Weekly Fleet Bulletin - Monthly Fuel Tax Report

[TeamCaffee]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Weekly Bulletin Message:[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]An Easy Way to Calculate Mileage for Annual Vehicle Registration[/FONT]
Did you know that you can get your mileage for annual vehicle registration from your monthly fuel tax reports? These reports include your actual mileage travelled, so they will have all the information you need.

You can also call in to request a report, but there is at least a one-week waiting period for this. You can save yourself some time by simply adding up the mileage from your monthly fuel tax reports instead.

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]We used to call in and get the report sent to us when we were on our way to get our tag each year. The miles though were different then what I figured for each state. What I think is that these miles are based off of is dispatch miles loaded and empty.

Then I realized that the monthly fuel report is based off of the pings we get using QC and the miles are much more accurate. I created a simple spreadsheet to keep track of these miles.

When I receive that mileage sheet from FXCC I sit down for about five minutes and enter the miles for each state and what we pay in each state. When it is time to figure our miles for each state to get our tag it takes a minute to figure up these columns and I know how many miles we have driven and enter the numbers in for the state info. [/FONT]

 

[usafk9]

The Rand Mcnally GPS also tracks mileage by state, including a breakdown by toll and non-toll roads. This is a good tool to use when comparing to your monthly IFTA reporting.

FWIW, we also used to use the summary that we asked for from FDCC. However, the kind folks at the Michigan IRP office were none too friendly when we told them that, and an audit took a trip through our wallet.

 

[GandJ]

The Rand Mcnally GPS also tracks mileage by state, including a breakdown by toll and non-toll roads. This is a good tool to use when comparing to your monthly IFTA reporting.

FWIW, we also used to use the summary that we asked for from FDCC. However, the kind folks at the Michigan IRP office were none too friendly when we told them that, and an audit took a trip through our wallet.

Didn't know that about the Rand GPS I'm going to look at that......thank you very interesting

Also, I'm guessing Michigan didn't think the report was accurate enough?? So what do you do now so as to avoid any further problems with an audit?

 

[usafk9]

Didn't know that about the Rand GPS I'm going to look at that......thank you very interesting

Also, I'm guessing Michigan didn't think the report was accurate enough?? So what do you do now so as to avoid any further problems with an audit?

The info you're looking for on the Rand GPS is under Truck Tools, then Timers/Mileage/Trails/Fuel, then the mileage tab. It breaks down by quarter, then month, then by state/province.

The Michigan IRP office would not accept the summary provided by FDCC, as it did not contain a daily odometer reading. Neither the new C-link nor our old paper logs had an entry for an odometer reading; rather, just a daily miles summary. While that "style" of logbook was available, the Fed one did not have a place for the reading. Further, while the new MCP-200 units we have now has an odometer reading, it does not record it anywhere that we, as truck owners, can use for record-keeping. It doesn't store with our log backups. When I peed and moaned about it to the safety department, they seemed unfazed. Of all the features available on these units we rent, you'd think that would be easily remedied.

Regarding the audit, the idiots, er, kind government employees initially stated that we way under-reported our mileage, and that we owed an additional $1400. My wife spent a weekend scanning that year's BOL's, and the IRP office used Promiles to estimate our mileage. We ended up paying an additional $106. Still stung.

Moving forward, they now state that our use of this new unit suffices for their reporting purposes, and that we don't have to report odometer readings. However, I don't trust them. I'm using the info on the GPS.....much more accurate, IMHO.


Hope that helps.

 

[GandJ]

Yes, it does help! Great info..... thank you for taking time to explain it so clearly.

 

[TeamCaffee]

If you can get into the habit of keeping track of your mileage that way it is the way to do it.

With the way I keep track of loads I could recreate mileage sheets without to much work.

 

[Deville]

I have found when comparing the QC mileage reporting to my own daily reports that they the QC reporting is fairly accurate. I have only seen a 2 or 3 mile difference between the two.