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Becoming a DoorDash driver can be an exciting opportunity.
After all, you can make your hours and earn a little extra money just by driving.
However, when you are self-employed, you’ll have to do a bit of extra work to keep track of your earnings.
After all, you cannot earn money without records of the hours you’ve spent.
Keep reading to learn how to keep track of your DoorDash mileage, whether manually or using a special free app.
Tired of toggling your mileage tracker on and off?
Track your miles automatically with the Solo app!
In addition to mileage tracking, that app will also track your income across gig apps, work-related expenses, project your taxes, and even guarantee your daily pay in some metro areas.
Plus, get $10 when you download Solo and link your active gig work account(s) in the Solo app!
Does DoorDash Track Miles For Dashers?
Although DoorDash heavily emphasizes tracking your mileage, they do not provide a reliable DoorDash mileage tracker.
You’ll have to choose the method that works best for you.
That might either be using your personal log or using a mileage tracker app.
What Miles Can You Track as a Delivery Driver?
Your business miles are the most critical miles to track.
These are the miles you drive that are not for personal use, like moving or for medical reasons.
Business miles are miles driven for, well, business.
If you’re driving for Lyft, Uber, GrubHub, Postmates, etc., you’re driving to earn money.
It’s essential to use a DoorDash mileage tracker to track these miles since you’re making income through them.
As a result, you’ll have to report them when tax season comes.
Note that tracking personal driving hours can result in tax deductions.
Driving to a hospital or moving are two such examples.
For a DoorDash delivery driver, knowing how far you’ve driven is most important.
Why You Need to Track Miles as a DoorDash Driver
As mentioned before, you earn income from the miles you drive as a DoorDash driver.
How many miles you drive determines what you’ll make for your food delivery services.
You’ll need to keep detailed records in case the IRS asks whether your numbers are accurate.
Failing to do so puts you at risk for a tax audit.
Tracking miles with a DoorDash mileage tracker can also create some nice tax deductions.
For example, for a 2020 tax filing due in 2021, you could claim a 57.5 cent tax deduction for every business mile you drove.
How To Track DoorDash Mileage: DoorDash Mileage Trackers
Luckily, how you choose to track your Doordash mileage is all up to you.
You’ll want to make a note of a few things, though.
Track the date, your driven miles, whether you drove for personal or business reasons, and where you drove.
You want to make your mileage as accurate as possible since it’s easy to overreport mileage.
Remember that the IRS is aware of this for freelancers.
So you want to have as comprehensive a record as you can make.
Tired of toggling your mileage tracker on and off?
Track your miles automatically with the Solo app!
In addition to mileage tracking, that app will also track your income across gig apps, work-related expenses, project your taxes, and even guarantee your daily pay in some metro areas.
Plus, get $10 when you download Solo and link your active gig work account(s) in the Solo app!
1. Manually: Written Mileage Log
Perhaps you like to do things the old-fashioned way with a written log you keep in a notebook.
You can decorate your logbook with fun colors, and it can be stimulating to do the math in your head or the page corner.
Remember that it’s up to you to remember what to put in your log.
Take it slow when recording your numbers, and make it a serious habit to pick it up when you’ve finished driving.
You might have to make it a habit of keeping the log in your car.
Begin logging as soon as you get in your car and mark the miles on your odometer before getting out.
Keep track of the date, where you’re driving, and how many miles.
2. Manually: Google Sheets
In a nutshell, Google Sheets is the electronic version of the written log.
It’s also a Google version of Microsoft Excel.
Like with any Google Suite program, you can program Google Sheets to work offline.
That way, you can access your spreadsheet through any device without Wi-Fi.
Similar to a written mileage log, you can color-code your log as you like.
You can also tweak your log so it tallies up your miles for you.
No need to pull out the calculator for this one.
3. Mileage Tracking App
A mileage tracking app almost does all the work for you.
It’s pretty much an updated version of Quickbooks.
You can track mileage expenses and mileage reimbursements through these apps.
Some can even tell you what tax deductions you might earn.
All apps are available either through an Android smartphone or iPhone.
Even the free versions have some helpful expense log benefits.
Some apps allow you to track your miles without even needing to open the app.
The Best Mileage Tracking Apps
No matter what kind of independent contractor work you do, there is a mileage tracking app to fit your style.
