Recording Mileage at State Lines

Yep, we keep a small notebook to log our miles. It's for IFTA, tax deductions, when we do maintenance, etc.

It's very common for O/O's.

 

I fill out the miles and routes on our company trip envelopes in the spaces provided. When I drove for Stevens, we just listed what routes we ran, the fuel tax people took it from there. My dispatcher pretty much leaves my routing up to me.

 

I carry a dry erase marker on the dash and write a note to myself as I'm driving. Usually the odometer reading is all. Then I transfer the information to my notebook when I'm stopped later.
I also use this to note my mileage for my log when I cross midnight.

 

the dry erase works great, a tip from someone on TTR... also have to log fuel, gallons purchased, in each state.

 

It's been a must do since the gooberment started the tax per mile crapola many years ago. It's so old and useless it's a laugh anyone has to actually take their attention off their driving so a cheap arsed company can file their taxes now, and only those companies who are too cheap to buy a routing program like PC Miler that will automatically route the truck and total every mile on the trip even broken down to which road, toll or interstate and city street from dock to dock and then will put it into most excel reports or others for easy work for free and money saving (accountants time) reports.

My last good job I never had to write them down as they used PC Miler. What a relief! I watched a driver on I-40 coming across the Mississippi River bridge in Memphis sideswipe another truck as he was writing his mileage down. We sat for 4 hours as they got those two trucks untangled! It turns out the idiot was writing down ALL the numbers off the odometer and the truck had over 1million miles! I asked him why he had to write down ALL the numbers and the moron said "well how am I going to remember them all?" Me and the other driver looked at him and I asked him "do you write all of them down when you started the trip?" and he answered "yes" then the other guy tells him the same thing I was going to say, "why not just write the last 3 down because you #### sure aren't going to drive any 1 million miles and change all the numbers on the odometer on this trip!" The moron just looked at him like a deer in headlights! That went way over his head! Needless to say there were a few of us ready to tar and feather this guy for making us have to sit because of his screw up!

It's still just not needed any more. Mapping programs are all pretty much spot on. Yeah PC Miler 15.0 was always off by about 5%-12% but heck even HHG was and still is off by that amount.

With QComm and the other GPS run equipment that FOR AN EXTRA CHARGE will do the same thing down to almost the foot!

With trucking companies hiring more rookies and getting rid of the experienced drivers that can actually write and drive you'd think their college educed managers would see the safety of doing it with modern technology and get off the stupid unsafe ways with this law suit insane society we have going these days!

Way back in 1988 I found this great suction cup note pad holder at some 5 and dime store (oops just showed my age with the usage of 5 and dime!)IDK where, but that I still have it and if I ever get back on the road it will take it's place where it belongs! It has a mechanical lever that will suck the cup to the glass of the windshield which is the same spot in every truck I drove since then! It has a clamp on top of the flat pad "table" and how I fill it out is this:
At top on left the load number which every company has in one form or another. In the center the date that load starts and in the top right the start miles. NOT all of them just the last 4. Not too many trips will go over 3000 miles.

Now down the left side is mileage of each thing I need such as state lines, pick up, fuel, breaks, break downs, tolls and delivery. Next to them a city name and a time.

You'll note in the picture below that behind the name or town you see something like this; Tulsa 153/2.25 that is the miles from Mt. Vernon and the hours I put in the log of 2.25. You'll also notice down at K man (Kingman, Az) a time! That was fuel. The last entry was at Victorville, Ca Pilot when I called 911 and are the last miles I have written in my pad.

All those numbers did one major thing. They corresponded with a line in the log book! The time so I could make the log match a toll ticket, a fuel stop, (when I finally broke down and bought a cell as soon as I hung the pump up I would look at the time on the cell and write it down) inspection, or to match QComm! It kept that log book pretty much where it needed to be OR if being a little creative I at least had the numbers of where things were instead of sitting there with the map and adding all those tiny little numbers up to force the book to look good and as I remember for the old days and watching drivers today HOURS "coloring" the stupid thing! Especially if pretty blue and red lights appear in the mirror or I got the pull around at a scale. By the time a DOT or officer made it to the door I had log in lap, calculator that sits on dash on and present miles on odo in and subtracted and the lines drawn in the book and the book back in the door for me to show whoever that, yes, my log is up to date officer! It's a lot easier than a stupid voice recorder or locating a pad floating in the cab! Nor as dangerous as trying to type this into a smart phone or computer. The pad is stuck to the windshield and you only take your eyes off the road for one second to locate where you need to write 3 numbers down which I pray you can do without having to watch your pen to do so!

I also keep each page until I know that my logs have passed inspection with the safety office and I get the end of the month atta boy letter from them then I can trash them! The ones you see in the picture below are from August 2009 my last two trips I drove before having to come off the road for your safety!

Hope this gave you a hint on how to keep a moving record of each trip. And why having to write numbers down for a cheap arsed company is a waste of their time and a safety hazard for newer drivers.

 

my company keeps a notebook at dispatch, anytime a truck goes out of state, they notate the state and how many miles travelled in that state for quarterly taxes