← All guides

Fleet Expansion and Procurement Project Timeline

Plan a fleet expansion and vehicle procurement project with a Gantt chart. Track procurement, upfitting, driver onboarding, and deployment in one visual timeline.

Fleet Expansion and Procurement Project Timeline

The Problem: Fleet Expansions Stall When Vehicles Arrive Without Drivers or Infrastructure

Fleet expansion projects—adding vehicles to a commercial trucking operation, expanding a last-mile delivery fleet, scaling a construction equipment pool, or growing a government vehicle fleet—involve procurement, upfitting, registration, insurance, infrastructure, and driver hiring and licensing that all need to converge when the vehicles are ready to deploy.

The failure mode is almost always sequence. Vehicles are ordered and arrive on schedule. But the upfitting shop has a 10-week backlog. Or the drivers were hired but their CDL licensing isn't complete. Or the maintenance facility doesn't have capacity to service the new vehicles. Or the GPS/telematics units weren't ordered and take 6 weeks to install. The vehicles sit in the yard, depreciating, while the operational gaps are resolved.

A fleet expansion and procurement project timeline on a Gantt chart maps all five parallel workstreams—procurement, upfitting, driver onboarding, infrastructure, and compliance—so vehicles deploy on the day they arrive ready to work. gantt-chart.io lets fleet managers build and share this plan with procurement, HR, and operations.

Prerequisites

Before building your fleet expansion Gantt chart:

  • Fleet size and vehicle type: Number of units, vehicle class (light-duty, medium-duty, Class 8 truck, specialty)
  • Vehicle lead times: New vehicle lead times vary by manufacturer and model (currently 4-20 weeks for commercial vehicles; longer for electric or specialized units)
  • Upfitting requirements: Which vehicles need upfitting (shelving, liftgates, aerial lifts, graphics, telematics)
  • Upfitter capacity: Your upfitter's current backlog and throughput
  • Driver requirements: CDL required or not, endorsements needed, hiring market conditions
  • Infrastructure needs: New fueling, charging (for EVs), parking, or maintenance bay capacity
  • Compliance requirements: DOT registration, IFTA stickers, FMCSA operating authority, state commercial vehicle permits
  • Deployment date: When vehicles need to be operational (customer contract, seasonal demand)

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Set Up the Fleet Expansion Timeline

  1. Open gantt-chart.io
  2. Title it "Fleet Expansion — [Vehicle Type] — [Number] Units — Deployment [Date]"
  3. Set start date to project kickoff and end date to 30 days after full fleet deployment
  4. Use Week view—fleet projects are tracked at the weekly level
  5. Add Fleet fully deployed as the hard red milestone

Step 2: Build the Procurement Track

  1. Create a task group: Vehicle Procurement
  2. Add:
  • Vehicle specifications finalized — milestone (body, upfit requirements, powertrain)
  • OEM or dealer RFQ issued
  • Quotes evaluated and manufacturer selected — milestone
  • Purchase order placed — milestone
  • Vehicle manufacturing lead time — duration bar (OEM lead times vary widely)
  • Vehicle delivery from OEM to dealer — milestone
  • Pre-delivery inspection — verify each vehicle before acceptance
  • Vehicles accepted — milestone
  1. For EV fleets: add Charging infrastructure procurement as a separate parallel track with its own lead times (chargers: 8-20 weeks; electrical infrastructure: 12-20 weeks)

Step 3: Add the Upfitting Track

  1. Create a task group: Upfitting
  2. Add:
  • Upfit specifications finalized — milestone
  • Upfitter selected and scheduled — milestone (book upfitter slots concurrent with vehicle order)
  • Upfit material procurement — shelving, liftgate, graphics materials (4-8 week lead times)
  • Vehicles arrive at upfitter — milestone
  • Upfitting in progress — duration (typically 2-5 days per vehicle; batch as many as upfitter can handle)
  • Quality inspection of completed upfit — milestone
  • Upfitting complete — milestone

Step 4: Build the Driver and Licensing Track

  1. Create a task group: Drivers & Licensing
  2. Add:
  • Driver requirement analysis — how many new drivers needed, what endorsements required
  • Job postings live — 12-16 weeks before deployment (CDL driver market is tight)
  • Applications and interviews
  • Conditional offers extended — milestone
  • DOT physical exams — required for CDL drivers
  • Background and MVR checks
  • CDL skills tests / road tests (for new CDL holders)
  • Drivers hired and cleared — milestone
  • Company orientation and training — 1-2 weeks
  • Route familiarization — 1 week
  • Drivers ready for deployment — milestone

Step 5: Add the Compliance and Registration Track

  1. Create a task group: Compliance & Registration
  2. Add:
  • Insurance certificates updated — add new vehicles to policy before delivery
  • DOT registration — obtain USDOT numbers if adding authority
  • State commercial vehicle registration — per state for interstate operations
  • IFTA account update — add new vehicles to IFTA fuel tax program
  • FMCSA updates — update operating authority if adding capacity
  • State oversize/overweight permits (if applicable)
  • ELD / telematics compliance — FMCSA ELD mandate compliance for new vehicles
  • All vehicles registered and compliant — milestone

