Fuel Spreadsheet

[TeamCaffee]

I keep and have kept since day one on our truck a spreadsheet on our fuel mileage.

I have a small notebook that is kept near the dash where I keep quick totals and when we pull in to get fuel we right down the truck mileage.

I take the numbers from my notebook and transfer them to my spreadsheet and then calculate what our fuel mileage has been. I list where we buy our fuel, what the cash price was and what our discount is. It is kind of fun at the end of the month to see how much money our discounts have saved us.

At the end of the month I get a total for miles ran, gallons of fuel purchased, average amount paid per gallon, what our average cost per mile was for fuel.

At the end of the year it is pretty easy to take the figures from the spreadsheets and get what the fuel cost you per mile for the year.


The spreadsheet tells us pretty quickly when it is time to have an overhead run on the truck or if something is going wrong as our fuel mileage will start dropping off.

One of the things I do not keep track of and I know I should as it has a huge affect on our fuel mileage is weather conditions and weight of the load we are carrying.

 

[nobb4u]

I have a spreadsheet that I use to keep track my fuel. But what I do is I put my fuel receipts in an envelope in chronological order and I write the mileage on the receipt so when I enter them I only need the receipt. Less chance of inverting numbers and one less thing in the truck.

 

[MentalGiant]

I have made a spreadsheet for 40/60 split. Not as complicated as some of yours may be, but, in our situation it doesn't need to be. Pretty much, I just enter the date the load was delivered, truck number (which never changes ), miles being paid, the dollar amount for each mile, then the pro#, then the next field after that gives the total amount how much the truck made from that mileage. Then further right, I have a place to input if we receive any of the follow, Deadhead Pay, Detention Pay and Extra Stops.

At the bottom of each column, it gives the total for each. Then a little below that, there is a spot where it will calculate all the above to give you the truck gross revenue for that week. Below that it will calculate the 40/60% split showing your 40%. Further down, I have added to where it will automatically deduct your work accident insurance and left a few lines below that to add what ever deductions you need to add to it. Its not perfect, but it gives us the total that we will be getting for that week right down to the penny. I have corrected my owner mistakes a couple of times by keeping track with this.

If anybody wants a template of this, pm me and I'll be more than happy to send one to you. And if you need something added, its easy to do or I could do it for you.

 

[nightcreacher]

lately mother nature has been a real bear.I cant get the wind behind me,in fact, cant get it in front either.all the aero dynamics wont help a side wind,just horsepower and lack of fuel mileage
i have a program in the computer,keeps track of all fuel bought,even does my fuel mileage for me.in real life,as long as im getting better than the 6 mpg that fdcc bases my fsc on,im a happy camper.
the progrtam i have,does everything but payroll taxes.

 

[TeamCaffee]

I have a travel file box I keep in the truck and each of our different expenses has its own folder. After I have entered my receipts I then file them away and at the end of the year they are ready to be filed away in a permanent box at the house.

I have just found that my small fuel notebook is the easiest to enter our odometer readings when we fuel and also to enter our advances. This way we can quickly look at the fuel book and get an idea of what we have in our fuel account and what our last odometer reading was.

 

[nightcreacher]

i may have said this before.
every load i do has its own envelope.on the front of the envelope it has start and stop miles for each state,number gallons bought,cost of: fuel,oil,tolls for that trip.
he front of this envelope was originally set up for a person on a 65/35 split,of which they were responsible fo the front of the envelope
on the back side,a place for all other expenses,ie.service,repairs,washes,motels,misc.tires,just about anything that may get spent on the road.
when i get home,my sister then enters all this info into the computer,which the program is just about the same as the envelopes.
i've been doing this for better than 28 years.takes just about seconds to find what ever i need to know

 

[TeamCaffee]

Steve I have never been audited but I have heard when the IRS asks for info they ask for a specific time frame and it could be all of your fuel receipts or say repair receipts from September 1st to October 15th. I used to file by the month and keep a P & L statement with each month but after talking to different tax accountants was told not to do it that way. I have since redone my whole filing system to keep like receipts together for the year. If asked I can very easily pull my receipts for any time period asked.

