Reporting IFTA and the ELD Rules
Most Electronic Logging Devices also have support to report automated IFTA. Do you have ELD IFTA supported devices for your vehicles? Find out more here.
Millions of commercial vehicle fleet are being impacted by the ELD mandate. As a result, they have been encouraged to use the telematics system in a better way to manage their vehicles. ELD IFTA stands for International Fuel Tax Agreement to report and pay the taxes on fueling by an Inter-jurisdictional carrier (IJC). It involves having a particular weight on using electronic logs and to inspect this system.
Leveraging ELDs for Reporting the IFTA
All IFTA fleet companies will have to use Electronic Log Devices (ELDs) to record and report Hours of Service. As a direct benefit of adopting ELD they will be able to leverage this system for auto IFTA reporting as well.
Advantages of auto IFTA reporting of fuel tax:
- • • Auto calculation of mileage traveled by every vehicle.
- • • No need for manual entry.
- • • Decrease audit risks by removing irregularities.
- • • Decrease fleet management process-time and increase the productivity and efficiency of drivers.
- • • Easily get fuel or gas usage data, other than calculating the usage manually according to receipts.
Will my devices support ELD IFTA reporting?
At assured Techmatics, we provide IFTA supported ELD devices to meet all telematics requirements. So, you do not need to use multiple telematics devices in your vehicles. There are a few questions to make sure whether your ELD devices support IFTA reporting:
- • • Does the ELD device provide a thorough mileage report? There must be GPS logging as per the ELD rule. Thorough and highly precise IFTA reports will need regular GPS logs, particularly for short-time.
- • • Does the mileage report show the location and travel destination?
- • • Does the report show the travel routes?
- • • Does the report show the total mileage in addition to the distance within every intersection?
- • • Will the telematics system save the data for a long time if there is any audit activity?
- • • Does an ELD device show any device failure if any? You must switch to manual data recording if the telematics system fails.
IFTA Audit and the Standard of 3%
Every authority involved in IFTA agrees to a 3% audit of the records once a year. You may possibly meet an audit when you still are maintaining a manual record, to make sure the record is accurate. If the IFTA audit comes to your fleet and you use the telematics system for IFTA reporting, it will be beneficial for you during the audit because the electronic logging system eliminates manual mistakes and calculation logics are save for all trips.
Common errors that can happen with manual recording are:
- • • Distance gap
- • • Travel to irrelevant areas
- • • Wrong MPG
- • • Incomplete trip record
- • • Calculation mistakes
- • • Odometer data vary from GPS data
- • • Imperfect fuel-usage record
Benefits of auto IFTA reporting
- • • Records odometer values and GPS data with great accuracy;
- • • Calculates all arrival and departure odometer values and identifies any issue with vehicle or engine;
- • • Import fuel usage data to IFTA data to further update IFTA reports;
- • • Auto IFTA reports can be delivered to other partners to populate tax forms automatically.
