers publish per-hour figures for specific machines in their performance handbooks, and your own hour-meter and fuel data will beat any generic table.

The practical discipline for construction fleets:

• Track litres per engine-hour alongside litres per 100 km for tippers and mixers; judge road tractors by distance and site-bound vehicles by hours.
• Split hours into moving and stationary using the tracking feed you already run - the mandated feed reports ignition and position, which is enough to separate the two.
• Put an AED or SAR figure on the stationary share per vehicle per week. The idling glossary entry keeps the sourced burn numbers in one place, and the segment pages for tippers and aggregate and ready-mix concrete cover what a normal stationary share looks like for each duty cycle - a mixer’s drum time is work, a tipper’s queue time is waste, and the numbers must be read differently.

How do you measure your own fleet’s real consumption?

Three methods, in ascending order of resolution. Use at least two so the errors in one surface in the other.

Method	How it works	Resolution	Watch out for
Full-tank method	Fill to the brim, record odometer, run normally for at least a full tank, refill to the brim, divide litres by km	One number per vehicle per cycle	Different pumps and nozzle cut-offs; short cycles amplify error
Fuel-card reconciliation	Match every card transaction to a vehicle and period, divide litres by odometer or GPS distance	Per vehicle per week/month	Shared cards, missing odometer entries, fuel bought for one truck pumped into another
Telematics / CAN fuel data	Read fuel rate or tank level from the vehicle bus alongside GPS distance and engine-hours	Per trip, per hour, per idle event	Tank-level sensors are noisy on slopes; calibrate against full-tank results

The full-tank method is the accuracy anchor: it needs no hardware beyond a pen and it produces the number the other two methods must agree with. Fuel-card reconciliation is where GCC fleets usually start, because the cards already exist - the failure mode is allocation, not arithmetic, since a card that is not tied to one vehicle produces a fleet average that hides every outlier. Telematics data gives per-trip and per-hour resolution, and it is the only method that can separate idle burn from working burn - but calibrate it against a full-tank cycle before trusting absolute values.

Whichever method you use, hold the results against the month’s actual price, not the year’s. A UAE fleet that measured 40 L/100 km in July paid AED 1.44 per km; the same measurement in August costs AED 1.52 - the truck did not get worse, the committee met.

What moves the number besides the engine: load, heat, idling and tolls?

Consumption is a distribution, not a constant, and the spread has causes you can manage. Laden versus empty is the biggest: a tipper hauls its payload one way and air the other, so per-trip consumption depends on the laden share of distance - the tipper cost-per-km method shows why the empty leg must still carry cost. Air conditioning and summer heat add a real parasitic load in the GCC that European test cycles never see. Idle time we have covered - it is the quietest line on the list and the cheapest to attack, as the UAE fuel cost levers article details.

Tolls are not fuel, but they land on the same trip and belong in the same cost-per-km view. The current facts, checked August 2026: Salik crossings cost AED 6.30 at peak and AED 4.20 off-peak since 1 June 2026, when 5% VAT was added to the AED 6/4 variable rates in force since 31 January 2025 (Salik Company announcements, carried by The National, May 2026). Darb charges AED 4 per crossing during its charged windows, free on Sundays and official holidays - and since 4 May 2026 the network grew from four gates to six, with the new Ghantoot (E11) and Al Qurm gates charging AED 4 around the clock (Abu Dhabi Mobility, carried by regional media).

To see why they belong in the per-km number: a 38-km round trip that crosses one Salik gate each way at peak pays AED 12.60 in tolls against roughly AED 51 of diesel at the illustrative 35 L/100 km - the toll line is about a quarter of the fuel line, and it changes with routing and timing decisions the same way fuel does.

How does Fleetric turn consumption into cost per km?

Everything above is arithmetic a spreadsheet can do once - the operational problem is doing it per vehicle, per trip, every week, from data that arrives in three different formats. That allocation layer is the product.

Fleetric is a fleet profit intelligence platform for GCC fleets, in daily production with a construction fleet in Abu Dhabi, that reads mandated tracking feeds and computes per-vehicle profit. For fuel specifically: it allocates fuel to each vehicle from the mandated tracking feed your fleet already produces plus fuel-card CSVs, computes litres per 100 km and litres per engine-hour per truck, prices them at the month’s committee setting, and puts tolls on the same trip record - so the AED 1.33 per km in this article stops being an illustration and becomes your trucks’ measured numbers.

