Business Mileage for Contractors & Trades: What You Can Deduct and How to Track It
Last updated: July 1, 2026
A work truck racks up serious miles — job sites, supply houses, estimates, inspections — and much of that driving is deductible if you can back it up. This guide walks through the contractor mileage deduction in plain English: which trips count, what your records need to show, and how to pick between the standard rate and actual expenses.
Which drives actually count
The general rule: driving between business stops is business mileage; a regular commute is not. For a self-employed contractor, deductible trips typically include:
- Driving between job sites during the day
- Runs to suppliers, lumberyards, and equipment rental counters
- Trips to give estimates or meet inspectors
- Business errands — permits, the bank for business deposits, dump runs for job debris
The tricky one is the first and last drive of the day. If you have a shop, home to shop is generally commuting — personal, not deductible. If your home is your principal place of business (a genuine home office where you do your admin, quoting, and scheduling), then trips from home to job sites can generally be treated as business miles. That distinction is worth real money over a year, and it depends on your facts — talk to your tax professional about your specific situation.
The log the IRS expects
The deduction lives or dies on records made at or near the time of the trip. For every business drive, record four things:
- Date
- Destination — the job site, supplier, or customer address
- Business purpose — "install day 2, Miller kitchen" or "pick up fittings, Hughes Supply"
- Miles driven
Also note the truck's odometer at the start and end of the year, so you can show total miles and the business-use percentage. A shoebox of fuel receipts is not a mileage log, and a spreadsheet reconstructed in April from memory is exactly what examiners discount. Log it the day you drive it.
Standard mileage rate vs. actual expenses
There are two ways to turn those miles into a deduction. The standard mileage rate — a flat per-mile amount the IRS sets each year (see the current rates on IRS.gov) — bundles fuel, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation into one simple number. The actual expense method deducts the business-use share of what the vehicle really costs: fuel, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, depreciation or lease payments.
For the trades this choice matters more than for most, because heavy, thirsty, expensive-to-maintain work trucks often cost more per mile than the standard rate assumes — which can make actual expenses the better answer. But the methods have commitment rules (for example, using actual expenses in the truck's first year of business use can lock you out of the standard rate for that vehicle later), and actual expenses still require a mileage log to prove the business-use percentage. Have your tax professional run both calculations before you commit.
Keep it out of the year-end shoebox
Whatever method you choose, move the numbers into your books regularly instead of reconstructing a year every spring. Post mileage (or vehicle costs) to a dedicated expense category in QuickBooks weekly or monthly, and keep the trip-level log as the backing detail. This is easiest when the log is a byproduct of your day rather than a separate chore — Terravai, for example, already knows the route you planned and drove, logs the mileage automatically at your chosen rate, and exports it to QuickBooks Online in one tap.
Fewer miles is the bigger win
One last point that tax articles usually skip: the cheapest business mile is the one you don't drive. Deducting a mile recovers a slice of its cost; not driving it recovers all of it, plus the time. Zoning your service area, batching supply runs, and sequencing jobs sensibly shrink the miles before you ever deduct them — that's covered in our companion guide, how contractors plan multi-job days. Track everything, deduct what you're entitled to, and drive less to begin with.