Are hand written fuel receipts legal?

Are you talking about a roadside/scale inspection or an audit at the office? The roadside should be the least of your worries...if and when they do a facilty inspection it's more scrutinizing than you can imagine and should be your focus. Oh, and the odds of them making a phone call doesn't depend so much on how they feel on a particular day, where did you get that notion....it depends on how much other schidt they have already found wrong with your record keeping. Let me spell it out for you, if all they can find wrong is a questionable fuel receipt or two you have no worries...but if they find a boatload of receipts like that along with other violations...you will have a bad day. I'm only trying to be helpful and telling you what I know from experience.

 

I have my own bulk fuel tank. So I am hand writing myself a "receipt" when I fill a truck. Have never had an issue with an audit due to it.

 

Do you use a compliance manager or do you do your own compliance?

 

Handwritten fuel tickets are not acceptable by IFTA or the DOT, unless the fuel ticket has the name, and address of the fueling location preprinted or at least rubber stamped on the fuel ticket . Both agencies have been known to over look that requirement on a case by case situation.

In the case where you you have your own bulk tank at your location, there would be a ticket generated when the bulk tank is filled.

 

Take picture of pump when done, it'll have time stamp, good as gold. Tag other necessary info.

 

The easiest thing to do is to avoid the big chains and pay cash. Go to the places that will either hand write a ticket or print a big one, not the small register tape that has the time and date. There are many places that will hand write a ticket and leave the date off once they get to know you. I'm loyal to them like a stray puppy that's been fed.

 

The only way you would write yourself a fuel receipt is if you sold fuel to yourself.

Otherwise if you're trying to be tricky find one of those old credit card carbon copy machines. You can cut up old cards and make up anything from the letters and numbers.

 

We use WEX (Wright Express) cards for fuel when out of town. During an audit a few years back, they didn't ask for receipts. They said "sit down at that computer right there and open up your Wright Express account..."
Every time one of the cards was slid, it was right there on the screen, complete with date, time, and location.

NOW,
We also fuel at a local station 3 miles down the road from the shop. It's a small place, and we have an old-fashioned, in-house charge account. Never slide a card there. And the receipt is hand written and has the date, but no time.