 

[pelicn]

It's interesting to see how different individuals keep track of expenses. We use a combination of spreadsheets and a database to keep track of the expenses. We use a spreadsheet to figure the profit margin on loads we run. We started doing that when we realized that we had taken a few runs that ended up being "panther got paid, fuel got paid, expenses got paid, we got paid and our owner got nothing." Can't run many of those runs, and still have a job. LOL

 

[TeamCaffee]

Spreadsheets are awesome tools and I love the ability to sort them. I can find out how many of those Van loads we get accused of hauling that we really did take! Or I can see what our highest paying load was down to our worst PPM load was. I need to learn a lot more about spread sheets but the more I use them the more I learn.

It is also very easy for me to probe that as a FedEx Custom Critical Express truck why we need to be a D unit.

I have some linked together that cause me grief everyone once in awhile when I decide to move on of them to a different area on my computer.

 

[nightcreacher]

Steve I have never been audited but I have heard when the IRS asks for info they ask for a specific time frame and it could be all of your fuel receipts or say repair receipts from September 1st to October 15th. I used to file by the month and keep a P & L statement with each month but after talking to different tax accountants was told not to do it that way. I have since redone my whole filing system to keep like receipts together for the year. If asked I can very easily pull my receipts for any time period asked.

guess i neglected to say that every receipt is filed in their respected places
I have been audited 3 times,1982 1993 and 1994,didnt make out to well in 1982.no problem 93 and 94

 

[TeamCozumel]

Hey all, this is Todd. I'm going to muddy the waters here but I came here looking for an answer and noticed this post.

So, I was in the process of creating a data base that could track every possible freaking thing that is involved with doing this business. This would include start and stop times, mileage, fuel, pretrips, postrips, and my mama's meatloaf.

Does anyone have a database they would be willing to share that I could corrupt and make my own or should I just back off and relax a little before trying to build an elephant in a space the size of a bathroom?

 

[TeamCaffee]

Hey Todd the key is to start and as time goes on you will add and you will take away info you find you do not need.

I have to separate spreadsheets that I use one for fuel and one for loads. If interested PM me and I can send you samples of them. Anyone that is good with spreadsheets though I am sure can make mine look like child’s play!

 

[Jack_Berry]

i track the mileage on my notebook where i write all the needed load info, mt and loaded miles, all the pay info and the start mt miles, miles when i loaded and mile at which i unloaded.

i note the mileage on the fuel receipt and the pro. these are the columns on the fuel sheet.

DATE PLACE WHAT LOCATION RUN NUMBER CASH VISA CHARGE OTHER COSTS FUEL COST GAL TRUCK MILEAGE TRIP MPG these are the columns on the load sheet
DATE START T O # PRO P-U TIME PCES WGT SHIPPER street CITY phone deadhead MT MILES LOADED MILES TOTAL deliv time C'SEE street CITY phone DH / detention LOAD PAY FSC TOTAL RUN CPM LOADED CPM ALL Expenses on Run PROFIT TYPE LOAD

feel free to use any of them. it is a tool afteral.

 

[GOT2GO]

Hey all not looking to start a ****ing contest but have you compared you fuel mileage from your tracking, to what FDCC says it is? I found that if you get better fuel mileage then they think possible then they use fleet avg. Been awhile but for tractors I think that was like 6 to 6.5. We are doing an internal audit and its not looking good for the FED. Other truck running general freight never has to pay more than 50 to 100 bucks, the FDCC truck always has to pay. So far the biggest discrepancy we have seen is them lumping refer fuel in with truck fuel, and the mileage reported by the qualcom being off as much as 18%. (Odometer v/s Qualcom fuel and mileage report) The better fuel mileage you get the less IFTA tax you pay. I asked about this a while ago and they got a bit ****y. When our internal audit is done I will be very interested to see the outcome.

 

[Dynamite 1]

the sheet i use has columns for date,p/u + del location, dh ,lm, tm, loaded mi. pay vs. cost, dh pay vs cost, dh%, cpm after fuel purchased, fuel purchased, fcs, misc exp. ie. tolls, scales etc., total pay, net pay. seems like alot but really just the essentials to get any number or % you would need. to me the most important is the cpm after fuel. but with a little math you can get any figure on any run or by the wk., mo., or whatever time period you want. as stated, with info like this you can tell lots of things about your business and your vehicle. if anyone would like any info on mine please feel free to pm me with a contact ph. # and we will discuss the way it works. TNT