Trucking accounting carries obligations most small businesses never encounter: per-diem meal rules for drivers away from home, fuel and mileage records that have to be kept jurisdiction by jurisdiction, a classification question between owner-operator and employee that has real payroll consequences, capital-heavy equipment financing decisions, and costing that has to work at the load level, not just company-wide. This guide walks through each.
Per-diem and meal claims for long-haul drivers
Long-haul drivers who are away from their home terminal overnight or longer, working, can generally claim a deduction for meal costs incurred on the road. Two methods exist because keeping every restaurant and grocery receipt from months on the road is impractical for both the driver and the bookkeeper:
- Detailed method — actual receipts are kept and totalled, subject to the usual partial-deductibility rules that apply to meal expenses generally.
- Simplified method — a fixed daily amount is claimed per eligible day away, without needing to keep every receipt, though a log of the days and trips still needs to be maintained to support the claim.
The current per-day amount under the simplified method, and the exact eligibility conditions (which trips qualify, how many meals per day, documentation requirements), are set by the CRA and are worth confirming against the current published guidance before relying on a specific figure — this guide deliberately does not state a dollar amount, since per-diem rates are exactly the kind of number that changes and should never be assumed stale.
Interjurisdictional fuel tax and mileage records
Any carrier crossing provincial or state lines as part of interjurisdictional trucking generally reports and remits fuel tax through the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA), a system that allocates fuel tax owed based on the actual distance driven and the actual fuel purchased in each member jurisdiction the truck passes through — not a single blended total for the whole trip.
That allocation mechanism is why the record-keeping requirement is stricter than ordinary mileage tracking:
- Distance travelled must be logged by jurisdiction, trip by trip, not just as a total odometer difference for the run.
- Fuel purchases must be recorded with the jurisdiction of purchase, tied to receipts.
- Incomplete or estimated per-jurisdiction records are one of the most common findings in an IFTA audit, and shortfalls can be assessed with interest.
Building this discipline into the driver's trip paperwork or an electronic logging system from day one avoids a painful reconstruction exercise at audit time.
Owner-operator vs. employee classification
Trucking is one of the industries where the employee-vs-self-employed question comes up constantly, because both models — company drivers and independent owner-operators leased to a carrier — are common in the same fleet. The CRA applies the same general test used across every industry, not a trucking-specific rule:
| Factor | Points to employee | Points to owner-operator |
|---|---|---|
| Control | Carrier directs routes, hours, methods closely | Driver controls how and when the work gets done |
| Equipment | Carrier's truck and trailer | Driver owns or leases their own truck |
| Risk | Fixed pay regardless of load profitability | Bears fuel, maintenance and downtime risk directly |
| Integration | Exclusively hauls for one carrier, closely supervised | Can (and often does) haul for more than one carrier |
The label in the lease or contract doesn't settle it — the working relationship in practice does. Misclassifying a driver who is really an employee as an owner-operator exposes the carrier to the source deductions that should have been withheld, plus interest and penalties, if the CRA reviews the relationship. Our contractor vs. employee: how the CRA decides guide covers the full test in detail; the factors there apply directly to trucking relationships.
Equipment financing and capital cost treatment
Trucks and trailers are among the largest capital outlays a small business makes, and they are capital assets, not an expense deducted in full the year of purchase. Their cost is recovered over time through capital cost allowance (CCA), with the applicable rate and class depending on the type of equipment. Two financing paths are common, and they are accounted for differently:
- Loan-financed purchase — the truck is an owned asset on the balance sheet from day one, depreciated through CCA, with the loan as a separate liability and interest expensed as incurred.
- Lease — depending on how the lease is structured, it may be treated as an operating expense as payments are made, or in substance as a financed purchase requiring capitalization — the accounting and tax treatment depend on the specific lease terms, so this is worth reviewing with your accountant before signing rather than after.
Either way, the financing choice affects cash flow timing as much as it affects the books, and it's worth modelling both paths against expected utilization before committing.
Load-level costing
Company-wide totals at month-end can hide a fleet that's growing revenue while specific lanes or customers quietly lose money. Load-level costing ties revenue and the direct costs of each individual load — fuel, driver pay for that run, tolls, an allocated share of maintenance — back to that specific trip, rather than blending everything across the fleet. That level of detail is what lets an operator see, for example, that a particular backhaul lane consistently runs at a loss once deadhead miles and tolls are counted, even though the fleet as a whole looks profitable. Building this into the monthly close — not just tracking it informally — turns trucking bookkeeping into a decision tool instead of a compliance chore.
How RN Canada helps
RN Canada's bookkeeping & payroll and corporate & personal tax services set up trucking-grade books: per-jurisdiction fuel and mileage records ready for IFTA, correct owner-operator versus employee classification, CCA schedules for equipment, and load-level costing that shows which lanes actually make money. For the classification test itself, see contractor vs. employee: how the CRA decides; for sales tax registration questions, see our GST/HST/PST guide.
This page is general information, not personalized tax, accounting, or legal advice. Speak with RN Canada about your specific situation.
Frequently asked questions
Drivers who are away from home on long-haul routes can generally claim a deduction for meal costs incurred while working, using either the detailed method (keeping actual receipts) or a simplified method that uses a fixed daily amount instead of receipts. Both methods exist specifically because tracking every meal receipt on the road is impractical, but the current per-day amount and exact eligibility conditions are set by the CRA and should be confirmed against the current published guidance before a driver or their bookkeeper relies on a number — we do not restate a dollar figure here because it can change.
Interjurisdictional carriers report and pay fuel tax through the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA), which allocates fuel tax owed based on the distance actually driven and the fuel actually purchased in each member jurisdiction the truck travels through. That allocation only works if trip distance and fuel purchases are logged jurisdiction by jurisdiction, not just totalled for the trip — incomplete per-jurisdiction records are one of the most common issues raised in an IFTA audit.
The distinction follows the same CRA employee-vs-self-employed test used across industries — control over how and when the work is done, ownership of the truck and equipment, chance of profit and risk of loss, and integration into the carrier's business — not just the label in a contract. A genuine owner-operator typically owns or leases their own truck, bears operating costs and risk, and can work for more than one carrier; a driver who is directed, supervised and uses the carrier's equipment looks more like an employee regardless of what the contract calls them.
Trucks, trailers and major equipment are capital assets, not an immediate expense — their cost is recovered over time through capital cost allowance (CCA) rather than deducted in full the year of purchase. Financing structure matters too: a lease and a loan-financed purchase are accounted for and depreciated differently, and the choice affects both the balance sheet and near-term cash flow, so it's worth modelling before committing to either.
Load-level costing means tracking revenue and the direct costs of each load or run — fuel, driver pay, tolls, maintenance allocated to that trip — rather than only looking at company-wide totals at month-end. Without it, a carrier can be growing revenue while individual lanes or customers are quietly unprofitable, and that only becomes visible once costs are tied back to specific loads rather than blended across the fleet.
Generally yes, once revenue passes the standard small-supplier registration threshold that applies to any self-employed business in Canada — trucking services are not exempt. Below that threshold, voluntary registration is still worth considering if most of your customers are GST/HST-registered businesses, since it lets you recover input tax credits on fuel, maintenance and equipment costs. Confirm your specific registration position with our GST/HST/PST guide or your accountant.