Anyone using programs to track vehicle distance and IFTA??

Have a gps hard wired in and get with a company that will track it and do the IFTA for you. I use a company called transcarolina. I forgot what the actual monthly cost is but it is really inexpensive. After you factor in your time manually doing trip sheets and then calculating IFTA and the cost of postage etc, the service you pay them to do is definitely worth it.

You do not have to do anything trip sheet related. They will calculate everything and take care of payments/refunds for each state. Then they send you the paperwork for records purposes.

The only thing I do and others do is keep an easy running log of trip beginning and ending mileages and mileage for fuel. Then if there is a problem where the gps didn't track you for a day or 2 you can easily fill in the gaps. That has not been an issue, but just a recommended practice just in case.

 

I use Spireon FleetLocate. (www.spireon.com/gps-vehicle-tracking/)
They have IFTA gps tracking devices that provides reporting on truck routes, breaks, gas usage, etc.

 

What exactly does an IFTA audit check. I'm a fairly new carrier so I haven't been through many audits. I'm getting it's different from the FMCSA new carrier audit?

 

They compare fuel purchases and miles reported on your IFTA filings to your receipts. They want actual receipts and bill of lading. Make sure you copy all fuel receipts. They only accept the original fuel receipts for proof of fuel purchases. I keep everything in an envelope for each trip. I also have a program that allows me to scan in any important documents.

 

They want BOLs as well? I put my fuel receipts and logs together in an envelop every two weeks. But my original BOLs that I don't have to mail out are separate in a monthly folder. I've never heard of audits checking BOLs. I have a copy of every BOL I've ever had scanned to my computer but I never organized those files because I rarely need to dig up a copy.

 

In the simplest terms, they want empirical records clearly showing the fuel purchases and miles in each jurisdiction of that truck or fleet.

This includes all fuel that is purchased for the purpose of truck propulsion (in other words, not fuel that specifically goes into a reefer or APU separate tank.) This part is usually not hard for the reporting individual or company because they either have physical fuel receipts or a fuel card report that show the required info (date, time, driver/truck, location, gallons purchased.) When keeping the physical fuel receipts method, make sure to verify that they are legible. Paper receipts can often be faded, smeared, torn, etc. Knowing that you need to keep them for 4 years, you should make photocopies or scans of any that look like they may be not going to "make it" for 4 years.

For mileage, the BOL is a common "launching point" because it is an empirical starting & ending point document of that trip. In other words, if you got PAID for taking that load from point A to point B, then they at least have an irrefutable "beginning and ending" to start with. Then, in addition, they need some form of "trip report" that shows the lanes taken for that trip, including bobtail, out-of-route, deadhead, loaded, and unloaded miles. The trip report helps them verify your IFTA claim of miles or kilometers driven in each jurisdiction for that truck. If you tie the BOL to whatever form of "trip report" that you are using, then you have a tidy package in terms of mileage in an audit.

The trip report can be in many forms as long as it contains the primary info they need to verify what you claimed as mileage. So, the simplest example is when a driver combines that info on their daily log sheet. They show the beginning HUB odometer and the ending HUB of the day. They thoroughly note their duty status locations (i.e. Fuel / Pilot / Dallas, TX / 0930) and that is backed up by a fuel receipt or fuel card report showing the same fueling location and time. Then at the bottom, they write the basic lanes taken (i.e. If the beginning of the day shows a "Pretrip Twin Falls, ID FLying J" and the last duty entry shows "Sleeper / Flying J, Evanston, WY) then at the lanes section on the bottom, they wrote "I84 - I15 - I84 - I80." Any auditor can clearly see on his map the exact mileage in each jurisdiction from those lanes. I have seen people pass audits with just his kind of documentation, although separate trip sheets are a much safer, and even required by some jurisdictions, method. The downfall is that you need to now keep the log sheets for 4 years and you need to keep a close eye on out of route miles matching your odometers. The "logbook" method is not iron-clad, but I mention it because it is a very good ADDITIONAL tool to make your life easier as the person trying to recreate accurate IFTA miles.

The most iron-clad method is with full, separate daily trip sheets. Although there is no single formatted sheet provided nationwide, here is a good example that Washington state provides: Trip Sheet Link. When filled out, it contains the iron-clad info in an audit. You can see how good logbook reporting combined with a program like CoPilot Truck V8 state miles or similar route mileage calculator, and a trip sheet, can make IFTA reporting and audit tasks much less painful without an electronic tracker.

Finally, you know you have the BOL's. You know you have some form of fuel purchase receipt trail. If you do have some form of "ifta gps reporting device" installed, then you can once again empirically display the exact routes and state mileage used on your IFTA, including all miles (deadhead, bobtail, out-of-route, etc.) Just make sure to designate any "non-ifta" miles or kilometers as such (like permit trips, or oil lease roads, etc) so that you don't have to pay for those miles. Good logs, trip sheets, BOL's, backed possibly with an optional electronic means will make IFTA and IRP audits no sweat.

And naturally the ELD mandate will eventually reduce or eliminate the whole "documenting and proving" process electronically, depending on how it rolls out. Who becomes president, and who controls congress after November can change such courses...

 

Thanks for the info. Looks like the only thing I don't do is record the routes I take. I'll start doing that until I get some sort of GPS app that will record that info for me.

 

All you have to do is write the route down by state with your starting and ending point. I originally designed my own form. I now just use one that came in my accounting program. All I need do is print it out. A GPS might work OK. I recall one guy who posted on one of the forums who had a trucking GPS, such as Rand McNally. At the end of each quarter, he printed out the report from his computer and then filed his taxes. I would always keep a hard copy as a backup. You never know when you might have a glitch.