How to Fill Out a Daily Trip Sheet

What a trip sheet is

A trip sheet is a driver's daily paper or digital record of a truck's movement: where it went, how far, how much fuel it burned, and what happened along the way. Owner-operators and small fleets use it as the raw data source for two things: IFTA fuel tax filing and per-mile cost tracking. Dispatchers and brokers sometimes use a version of the same form to log detention time and delivery notes for billing disputes.

It is not the same as a driver's daily log (Hours of Service). A trip sheet tracks the vehicle and the trip; the HOS log tracks the driver's duty status. Many carriers keep both, but they serve different regulators and different audiences.

Field-by-field: how to fill one out

• Date. One trip sheet per day, even if the driver runs the same route daily. Date stamps are what let you reconstruct a quarter during an audit.
• Truck and trailer number. Record both, not just the tractor. If trailers get swapped mid-route, note the swap and the time it happened.
• Odometer start / end. Log the odometer reading at the start of the day and at the end. The difference should match the sum of the legs recorded below it. A gap between odometer miles and logged miles is one of the first things an IFTA auditor checks.
• Origin and destination. City and state (or full address for deliveries) for every stop, not just the first pickup and last drop-off. Each leg needs its own line.
• Miles by state. This is the field IFTA cares about most. Break out miles driven in each jurisdiction, not just total miles. Use a routing tool or the truck's ELD/GPS mileage report to split miles at state lines — do not estimate.
• Fuel purchases. Date, location (city/state), gallons, price per gallon, and total cost for every fuel stop. Keep the receipt — the trip sheet entry and the receipt need to match.
• Detention / notes. Arrival and departure time at each stop, reason for any delay, and anything relevant to a detention-pay claim. Optional for IFTA, but often the difference between getting paid for detention and not.

Why owner-operators keep them

Common mistakes

• Estimating state-line miles instead of measuring them. Auditors expect mileage by state to reconcile with routing data; round numbers or "about half" splits are a red flag.
• Odometer readings that don't match logged miles. Even small unexplained gaps invite scrutiny.
• Mixing bulk and retail fuel purchases in one field instead of tracking them separately.
• Losing fuel receipts. A trip sheet entry without a matching receipt is unsupported in an audit.
• Skipping days with no loads. Deadhead and personal-conveyance miles still count toward total mileage and need to be logged.
• Filing quarterly and only then trying to reconstruct the data. Records built after the fact are far more error-prone than same-day entries.

A trip sheet only pays off if it's filled in the same day, every day. Treat it as part of the job, not paperwork to catch up on before the IFTA deadline.

Get the trip sheet this guide describes

The free daily trip sheet has every field above, ready to print — plus a 5-document IFTA, fuel & expense pack if you want the rest of the paperwork done too.

Daily Trip Sheets & IFTA Pack

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