Contractor Mileage Tracking: CRA Rules for Self-Employed Tradies in Canada

March 30, 2026 · 4 min read · Bryan Bell

Last updated: March 30, 2026 | Reading time: 6 minutes

The scene: You're an electrician, plumber, or HVAC tech. You drive 200+ km a week between job sites. You know you can write off mileage. But you have no idea how much you actually drove, where you went, or what CRA wants to see.

Tax time comes. Your accountant asks for your mileage log. You don't have one. You guess. Your accountant sighs. You leave money on the table.

Let's fix that.

CRA Mileage Rules for Self-Employed Contractors

If you're self-employed (sole proprietor, independent contractor, small business owner), CRA lets you deduct vehicle expenses. But they want proof.

What CRA Wants to See

For every business trip, you need:

Date — when you drove
Destination — where you went (job site address or client name)
Purpose — "service call," "pickup supplies," "estimate for Smith job"
Odometer start + end — or total km driven

You don't need a novel. "Mar 15 — Carleton Place service call — 42 km" is enough.

CRA red flag: Claiming 100% business use on your only vehicle. If you drive the same truck for work and personal errands, CRA knows. Log personal trips too, or use a percentage split (80% business / 20% personal is common for contractors).

What Counts as Business Mileage?

YES — deductible:

Driving to job sites
Picking up materials at Home Depot / suppliers
Meeting clients for estimates
Driving to the bank to deposit checks
Going to the accountant's office
Picking up permits at ESA / city office

NO — not deductible:

Driving from home to your first job of the day (that's "commuting" — personal)
Lunch runs
Picking up groceries on the way home
Taking the kids to school

      The gray area: Home office exception. If your home is your principal place of business (no separate shop), CRA might let you count home-to-first-job as business mileage. Talk to your accountant.
    

How Much Can You Save?

CRA's 2026 mileage rate: 70¢/km for the first 5,000 km, then 64¢/km after that (Ontario).

Example: You drive 8,000 business km in a year.

First 5,000 km × $0.70 = $3,500
Next 3,000 km × $0.64 = $1,920
Total deduction: $5,420

At a 30% tax rate, that's $1,626 back in your pocket.

But only if you tracked it.

Best Ways to Track Mileage (For Guys Who Hate Apps)

1. Paper Logbook in the Truck

Old school. Works. Grab a notebook, write the date + destination + km at the end of every day.

Downside: You forget. The notebook gets buried under receipts. You reconstruct 6 months of trips from memory in March.

2. Google Sheets (Phone)

Create a simple sheet: Date | Destination | Km | Purpose. Add a row at the end of each day.

Upside: Always with you. Hard to lose.

Downside: You still have to remember to do it.

3. Mileage Tracking Apps

MileIQ, Everlance, QuickBooks Self-Employed — auto-track trips via GPS, categorize as business/personal.

Upside: Set it and forget it.

Downside: Subscription fees ($6-15/month). Battery drain. You still review trips weekly.

4. Just Keep All Your Receipts + Guess

Some guys reconstruct mileage at tax time using job calendar + Google Maps estimates.

Downside: CRA can audit you. If you have zero contemporaneous records, you're cooked.

What Happens If You Don't Track Mileage?

Two things:

You leave money on the table. That's $5K+ in deductions you could've claimed but didn't.
CRA might reject it anyway. If you get audited and your mileage log is "I think I drove about 10,000 km," CRA will disallow it.

Audit risk: CRA's motor vehicle expense audit rate is higher for self-employed contractors than almost any other category. They know contractors claim vehicle expenses. They also know most guys don't have good logs. Don't be low-hanging fruit.

The System That Actually Works

Here's what smart contractors do:

Log trips the day they happen. Not weekly. Not monthly. Same day. 2 minutes in the truck before you head home.
Use your phone. Paper gets lost. Google Sheets, Notes app, voice memo — whatever you'll actually use.
Batch-review once a week. Sunday morning, 10 minutes, make sure the week's trips are logged.
Save odometer photos. Start of year + end of year. CRA loves receipts and photos.

CRA's Simplified Method (New for 2024+)

CRA now offers a flat-rate method for self-employed people with simple vehicle use:

Up to 5,000 km at 70¢/km
No receipts for gas, insurance, repairs required
You still need a mileage log

Good for: Contractors who drive <5,000 business km/year.

Not good for: Contractors driving 15,000+ km — detailed method gets you more money back.

Common Mileage Tracking Mistakes

Mistake #1: Claiming 100% business use on your personal truck.

Fix: Track personal trips too, or use 80/20 split.

Mistake #2: Reconstructing your entire year from memory in March.

Fix: Log trips weekly (or use an app that auto-tracks).

Mistake #3: Not tracking short trips.

Fix: 5 km to Home Depot × 3 times a week = 780 km/year = $546 deduction. Log everything.

Mistake #4: Losing your logbook / phone dies / spreadsheet disappears.

Fix: Back it up. Export to PDF monthly. Email it to yourself.

Real Talk: Most Contractors Don't Track Mileage (And It Costs Them)

We've talked to dozens of electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, and roofers. Most of them:

Know they should track mileage
Don't actually do it
Guess at tax time
Leave $2K-5K on the table every year

Why? Because it's annoying. Another thing to remember at the end of a 12-hour day.

The guys who do track it? They have a system. App, logbook, whatever — but it's automatic. They don't think about it.

We track it for you.

Truck Cab Ops isn't just invoices and receipts. We also handle mileage logs, job tracking, and everything else that piles up in the truck.

You email us job notes throughout the week. We log the mileage, categorize the expenses, organize the chaos. Every Monday you get a clean PDF ready for your accountant.

$39 first week. No app. Just email.

Learn more at truckcabops.com or email info@truckcabops.com

Bottom Line

CRA mileage rules aren't complicated. You just need to write it down.

The hard part? Actually doing it.

If you're not tracking mileage right now, you're leaving thousands on the table. Fix it this year.

— Truck Cab Ops | Operations service for contractors in Ontario

About Truck Cab Ops: We're an operations assistant for self-employed contractors across Ontario. Email us your chaos, we organize it. Every Monday you get a report with your week sorted, tracked, and prioritized. $39 first week. truckcabops.com