A carrier operating across several states and provinces files a single fuel tax return, but has to enter a rate for every jurisdiction, every fuel type and every quarter — rates that change every three months. Entering them from memory, or leaving a blank cell at zero, means preparing a return that is wrong without anyone noticing. This application fetches the quarter's rates rather than guessing them.
Who the application is for
For road hauliers operating heavy goods vehicles across Canada and the United States, through several jurisdictions, who need to prepare a quarterly fuel tax return and track their drivers' driving and rest hours.
What the application does
- Fetches the fuel tax rate for each jurisdiction and fuel type of the quarter, through an online service, a file import or manual entry, keeping a record of where each rate came from.
- Calculates the columns of the quarterly return — distance, taxable volume, tax due, total — in the order and under the names of the official form.
- Flags any cell with no rate on record rather than calculating it as zero, and prevents the return from being marked as filed until it is resolved.
- Works out the filing deadline, then the late penalty and interest if the actual filing date is later.
- Checks five hours-of-service rules — driving, duty, rest, breaks, cycle — by reading each limit from the driver's regime record rather than hard-coding it.
- Raises a dated finding — a rule, an article, a measurement, a limit — for every breach, every inspection defect or every expired driver file, never raising the same one twice.
- Prints the quarterly return preparation document and the inspection report, with their totals and signatures.
Day to day
- At the start of the quarter, fetch the rates through the online service, by importing a downloaded file, or by entering them manually, noting their origin.
- Consolidate the quarter: read the message listing the cells with no rate, then fill them in or remove jurisdictions you did not operate in.
- Mark the return as filed and print the preparation document; if filing was late, enter the actual date so the penalty and interest are calculated.
- Each day, deal with open findings: mark them as dealt with, or dismiss them by writing the reason — an exemption, an emergency, a special permit.
- Adjust the hours-of-service regimes whenever a limit changes: each field carries the article it comes from, and can be corrected without touching anything else.
What the application does not do
- It does not file any return: filing happens on your base jurisdiction's own portal, which no application can replace.
- It is not an electronic logging device for hours of service: that remains a piece of hardware certified by an accredited body.
- It draws no conclusion from a finding: it measures a fact against a limit, and the decision to act remains yours.
- Rules and rates keep changing depending on the jurisdiction: the application does not replace the advice of a transport compliance specialist or your base jurisdiction's own guidance.
Free and full editions
The free edition already keeps the register: jurisdictions, units, drivers and their files, trips with distance per jurisdiction, fuel purchases, inspection reports, duty days, and the quarterly consolidation with the fleet's average fuel consumption factor. The full edition installs on top without starting over, and adds rate fetching, return calculation, deadlines, hours-of-service checks and the two printable documents.
Getting started
Check the hours-of-service regimes provided and adjust each limit to your situation, enter your fleet's average fuel consumption factor, then fetch the first quarter's rates before consolidating it.
Going further
To find out whether this application suits your business and how to activate it, compare the plans or write to us.