The practical goal is traceability: a reviewer should be able to connect a vehicle and reporting period to distance traveled, jurisdictions crossed, fuel purchased, and the source documents behind those numbers. Depending on the operation, that may involve trip reports, odometer or hubometer readings, electronic records, fuel receipts, routing information, and vehicle identifiers.
Build the record process at the driver and fuel-purchase moment. Receipts should be legible and identify the seller, date, location, vehicle or unit when required, and gallons or quantity. Electronic data is useful only when the carrier can explain the source, correction process, and relationship to the vehicle and trip.
Before filing, compare fuel totals with card statements and miles with dispatch or ELD data. Investigate impossible results such as fuel purchased after a vehicle was parked, a unit appearing in two places, or miles that do not reconcile to trip activity. Keep a note of corrections rather than silently overwriting the original record.
IFTA rules and retention periods are jurisdiction-sensitive and can change. This answer intentionally avoids stating an unverified number of years, mileage threshold, or filing formula. Review the current IFTA governing materials and your base jurisdiction’s instructions, record the source and checked date, and ask a tax professional about unusual fleet or leased-vehicle arrangements.
How to apply the answer
The answer changes when the operating facts change. Before applying it, identify the carrier's fleet size, equipment, authority model, lanes, customer requirements, and the records already available. A small owner-operator may make a different decision from a multi-truck carrier with dedicated freight, an accounting team, or a shipper routing guide. State those assumptions so another person can review the reasoning instead of treating a general answer as a promise.
Use the answer as a starting point for a repeatable workflow. Write down the inputs, compare the available options, and record the evidence behind the decision. For this question, the relevant terms include ifta, fuel-surcharge, settlement. Linking the question to those definitions helps a dispatcher or owner move from a short answer to the operational detail that determines what happens next.
A useful next step is to test the decision against one real load, customer, driver, or settlement record, while keeping private information out of the example. Check what changed after the decision and update the process if the result did not match the assumption. This is especially important for compliance, tax, pricing, and cash-flow topics, where requirements and commercial terms can change.
If the decision affects more than one team, write down the handoff: who prepares the information, who reviews it, and where the final record lives. That small step turns a useful answer into a repeatable operating practice and makes it easier to find the next question when the workflow changes.
Trailflow's product pages describe supported workflows separately from this answer. Review the relevant product or workflow page for current availability, and verify regulated or financial decisions with the applicable primary source or qualified advisor.
Terms in this answer: IFTA, Fuel Surcharge, Settlement