Dear fuel finally leads to some deliveries falling short (4)
I believe the answer is:
love
'dear' is the definition.
(I know that dear can be written as love)
'fuel finally leads to some deliveries falling short' is the wordplay.
'finally' suggests the final letters.
'leads to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'some deliveries' becomes 'over' (I've seen this before).
'falling short' means to remove the last letter.
The final letter of 'fuel' is 'l'.
'over' with its last letter removed is 'ove'.
'l'+'ove'='LOVE'
(Other definitions for love that I've seen before include "Nil score in 19" , "All you need, according to the song" , "angel" , "Nothing for Andy Murray" , "God of 20 Dn" .)