Truck Diesel Consumption per km (Consumo de Diésel por km)

How much diésel does a truck burn per kilometre? Fleet managers in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Peru and Brazil type that question into search every week, in a dozen forms: cuánto diésel gasta un camión por km, consumo de diésel por km de un tractocamión, consumo de diésel de una volqueta. Everyone wants one number. Nobody can give an honest single number, because a truck’s consumption depends on what it carries, where it drives and how fast.

What we can do is give you one solid reference point, explain what moves the figure up and down, and show you how to work out your own.

The one published figure worth quoting

The best-documented source for Latin America comes from Colombia. The UPME (the national mining and energy planning unit) and the Inter-American Development Bank published a baseline study of freight vehicle fuel use, Línea base de consumo de combustible de vehículos de carga en Colombia, built from more than 1,000 vehicles monitored between 2019 and 2024.

Vehicle category (UPME / IDB study)	Diesel-equivalent use	Roughly
New 3SX tractor-trailers (tractomulas, model year 2022 and later)	31.85 L per 100 km	about 3.1 km per litre
C2G rigid trucks	38.69 L per 100 km	about 2.6 km per litre
C2P rigid trucks	16.89 L per 100 km	about 5.9 km per litre

Read the table for what it is. These are test-cycle values, measured on the FECOC driving cycle, and the tractor-trailer figure is for new vehicles. Your own trucks, older and loaded and climbing grades in the Andes or the Sierra Madre, will not match them. That is the point of a reference figure: it tells you roughly where a modern tractocamión sits under controlled conditions, and anything you measure on the road is compared against it.

To convert between the two ways of writing consumption, divide 100 by the litres used per 100 km to get kilometres per litre. A truck using 32 L per 100 km covers about 3.1 km on each litre.

What decides how much diésel a truck uses

Two trucks of the same make can show very different figures on the same day. Four factors do most of the work.

Load

A heavier truck needs more energy to get moving, to climb and to slow down. A tractomula at full weight uses far more fuel per kilometre than the same unit running empty on the return leg. That is why fleets that look only at fleet-wide averages often miss the real picture: a truck that runs loaded one way and empty the other has two different consumption figures, not one.

Gradient

Climbing costs fuel, and descending only gives some of it back, because the driver brakes or the engine brake takes the energy away. Routes through mountain passes, mine access roads and long grades use noticeably more diésel per kilometre than flat highway. A camión minero working a pit ramp loaded is the extreme example, but the same logic applies to a volqueta climbing out of a quarry or a rigid truck crossing a mountain range.

Speed

Aerodynamic drag grows with the square of speed. Doubling the speed does not double the resistance, it roughly quadruples it, so the engine has to work much harder to hold a high cruising speed. Rolling resistance also climbs, and so does the temptation to brake hard and accelerate again. Of the factors on this list, speed is the one the fleet can control directly.

Idling and stop-start work

An engine at idle burns diésel and moves nothing. Waiting at a port gate, a mine weighbridge or a loading bay with the engine running adds consumption that never shows up in the kilometre count. Urban delivery and site work, with constant stopping and starting, push consumption per kilometre up for the same reason.

Tyre pressure, tyre condition, wind, road surface, altitude, engine condition and driver technique add to the picture. None of them can be pinned to a single percentage for every fleet, and any article that offers one is guessing.

Different trucks, different questions

The word “camión” covers a lot of ground, and the numbers behave differently by vehicle.

• Tractocamión and tractomula. Long-haul tractor-trailers spend most of their hours at cruising speed on highways. Speed discipline matters most here, because the same truck holds its speed for hundreds of kilometres at a time.
• Rigid trucks. Distribution and regional trucks run shorter legs with more stops. Idling and stop-start driving take a bigger share of the total.
• Volqueta. Tippers working quarries, construction and aggregate runs carry heavy loads over short distances, often empty on the return. Load swings dominate.
• Camión minero and site trucks. Site conditions, grades and long idling periods dominate. The road speed on the public access leg matters, and so does the speed rule inside the site.

How speed shows up in the fuel bill

Take two drivers on the same highway with the same load. One cruises where the engine runs comfortably. The other pushes harder, catches up to traffic, brakes, and pushes again. The second driver covers the route a little sooner and burns noticeably more diésel getting there. Multiply that across a fleet and a year and it becomes one of the largest controllable costs in the operation.

This is the logic behind fitting a limitador de velocidad (or gobernador de velocidad): the set speed takes the highest-consumption running off the table without relying on each driver to hold back. Our fuel savings from speed limiters guide goes through the mechanics.

How to work out your own consumption per km

You do not need a study. Three steps give you a figure per truck that is better than any average.

1. Fill the tank completely and write down the odometer reading.
2. Run the truck normally. Record every refill and the odometer each time.
3. Fill the tank again. Divide the distance driven by the litres added. That gives km per litre; divide 100 by it for litres per 100 km.

Repeat over several weeks, because one trip is a snapshot. Track loaded and empty legs separately if you can. Compare each truck against the Colombian reference above and against your other trucks on the same route. A truck that sits well below its peers is a candidate for a mechanical check; a route that always costs more than expected is a candidate for a speed or planning review.

Two tools on our site do the arithmetic for you:

• The HGV fuel consumption calculator puts numbers on the fuel use of your own trucks.
• The fleet fuel savings calculator scales that to your whole fleet and lets you test a lower set speed.

Turning a speed decision into a held speed

A speed policy on paper is only as good as the next driver on the next shift. A limiter holds it.

Your truck	Fits	Notes
Electronic throttle (drive-by-wire)	DBW speed limiter	Electronic, works on the throttle signal. Fit about 1.5 hours.
Older diesel with mechanical fuel control	System 80	Mechanical, works on the fuel line. Fit about 60 minutes, accurate to +/-1-2 km/h.
Need proof of speed and a record of where trucks drive	TrackSpeed	Limiter with ScorpionTrack GNSS tracking. Fit about 60 minutes.

We ship direct to your fleet with fitting instructions. Your own workshop team can fit the unit, or a local auto-electrician of your choice can. Our technical team supports you remotely. The speed governor for trucks guide explains how to pick, and the truck speed limits by country page lists the road speeds for heavy vehicles across the region.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much diésel does a truck use per km?

It depends on the truck, the load and the route. As a reference point, the UPME and IDB baseline study measured new Colombian 3SX tractor-trailers at 31.85 L per 100 km, about 3.1 km per litre, on the FECOC test cycle. Real-world figures for older or heavily loaded trucks differ.

What is a good consumo de diésel for a tractocamión?

Compare your trucks against the test-cycle reference, against each other on the same route, and against their own history. A single “good” number does not exist because load and terrain change it so much.

Does a lower speed really reduce diésel use?

Yes. Aerodynamic drag grows with the square of speed, so holding a lower cruising speed lowers the energy the engine needs to produce. The size of the saving depends on your route and load, which is why the calculators above use your own data.

How do I measure consumption for a volqueta or camión minero?

Use the same fill-to-fill method, and track hours as well as kilometres if the truck idles a lot or works on site. Separate loaded and empty cycles so the averages do not hide the difference.

Can a limiter hold my trucks to a chosen speed?

Yes. A limiter keeps the truck at the set speed whatever the driver does with the pedal. The fleet chooses the figure. Send us the make, model, year and engine type and we will recommend the right unit.

Get a quote

Tell us how many trucks you run, their make, model, year and engine type, and the speed you want to hold. We will recommend the right unit for each. Request a quote or email international@autokontrol.com.