Honestly stated: Fleetric is early stage, in daily production with one Abu Dhabi construction fleet, and it cannot change what a litre costs - only make visible which trucks earn their diesel and which burn it standing still. Pricing is published at AED 120 (Starter) and AED 95 (Pro) per truck per month. If your fleet’s consumption number is a guess today, book a 20-minute demo and bring one month of fuel-card statements.

FAQ

How many litres per 100 km does a truck use?

The best public test data comes from outside the GCC and we label it as such. ICCT track testing (May 2018) measured a typical EU 40-tonne tractor-trailer at 32.6 litres per 100 km and the best-performing unit tested at 29.9 over the regulatory long-haul cycle. NACFE’s 2022 Annual Fleet Fuel Study put participating US fleets at 7.24 mpg, about 32.5 L/100 km by our conversion. GCC construction duty cycles usually run higher; measure your own fleet.

What is truck fuel consumption per km?

Divide litres per 100 km by 100. The ICCT’s typical EU tractor-trailer figure of 32.6 L/100 km is 0.33 litres per km; the best test unit’s 29.9 is 0.30 litres per km. Per-km consumption times the price per litre gives fuel cost per km.

How do you calculate truck fuel cost per km?

Fuel cost per km = (litres per 100 km divided by 100) times price per litre. At the UAE’s August 2026 diesel price of AED 3.80 per litre, an illustrative 35 L/100 km truck costs 0.35 x 3.80 = AED 1.33 per km in fuel. The price is sourced; the consumption figure is an illustrative planning number - substitute your own measured value.

What is the UAE diesel price in August 2026?

AED 3.80 per litre, approved by the UAE Fuel Price Committee effective 1 August 2026, up AED 0.20 from July’s 3.60. Petrol for August 2026 is Super 98 at AED 3.60, Special 95 at AED 3.49 and E-Plus 91 at AED 3.41 per litre, all up 0.20 on the month. Prices reset monthly.

What is the diesel price in Saudi Arabia in 2026?

SAR 1.79 per litre, set in Saudi Aramco’s January 2026 annual diesel price review (up 7.8% from SAR 1.66 in 2025, as reported by Saudi Gazette) and unchanged through August 2026 per GlobalPetrolPrices.com data updated 17 August 2026. Diesel in Saudi Arabia is reviewed annually, not monthly.

How much fuel does a dump truck burn per hour?

There is no honest public per-hour benchmark for GCC dump trucks, so we will not print one as fact. The sourced anchor is idling - US DOE and Argonne National Laboratory put heavy-duty idle burn at about 0.8 gallon per hour, roughly 3.0 litres per hour by our conversion. Working burn is higher and depends on load, haul profile and PTO use; measure litres per engine-hour from your own fuel and hour-meter data.

How much fuel does an idling truck burn?

US Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory figures, which are US data rather than GCC measurements, put heavy-duty truck idling at about 0.8 gallon per hour, roughly 3.0 litres per hour by our conversion, within a published range of 0.6 to 1.5 gallons per hour. At August 2026 prices that is about AED 11.40 or SAR 5.37 of diesel per idle hour, our illustrative calculation.

What is the most accurate way to measure fleet fuel consumption?

The full-tank method is the most accurate low-tech option - fill to the brim, record the odometer, run normally, refill to the brim and divide litres by kilometres. Fuel-card reconciliation scales it across the fleet, and telematics or CAN-bus fuel data adds per-trip and per-hour resolution. Use at least two of the three so errors in one show up in the other.

Do Salik and Darb tolls belong in cost per km?

Yes, as a per-trip line next to fuel. Since 1 June 2026 Salik peak crossings cost AED 6.30 and off-peak AED 4.20 with 5% VAT included; Darb charges AED 4 per crossing during charged windows, and since 4 May 2026 the Ghantoot (E11) and Al Qurm gates charge AED 4 around the clock. A round trip through two peak Salik gates adds AED 12.60 before a litre is burned.