One fifth of journey time is spent stationary, but with the engine running. That is the average situation for a van or heavy commercial vehicle operating in Milan, the European city with the highest proportion of engine idling among the 32 analysed by the Commercial Trip Monitor study. The figure, equivalent to 21% of a typical commercial journey compared with 16% in Paris, comes from the first edition of the online benchmarking tool unveiled by Webfleet at IAA Transportation 2026. The service is free, updated monthly and based on anonymised, aggregated data from connected commercial vehicles. Milan's overall picture is mixed, however: on the system's other indicator, the distance travelled within a fixed period, Milan improved its year-on-year performance, as did Rome.
The report compares cities using two parameters. The first, called 15-Minute Reach, measures how far a van or truck travels in 15 minutes: the higher the score, the greater the distance covered in the same period. The second, Idling Intensity, measures the proportion of a journey spent stationary with the engine running. Average monthly rankings compiled since the beginning of 2026 put Zaragoza at the top for distance travelled, followed by the Dutch cities of Apeldoorn and Utrecht. Berlin, Paris and Krakow are at the bottom, with the German capital ranking last overall. Germany has also deteriorated compared with the previous year: against the same period in 2025, fleets travelled 4.4% less distance in 15 minutes in Munich, 4.3% less in Leipzig and 3.3% less in Hamburg. The trend is the opposite in Poland, the only country where all the cities analysed improved the distance travelled year on year, including Krakow, despite remaining among the bottom three in the ranking. In almost every comparable month, Polish cities also kept engine-idling levels stable or reduced them.
Webfleet points out that, for fleet operators, even small changes in distance travelled or engine-idling time can quickly translate into lost productivity, higher fuel consumption and increased emissions. The tool therefore considers only recurring journeys, excluding general traffic. "Commercial vehicles do not experience cities in the same way as commuters and consumers," said Jan-Maarten de Vries, president of Fleet Management Solutions at Bridgestone, noting that they follow different routes, are subject to different rules and make more stops for loading and unloading. "When conditions change because of traffic congestion, roadworks, low-emission zones, regulations or major events, fleet management companies are often among the first to feel the impact," he added.
In addition to the two main indicators, the platform allows users to analyse individual city data on journey volumes, distances travelled, CO2 emissions, fuel consumption and local factors affecting operating conditions. To make the results comparable, journeys are grouped into families of similar routes and assessed using a fixed-sample methodology designed to track changes consistently over time. The calculation system was developed with Mobito, a company specialising in mobility data analysis, which processes information collected from Webfleet's connected-vehicle ecosystem, operating in Europe for more than 25 years.
