I had one last four months, but nothing more than a couple of weeks. Remember this is not critical unless you abused the system, making mistakes is not abuse.
Based on my findings, I am pretty far off just because of no records from driver. There is really no way to go back and make trip records or I am scared to and not matching up. I am wondering if they will declare me for having inadequate records and do an inadequate records assessment? I have read on that. A few of my quarters are pretty good just the last two with no records is making me nervous. I have definitely learned from our mistakes. Never again.
How do u not have any records. You have to sign a document everytime u renew your ifta license about keeping adequate records and u can be audited at anytime. You also signed this when opening your account.. It is in your best interest to take the time needed to create the records you are missing. Go back to your eld provider and find your gps locations and start building from there.. it is going to take time to build this out even with just 1 truck. But something is better than nothing at all.. the government is not here to help you. It ain't worth it to be careless with these guys.
BOL’s, Logs, fuel receipts, you can run each trip using google maps. Make sure dates, for fuel purchases and each State mileage adds up to total miles reported on logs. It can be done. Do it on a per trip basis. Trip report. They’re looking for miles in each State. You’ll also need those numbers for IRP when buying plate.
They just estimate everything based on your records addresses to and from and it may be off by a few miles here and there but it settles the need for accounting for the miles driver. They may also impose fine or other related costs and they WILL audit you for at least one more year if not two or three if it is a substantial amount you pay them. The other thing is you are as an owner, to review the logs and have an accounting of when the truck crosses the state line. With an ELD or whatever, it is easy but if it is striclky paper logs and the driver fails to do his job, I would put in an ELD and if the driver gives you crap, fire them.
Each truck need to complete a trip sheet showing destinations and fuel purchases. It sounds like you are servicing repetitive locations or serving a small area so you can build a 'standard' for each trip, ideally based on the driver's trip sheet reporting locations, route and state line odometer readings. That is needed to re-build your info possibly working backwards from the BOL's with PC miler. IN THE FUTURE Since it is now processed on-line you need to totalize each truck each month miles per state from the daily sheets and the gallons of fuel purchased per state. Problem is having the daily information and fuel receipts to back it up as this is the information you submit on-line and the audit is trying to see if you are accurate I was glad when our ELD did it all for me instead of hours of manual labor. Also being a smaller company you probably purchase most of your fuel nearby so you need to look at the tax rates in the states where you are operating and consider purchasing some fuel in the highest tax state. Example. NJ used to be $0.17/gal when PA and OH were much higher, PA was around $0.40/gal and IN was close to NJ while IL was higher. I had operators traveling NJ to IL who would buy ALL their fuel in NJ and IN while reporting more miles in OH, PA so they owed tax while their purchases in NJ and IN were credited against the debit in the other states they always had to pay. Buying some fuel in PA, OH, and IL it would have reduced the shortage owed. Then NJ raised their tax rate close to PA and NY. We had on-site fueling so I went from having to pay because my 'credits' at $0.17 were a lot less than my $0.40 'debits' but then it went up and it all changed where I started to have a small credit each quarter instead of a bill to pay. Google IFTA calculation... total fuel and total miles derives your MPG and each state's miles at the MPG yields your taxable gallions less that state's purchased fuel for each state's Plus [owed] or Minus [credit] and it calculates it all for you, rinse and repeat for each state. Simple, right? It is if you have the information
Why test them? If your going to be in this business you need to take care of records. It's not rocket science .
