What Fuel Tax Credits Mean And How You Can Be Saving More

Go paperless with  fuel tax credits. When you manage a fleet, you’ll spend a substantial amount of money on fuel.

What you might not realise is that you could be spending more on fuel tax than you need to.

If you use vehicles off of the public road network, or your heavy vehicles operate auxiliary equipment like refrigeration units or hydraulic machinery, you are able to recover the excise paid as fuel tax credits.

Unfortunately, most existing fuel tax credits (FTC) claim processes are incredibly complex, time-consuming, and prone to inaccuracy. You could be leaving a considerable amount of money on the table.

You’re also entitled to a much lower FTC rate when heavy vehicles travel on public roads, so you need to apportion fuel usage between on and off-road activities, alongside auxiliary fuel use, if you want to get the most out of your claims.

Many businesses don’t do this at all, which means they’re missing out on tax rebates entirely, or they claim all their off-road travel as on-road. If you do already claim credits on fuel tax, you’re probably reliant on complicated spreadsheets, conservative estimates of the amount you can claim or approximate sample data that doesn’t necessarily reflect reality. It’s likely you’re also being overly conservative and under-claiming to avoid coming out on the wrong side of an audit.

Luckily, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Your vehicles are capable of capturing tons of real-time data that can be used to streamline and automate the FTC process.

With telematics fitted to your assets, accurate second-by second GPS tracking data allows you to create detailed off-road maps and reports that provide detail into  how much fuel you can claim. This gives you time back to focus on what’s most important to your business, reduces tax risk and ultimately, puts money back into your pocket.