The Value of Cargo Space

The lifecycle cost experts at Vincentric reformulated their cost-per-mile analysis to put a value on cargo space and payload capacity. Lifecycle analysis is one of the foundations of fleet management. Projecting costs of business vehicles by calculating depreciation, fees & taxes, fuel, insurance, financing, maintenance, repairs and opportunity costs can save you money. We’ve taken the analysis a step further to take into account a common consideration when acquiring fleet vehicles: cargo space and payload capacity. Using the calculations above, the lifecycle experts at Vincentric looked at the available measurements of cargo space (for passenger cars) and payload capacity (for pickups) to determine the lifecycle cost of a cubic foot of cargo space and a pound of payload capacity. Vincentric measures the lifecycle costs for over 1,900 vehicle configurations each month using 12 different lifecycle scenarios. For this study, the three-year, 60,000 mile scenario was used. The charts show the segment averages, as well as the model with the lowest “Cost per Payload Pound” (CPP) for pickups and “Cost per Cubic Foot” (CCF) for sedans. We’ve included online a more detailed analysis and rankings of individual models. Click here for a chart of the lowest cost per cubic feet of cargo space for the top five models in each trim level. Click here for a chart of the lowest cost per payload pound for the top five models in each trim level.