What happens if you don’t file the IFTA?  Do you really want to know?

The consequences to not filing start at mildly annoying and move up to painful and expensive.

The citation is only the first step.  Tickets costs vary from state to state, but the fines will hit you in the wallet.   The State Highway Patrols have lists of fees and penalties when they find a trucker who hasn’t paid up. They might also impound the load.  You probably won’t haul for that shipper again – even if you manage not to get sued.

According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, failure to file your IFTA means your IFTA fuel tax license is revoked – you’re off the road until it’s reinstated.  They did say if you mailed it with overnight delivery, they would try to expedite the reinstatement – it should be only a few days until you get one mailed back to you.  Got another load lined up?  Sorry, you’ll have to wait for that new sticker to arrive.

We know it’s a real time-suck to have to figure out three months of driving.  The odometer numbers start to get a little crazy, the mileage starts to get confused… and maybe those fuel receipts have gotten lost in the seats back in the truck.  The IFTA puts a lot of pressure on owner operators to track every single mile and account for it – and if they don’t like your accounting, you could get audited.  And you thought that the consequences to not paying were bad… The audit can be worse.

Catastrophically worse.

Is It Worth It to Skip the IFTA Filing? Yes!

If you want to lose a lot of money.

Ignoring the fines, penalties, interest and whatever else the government can and will slap on you, think about the time off the road.

• Your best customers are paying other truckers to haul the loads you could have taken.
• Your truck loan payment is still due.
• You’re paying for insurance – for a truck not making any money.
• You’ve paid for the license plates – for truck that can’t go on the road.

What was the question again?  No, it is never worth it to skip the IFTA.  Even for one day.

So what should you do?

Three ways to make the IFTA filing process simpler

1. Get very organized.  Spend time creating spreadsheets and update them daily.  Ok, if that were going to happen, it already would have.
2. Hire someone to do it for you.  Except you still have to provide all those mileage numbers per state, fuel receipts and pay the person to do it.
3. Try a trucking software program.

Which trucking software?  Does it matter? How long will it take me to learn it?

I can hear you say it.  “If the IFTA filing is a time suck, how long is it going to take for me to learn a software program?”

Good question.

If I said – you can learn it in just a few minutes, and you’ll enter every future invoice in about a minute?

If I said – not only will you be entering a dispatch, you’ll get the routing and the invoicing done at the same time?

If I said – your IFTA forms will be done in minutes, not hours or days?

If I said – you’ll save time, resources, and yourself from the massive no-sleep caffeine headache you get ever quarter?

What would that be worth to you?

TruckingOffice trucking management software is simple.  It’s designed by a trucker for truckers.  After you enter some preliminary data, you can enter your loads in our One Minute Dispatch entry screen.  Enter last week’s data and you’ll see that you had nothing to worry about – you’ll be done in next to no time.  Add last month’s data and with the necessary billing addresses, you’ll also be able to invoice your customers with the press of a button!  You don’t need an Excel spreadsheet or even access to PC*Miler – we have it all incorporated into our TruckingOffice software.  If you want, you can use QuickBooks – but you don’t have to.  Add your maintenance records and you’ll be DOT compliant.

Ok, so we offer

• One Minute Dispatch Entry form
• Easy invoicing and accounting management
• IFTA reports in less than a minute
• PC*Miler to make sure your routes and miles are accurate
• Maintenance records and scheduling that even a DOT agent will love.

Not sure?  Think about this:  just use our Dispatch Loads form and enter all of the loads you’ve hauled in the past quarter.  Enter your fuel purchases.

That’s all you’ll have to do for the IFTA.  Our report will report the miles you’ve entered per state, and the taxes you owe.

What are you waiting for?  Use our 30 day free trial to get started and get the IFTA filing done now.