Step 6: Build the Technology and Telematics Track

  1. Create a task group: Technology & Telematics
  2. Add:
  • Telematics unit procurement — 4-8 week lead time
  • Dash cam procurement (if applicable)
  • Telematics installation schedule — can be done during upfitting
  • Fleet management software provisioning — add new vehicles to platform
  • Driver mobile app accounts created
  • Technology installed and tested — milestone

Step 7: Add the Infrastructure Track

  1. Create a task group: Infrastructure
  2. Add:
  • Parking and staging capacity confirmed — where will the new vehicles park?
  • Fueling infrastructure — new vehicles may exceed current fuel tank capacity; add DEF if diesel
  • EV charging installation (if applicable)
  • Maintenance bay capacity assessment — can the current shop handle additional PM volume?
  • PM schedule and intervals defined for new vehicles
  • Infrastructure ready — milestone

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Upfitter Not Booked Until Vehicles Arrive

What happens: Vehicles arrive from the OEM. The fleet manager calls the upfitter to schedule. The upfitter has a 10-week backlog. Vehicles sit in the yard for 10 weeks. Insurance, depreciation, and financing costs accumulate on undeployed assets.

How to avoid it: Book upfitter slots concurrent with placing the vehicle purchase order. If the vehicle delivery date shifts, move the upfitter slot accordingly. Upfitter scheduling is a procurement task, not a delivery task.

Mistake 2: Driver Hiring Started After Vehicles Are Ordered

What happens: Vehicles are ordered in January for a March delivery. Driver recruiting starts in February. CDL drivers take 8-10 weeks to hire and onboard (background check, DOT physical, orientation). Vehicles are ready March 15. Drivers aren't ready until April 30. Assets sit for 6 weeks.

How to avoid it: Driver recruiting starts at the same time as the vehicle purchase order—or earlier if the labor market is tight. CDL driver hiring in most markets takes 8-12 weeks minimum. In the Gantt chart, Job postings live is a day-1 task.

Mistake 3: Telematics Installed After Deployment

What happens: Vehicles deploy without telematics because the units hadn't arrived yet. Drivers operate for 6 weeks without fleet tracking, ELD compliance, or fuel card integration. Two vehicles get into accidents with no video evidence. FMCSA audit finds ELD non-compliance.

How to avoid it: Telematics is a compliance and safety item, not a nice-to-have. In the Gantt chart, Technology installed and tested is a prerequisite for Vehicles deployed. Order telematics units concurrent with vehicle procurement—4-8 week lead times mean they should arrive before the vehicles do.

Mistake 4: Insurance Not Updated Before Delivery

What happens: Vehicles are delivered. Three hours later, a driver takes one on a test drive without realizing the vehicles aren't yet on the insurance policy. An accident occurs. The claim is denied.

How to avoid it: Insurance certificates updated is a task that must complete before Vehicles accepted. Call the broker the week before vehicle delivery and add the vehicles to the policy with VINs as soon as they're available (typically 1-2 weeks before delivery).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long does a commercial vehicle fleet expansion take from order to deployment?

A: For Class 8 trucks (currently tight market): 16-40 weeks from order to delivery. Add 3-8 weeks for upfitting. Add 8-12 weeks for driver hiring and onboarding (run in parallel). Total: 6-12 months from project start to fully deployed fleet.

Q: How do I handle staggered vehicle deliveries?

A: Create a delivery schedule in the Gantt chart: "5 vehicles in week 12, 5 in week 14, 5 in week 16." Each delivery batch has its own upfitting, registration, and driver assignment tasks. The upfitter schedules batch slots in advance. Driver hiring is planned to match the deployment schedule.

Q: Should we use a fleet management company (fleet lessor) for procurement?

A: Leasing through a fleet management company (Ryder, PHH, Element, LeasePlan) often simplifies procurement by leveraging their OEM volume pricing and upfit programs. Add Fleet management company RFP and selection as an early milestone if evaluating this approach. The Gantt chart structure is the same regardless of whether you own or lease.

Q: How do we manage compliance for a multi-state operation?

A: Add a state-by-state registration compliance task group if expanding into new states. Each state has its own commercial vehicle registration, apportioned plates (IRP), and potentially weight/size permit requirements. IFTA enrollment is multi-state and handles fuel tax apportionment for interstate operations.

Q: What should the 30-day post-deployment review cover?

A: Vehicle utilization (are all vehicles being used), fuel consumption vs. benchmark, any maintenance issues found in the first month (early-life failures), driver performance (hard braking, speeding), and any telematics or compliance exceptions. This review identifies whether the fleet is performing to the business case assumptions.

Summary: Fleet Expansion Timeline That Deploys on Schedule

A fleet expansion Gantt chart synchronizes vehicle procurement, upfitting, driver onboarding, compliance, and infrastructure so vehicles deploy ready to work. Here's the structure:

  1. Vehicle procurement with OEM lead times fully accounted for
  2. Upfitter slots booked concurrent with vehicle purchase order
  3. Driver recruiting started simultaneously with vehicle order
  4. Telematics and compliance completed before vehicles deploy
  5. Insurance updated before vehicle acceptance
  6. Infrastructure (parking, fueling, maintenance capacity) confirmed before delivery

gantt-chart.io is free and requires no sign-up. Build your fleet expansion timeline today and deploy every vehicle with a driver in the seat and a compliance certificate on the windshield.