A monitoring system and method determine a consumption metric representative of one or more of an amount of fuel consumed or an amount of energy consumed by a vehicle during travel over a route. The consumption metric is independent of one or more of vehicle load or elevation change over the route. The system and method optionally can determine a route condition metric representative of a condition of a route traveled upon by a vehicle. The route condition metric is based on a comparison between an actual grade of the route at one or more locations along the route and an estimated grade of the route at the one or more locations.