Cost Recovery
Whether the fleet collects enough from the departments it serves to cover what it actually costs to run, including the cost of replacing the assets.
Cost recovery asks a single question: does the money coming in match the money going out. The answer depends entirely on what is counted as going out.
A fleet can recover its operating costs completely and still be losing ground, because the expensive part is not this year’s fuel and labor. It is the replacement value of the assets, accruing quietly whether or not anyone budgets for it. Recovery that excludes it is a fleet consuming its own capital and reporting a balanced position while doing so.
This is the number that matters most and gets examined least, because nothing breaks in the year it goes wrong. A fleet under-recovering by a modest margin looks healthy for years and then cannot replace anything.
It is also the argument that most needs a system behind it. Claiming a rate is too low is an opinion; showing the gap between accumulated charges and the schedule of what is coming due is a finding, and only one of those survives a budget hearing.