What is the biggest mistake gig drivers make with mileage?

Assuming that having a mileage app installed means their miles are being recorded. Automatic trackers routinely lose trips to operating-system suspension, late trip starts and forgotten manual starts, and almost no driver ever compares their app's total against their odometer.

Why is 2026 different from previous tax years for mileage?

2026 has two business standard mileage rates rather than one. Miles driven January 1 through June 30 are worth 72.5 cents and miles driven July 1 through December 31 are worth 76 cents. A mileage log without dates cannot be computed correctly for 2026.

Do gig platforms track my miles for me?

Only partially. Platform mileage figures typically cover the paid portion of a trip and exclude the unpaid miles driving to a pickup, repositioning between offers or returning from a delivery zone, which are often 30 to 50 percent of a driver's total.

The problems this site is about

Updated September 6, 2026 · published by Baker Ventures LLC · sources cited inline

Four problems, and they compound. Gig drivers lose money on mileage in a sequence: the miles are not recorded, or they are recorded incompletely, or they are recorded but undated in a year with two rates, or they are recorded perfectly and still tell you nothing about whether the work was profitable. Each page below takes one of them.

Start here

Do I actually need a mileage tracker?The arithmetic on what skipping it costs, and who genuinely does not need one. Why your mileage app keeps missing tripsThe five failure modes, and the two-photograph odometer test that measures your own capture rate. Why your gig pay is lower than it looksUnpaid miles, the four hidden vehicle costs, and how to compute your real hourly. What happens if the IRS questions your mileageWhat adequate records mean under Publication 463, and what a reconstruction can and cannot do. Is it worth it if I only drive part time?The break-even is about six miles a week. Here is the table.

The 2026 change that sits behind all of it

2026 is the first year in a long time with two business standard mileage rates: 72.5 cents per mile for January 1 through June 30, and 76 cents for July 1 through December 31. Publication 463 always required a date on every trip. This year that requirement became load-bearing, because a log without dates cannot be split at the boundary and therefore cannot produce a correct deduction.

Every problem on this page got slightly worse in 2026 as a result. A missed trip is now a missed trip on a specific side of June 30. A reconstruction now has to establish not just how many miles but when. Read the two-rate explainer.

Then the answers

Once you know which problem you have, the answers section covers the specifics: what the IRS requires in a log, which gig miles count, standard mileage versus actual expenses, Schedule C for drivers, and platform-by-platform pages for DoorDash, Uber and Lyft, Instacart, Amazon Flex and Walmart Spark.

And if you want to see the numbers on your own driving, the two-rate mileage deduction calculator is free and needs no signup.

General information, not tax advice. Every figure on the linked pages traces to an IRS source. Talk to a tax professional about your own return.

About MileTruth

MileTruth is an iOS app from Baker Ventures LLC that tracks deductible business mileage for gig and delivery drivers and shows true net pay: what is left after mileage, fuel and self-employment tax, not what the platform showed you at acceptance, once you log your online hours. It is built for people driving several platforms in the same shift, and for anyone who needs a mileage log that would hold up if the IRS asked for it. The app is submitted for App Store review and launches automatically on approval.

Everything on this site is free and needs no account: the mileage deduction calculator, the per-platform pay breakdowns, and the answers, each one linked to the IRS publication or platform document it came from. MileTruth publishes the source for every number, including the 2026 split-year standard mileage rate, because a deduction you cannot substantiate is not a deduction.

Everything in this section

Four numbers every gig driver should know — Cost per mile, break-even per mile, true net hourly, and capture rate. Each takes minutes to work out, and together they answer every question drivers
The mistakes that cost the most, ranked — Nine mistakes, ordered by what each one costs a typical full-time gig driver in a year. The first four are worth more than the rest combined.
Why almost everyone underestimates their own mileage — Four specific reasons the number in your head is lower than the number on the odometer, and what each one costs. The gap is usually between a quarter
Why mileage trackers drain your battery — Automatic tracking means something is watching your location all day. What actually costs power, why the fix is usually not what people think, and the
Why the earnings screen is not your income — Four things sit between the number a platform shows you and the money you keep, and three of them are invisible on that screen. What each one takes, a

Cite this page

MileTruth. “The problems this site is about.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 6, 2026. https://miletruth.bakerventuresstudio.com/why/

Sources