How do I track deadhead miles for tax purposes?
Deadhead miles are the miles you drive without a load. This includes driving to pick up freight, repositioning for your next haul, or returning home after a delivery. These are legitimate business miles and fully deductible. The IRS doesn’t care whether your trailer was loaded or empty. What matters is that you drove for business reasons and can prove it.
The challenge is separating deadhead from loaded miles in your records. Your ELD captures total miles driven but doesn’t automatically categorize them by type. You need a system that tracks when you’re running empty, where you’re going, and why. This documentation matters for taxes and also helps you understand your true profitability by knowing what percentage of your miles generate revenue.
Use a mileage tracking app or simple spreadsheet that lets you tag miles by category. Apps like TruckLogics or even a basic spreadsheet work as long as you’re consistent. Record the date, starting point, destination, trip purpose, and odometer readings. Do this daily, not at the end of the week or month. Trying to reconstruct which miles were deadhead after the fact is nearly impossible and the numbers you guess at won’t hold up if questioned.
Keep your ELD data and dispatch records organized together. Your ELD shows total miles driven each day. Your dispatch records show pickup and delivery locations. The difference between those points and your actual route documents your deadhead miles. Having both records creates a backup trail that supports your deductions.
For most trucking businesses, you’ll use the actual expenses method rather than the standard mileage rate since commercial vehicles over a certain weight don’t qualify for the per-mile deduction. This means tracking fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and depreciation. But mileage documentation still matters because the IRS wants to see that the expenses you claim match your actual business driving.
The IRS requires contemporaneous records for mileage deductions. That means written down at or near the time of the trip, not reconstructed months later from memory. Keep a simple log in your cab or use an app on your phone. Write down the date, where you’re headed, why, and your odometer reading when you start and finish. Takes thirty seconds at each stop.
If tracking feels like more paperwork than you want to handle, you’re not alone. Most owner-operators got into trucking to drive, not manage spreadsheets. Working with a bookkeeper near Gentry who understands trucking can help you set up a simple tracking system that fits how you actually work. Getting the system right from the start prevents the scramble of trying to piece together a year’s worth of miles at tax time.
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