Stop reconstructing a quarter of state miles from trip sheets. Truxello splits every route by state, pulls gallons from your fuel cards, and rolls both into an IFTA report you can export when the quarter closes.
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Watch the IFTA chapter of the full demo: miles by state from your loads, gallons from your fuel cards, and the report ready to export.
An IFTA return needs two numbers per state: miles driven and gallons bought. The math is simple. What takes a weekend every quarter is finding those numbers across trip sheets, ELD exports, and a fuel card statement, then fixing the gaps before the deadline.
In Truxello, both numbers are collected as a side effect of running the fleet. Dispatching a load produces its state miles. Importing the fuel card produces the gallons. At quarter end the report is already there.
Miss one and the penalty is typically $50 or 10% of the tax due, whichever is greater, plus interest that accrues per jurisdiction. File late often enough and your base state can revoke the license, which strands trucks at scale houses.
If you are comparing tools, these are the four jobs that decide whether the quarter takes ten minutes or a weekend. Worth asking any vendor about each one, including us.
Routes are calculated for every load, including multi-stop, with loaded and empty miles broken down by state.
Bring in EFS, WEX, and Comdata transactions. Gallons are tallied by state, and the same purchases reconcile onto driver settlements.
Drivers without a fleet card snap fuel receipts in the Truxello Driver app, so cash purchases don’t fall out of the report.
Connect Samsara, Motive, or Geotab to see Hours of Service, diagnostics, and DVIRs next to the loads they belong to.
Miles and gallons by jurisdiction for the quarter, ready to export and file with your base state.
IFTA isn’t a separate subscription. It comes with dispatch, settlements, invoicing, and the driver app for every truck.
Nothing here is an IFTA step you perform. Each one is something you were already doing to run the load, and the fuel tax data is the residue it leaves behind.
This is the part most carriers underestimate. Filing on time is easy; defending the numbers three years later is where the money is lost. An auditor who cannot reconcile your distance records can disallow your tax-paid credits outright and reassess the quarter at the highest rate.
IFTA record retention runs four years from the return due date or filing date, whichever is later. Truxello keeps the loads, routes, and fuel records that produced each quarter rather than just the quarter’s totals, so the backup is still there when someone asks.
An auditor wants to see the trip behind the miles: date, origin and destination, route, and the jurisdiction split. Because the report is built from dispatched loads rather than typed into a spreadsheet, that trail exists without anyone maintaining it.
A valid fuel receipt shows date, seller, gallons, fuel type, price per gallon, and the unit number. Photos taken in the driver app stay attached to the truck and the purchase, which is why cash fuel stops being the weak point in the file.
The expensive audit findings are usually absences: a week with fuel and no miles, or a state crossed with no purchase and no explanation. Seeing those while the quarter is still open is worth more than any export format.
Record-keeping requirements come from the IFTA Articles of Agreement and your base jurisdiction, and they do change. Confirm the current rules with your base state before you file. Our IFTA reporting guide walks through the calculation and filing steps in full.
Most carriers arrive at one of these by accident rather than by choosing it. The honest trade-offs:
| Approach | Where the miles come from | Holds up better when | Breaks down when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet and trip sheets | Typed in from driver paperwork | One truck, few states, predictable lanes | Volume rises, or a driver’s handwriting is the only record of a state line |
| Standalone IFTA app | Entered or GPS-tracked in the app | Fuel tax is genuinely the only thing you need software for | You also dispatch, invoice, or settle, and now maintain the same trip twice |
| ELD provider’s IFTA module | Engine and GPS data from the ELD | Mileage accuracy matters most and the fleet is already standardised on one ELD | Fuel lives elsewhere, or you switch ELD vendors and the history does not come with you |
| Bookkeeper or filing service | Whatever you send them | You would rather pay to never think about it | The quality of the return still depends on the records you hand over, and per-quarter fees scale with trucks |
| TMS with IFTA built in | The loads you already dispatched | You run the trucks and the office in one system, and want one source for miles, fuel, and settlements | You want a dedicated fuel tax specialist rather than software |
Truxello is the last row. If your situation is the second one, the standalone Truxello IFTA app exists for exactly that and costs $7.99/month.
You do not have to wait for January to start. From the day you begin dispatching in Truxello, loads produce their own state miles and imported fuel lands against the right truck. The weeks before that are still on your old records, so the first return is usually a splice: your existing numbers for the early part of the quarter, Truxello’s for the rest.
That makes the quarter you switch the last awkward one. Carriers who move mid-quarter generally keep the old spreadsheet open for a few weeks, file the blended return, and then never touch it again. Starting at the beginning of a quarter avoids the splice entirely, which is the only reason to time it.
Pump price and fuel tax are different numbers, and the cheapest sign on the interstate is often not the cheapest place to fill once tax is accounted for. Because Truxello holds both the state mileage and the purchases, the fuel side of the quarter stops being a surprise you discover at filing time. The IFTA app takes this further for single trucks and ranks states by true cost after fuel tax.
If you’re a single owner-operator who just wants fuel tax handled on your phone, the Truxello IFTA app logs miles and fuel, shows which state is cheapest to fuel in after fuel tax, and prepares your quarterly report. If you dispatch, invoice, or pay drivers, the full TMS below includes IFTA at no extra cost.
One plan, priced per truck, with every feature and unlimited office users. Annual billing gets two months free. Full pricing
Truxello calculates a route for every load, including multi-stop loads, and splits loaded and empty miles by state. Those state miles feed the IFTA report automatically.
Import transactions from EFS, WEX, or Comdata, or have drivers snap fuel receipts in the Truxello Driver app. Gallons are tallied by state for the quarter.
Truxello prepares the quarterly report with miles and gallons by jurisdiction so you can export it and file with your base state. You still submit the return yourself.
No. IFTA reporting is included in every Truxello subscription, from $29/month for your first truck.
Yes, if you cross state lines in a qualifying vehicle — over 26,000 pounds gross, or three or more axles regardless of weight. Running a single truck changes nothing about the obligation. The only common exemption is operating entirely inside one state.
Yes. Deadhead between loads is routed and split by state the same way loaded miles are. All movement counts as taxable distance for IFTA, and leaving empty miles out is one of the more common ways a return gets understated.
They photograph the receipt in the Truxello Driver app and it lands against that truck alongside the card transactions. Without this, fuel bought outside the card feed tends to go unclaimed, which means losing credit you were entitled to.
Yes. Loads dispatched in Truxello start producing state miles immediately, so the first return is typically part your old records and part Truxello. After that quarter it builds itself. Starting at the beginning of a quarter avoids the one-time splice.
Those are separate obligations. The ELD mandate is about Hours of Service, and Truxello is not an ELD. Connect Samsara, Motive, or Geotab and the HOS data sits next to the loads it belongs to; IFTA mileage comes from the dispatched routes either way.
Four years from the return’s due date or filing date, whichever is later, and auditors can request the distance and fuel records behind the totals rather than the totals alone. Truxello retains the loads, routes, and fuel purchases that produced each quarter. Confirm the current requirement with your base jurisdiction.