1. Hurdlr
Hurdlr takes some of the work off your shoulders with automatic mileage tracking.
To save you time, it can integrate your bank account app.
It’ll also make calculating business expenses much easier and faster.
On top of tracking personal and business miles, Hurdlr also auto-tags repeated drives.
That benefit also makes tracking reimbursements and tax deductions much easier.
2. Everlance
Everlance is quite the versatile mileage tracking app.
You can track mileage and your expenses, whether for a business or your personal use.
Their expense tracking technology starts working when you sync up your credit cards.
Plus, you can keep your business and personal tracking records separate.
3. Triplog
Triplog uses GPS-tracking technology for recording business mileage, time, and expenses.
The app stores all your records to avoid overlogging, and you don’t have to log your miles manually.
The IRS-compliant app also stays up to date with all tax laws and keeps an eye on fraudulent activity.
If you enter a trip that does not match your Google Map activity, the app will catch and flag the trip for review.
4. MileIQ
MileIQ does more than keep your personal and business miles separate.
It also adds parking and tolls and sends weekly mileage reports.
At a glance, MileIQ lets you see how many miles you’ve driven for a single location, date, or event.
Luckily, you can access all this data across all your devices.
5. Stride Tax
Stride Tax focuses on lowering your tax payments and tracking mileage and expenses.
It does so by providing an IRS-ready summary for filing taxes.
The app also automatically detects when you’re driving so you can better track your miles.
Stride Tax keeps track of all your receipts to track your expenses and help you find write-offs.
They’ve also partnered with several companies like Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash.
Doing so allows independent contractors and other part-time employees to get benefits.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s helpful to know about different mileage tracking apps.
However, it’s also a good idea to learn more about why DoorDash mileage tracking is so important.
How do I check my DoorDash mileage?
DoorDash does report mileage, but it is not very comprehensive.
A DoorDash mileage tracker will change this since it tracks things at a granular level.
They calculate the mileage between where you picked up and dropped off a food delivery in a straight line.
Unfortunately, that calculates significantly fewer miles than you actually drove.
It’s also tricky to intuitively find your mileage on the DoorDash website.
On that note, you’re probably better off tracking your own miles.
Some mileage tracking apps will send you customizable weekly reports of your mileage.
You can also check them manually, usually by swiping left or right for personal or business miles.
What happens if I don’t keep track of my mileage?
Some sort of record is usually required when reporting mileage.
If you didn’t track your miles, you could take your best guess about what your car mileage was.
Guessing how many miles you drove on your vehicles isn’t a bad place to start.
Fortunately, the car service receipts you get throughout the year can help.
You’re going to need to provide details about where those miles went to.
You can create a log detailing which miles you drove and where.
Remember, you’ll need a date, miles, and where you drove those miles.
Also, note the mode of transportation you took.
Check your Google Maps Timeline if you have it.
It might have been keeping track of your mileage for as long as you enable the tracking feature.
A huge rule to follow is not to estimate your miles.
If you have an idea of your business miles, make sure you split the miles between specific locations.
Do this according to the exact miles you’ve driven.
Keep screenshots of the maps between those locations showing the miles driven.
Does DoorDash send you a W2?
DoorDash does not send W2s to their freelancer drivers.
They only send 1099s to employees who make more than $600 a year.
DoorDash does not withhold federal or state taxes from employees.
Therefore, you’ll have to keep track of what you owe to the IRS.
Does DoorDash report mileage to the IRS?
DoorDash does not report mileage to the IRS.
That’s also not something a DoorDash mileage tracker will do for you automatically.
Again, that’s something that you’ll have to do for your self-employment.
If you’ve forgotten to record your mileage, you might find an estimate in your DoorDash portal.
Remember, they calculate mileage based on a straight line between the start and end of each drive.
In that case, you’re better off using your own mileage tracking for better accuracy.
Wrapping Up
Since the official DoorDash mileage tracker can’t provide the most accurate measurement of your business mileage, you should keep track of this information yourself, whether manually or through third-party mileage tracker alternatives like Hurdlr, Everlance, or Triplog.
Consider downloading one of the aforementioned apps and using it as your dedicated DoorDash mileage tracker.
Lots of info thanks!
Door dash emailed me a report that My mileage during trips was 4532, and mileage before, during , and after the trip 8432, so can I use that email from door dash for my schedule c standard deductions? Because I never loved it in!?