Get paid for the work that you actually do by filling out your trip sheet correctly.
The Trip Sheet | Trucking Essentials
Introduction
The trip sheet is part of your paperwork, regardless of whether you're a truck driver or a bus driver, it must be filled out.
The trip sheet serves a couple of purposes: first, it's how you get paid for the trips that you do, whether you're running by the mile, or running by the trip, or you're running by the hour.
The trip sheet will allow you to get paid; second, it's a backup, in case some of the paperwork goes missing—bills of lading and whatnot— that will be written on your trip sheet and finally it's also for fuel tax.
Large commercial vehicles are subject to fuel tax based on a formula of miles driven in that province or state and the number of gallons or liters purchased for that vehicle.
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Getting Paid
The trip sheet I'm going to show you today is one example for long haul truck driving and there are many trip sheets that you can see on the internet.
Every company that you go to to work as a bus or truck driver will have a trip sheet and make sure you ask the company for the trip sheet and to show you how to fill it out.
Because each company—whether you're a bus driver or truck driver—has its nuances in how they want the trip sheet to be filled out.
And first and foremost the trip sheet is how you get paid.
So make sure you fill it out correctly and that you get paid for the work that you do.
Basic Information
On this trip sheet here you can see that first of all there's some basic information that you need to fill out and some of us will be pre-filled out and given to you with your paperwork - manifest, bills of lading and other dispatch information you get.
So you can see there's a unit number - that the unit number of the vehicle that you are driving.
If you're in a dedicated unit, it will be the same all the time.
If you're slips seating, it'll be a different unit number rather.
Driver's name, trailers - if you're truck driving - trailers outbound, trailers inbound.
The trip number: if there is a trip numbers assigned; if there isn't a trip number assigned, it'll be the bill of lading number, but most of the time, if there's a space to fill that in they will give you a trip number.
Departure Date
The departure date - the date you left with that load for that trip, and the return date.
Just as a note, if you pick up and drop several trailers along the way, that's all one trip depending on how the company designates that.
For example, when I worked for PCX it was out of Vancouver.
If I dropped a trailer in Kamloops and picked up another trailer & went to Calgary, dropped and picked up another trailer and came back to Vancouver - that was one trip according to them.
As well, on this trip sheet here, you can see inward and outward manifest.
The manifest is the bill of lading numbers that you went out with and the bills of lading numbers that you came back with.
As well on this trip sheet here, you can see the odometer start/odometer finish.
Pickup & Delivery
Pickup and delivery details is another heading & another category on this trip sheet here.
Included in the pickup and delivery details is the date, the pro number, which is the manifest number numbers on the manifest.
Now just as a quick note on the manifest.
The manifest can be either one piece of paper for the whole load or it can be a stack of bills of lading and if you have a stack of bills of lading just write the first bill of lading number and then various underneath.
And most of the time that is OK for the requirements of the paperwork that you have to fill out.
Just check with your company to make sure that you you know how to fill that out in case they want all of them listed individually.
But usually they don't.
On this trip sheet on the pickup and delivery details the next one is the city where you delivered.
Sometimes a lot of these companies like PCX, Quick X, Challenger - these types of things, you'll simply take it to the yard and drop it at the yard in Vancouver, Calgary, Alberta, or Toronto, Ontario.
You just drop it in the yard and that's where you put for your delivery in terms of what you did as the driver - the long haul driver.
Fuel Tax
Now as I stated in the introduction, the other piece of the trip sheet is fuel tax, and you can see here on this trip sheet that there is a section for fuel tax.
And basically what they want you to write down is the date that you purchased fuel in that state, whether it's in gallons or liters and the state or province in which you purchased fuel.
And of course there'll be a fuel receipt as well that will coincide with this.
So again as well as backup for the bills of lading numbers.
The trip sheet also serves as a backup for the amount of fuel that you purchased in a state or province and allows the company to calculate their fuel tax.
And the fuel tax is based on a formula of how many kilometers or miles were driven in that state or province and the number of litres or gallons of fuel that were purchased.
Work Expenses
The other section on here is additional payable work expenses.
So, for example, if you changed out a headlight, the date that you picked up the headlight.
The headlight, obviously, is self explanatory in terms of the work that you had to do, and the cost of that headlight.
Prepaid Expenses
As well, on the sheet here you can see prepaid expenses for the ferry, is the example that they give.
So if you go on the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, Vancouver on Vancouver Island.
Finally on this trip sheet here you can see additional comments.
Additional Comments
Additional comments, as for any hours that you might have worked because you got delayed on a load, you ended up sitting somewhere, or you got re-routed, and whatnot.
So anything that is out of the ordinary of what your trip is 'A' to 'B' and you might get extra money for that, make sure you write that down in the additional comments section.
So that you can get paid.
So as we said in the introduction, the trip sheet is mostly about you getting paid.
And as much detail as you can put on the trip sheet ensures is that you get paid for the hours that you work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, talking to you today about the trip sheet.
First and foremost, the trip sheet is how you as the driver gets paid for the work that you do.
So ensure that you get some information from your company personnel about how to fill out the trip sheet.
And ensure that you fill it out correctly so that you get paid for the hours and miles that you drive and the trips that you do for that company.
As well, the other main purpose of this is a backup for all the paperwork that you are responsible for: bills of lading.
All of the bills of lading numbers should be on the trip sheet as a backup in case some of the bills of lading and whatnot get misplaced or lost because administrators who work in trucking companies have a massive amount of paperwork that they need to keep track of.
Trip sheets, bills of lading, log sheets, pre trip inspection forms.
All this paperwork has to be collated and filed and sent to accounting so they get paid.
So this serves as a backup and also serves to help the people who are doing the paperwork to get it out and make sure that the company gets paid.
And in return, as well, you get paid.
It also allows the company to determine fuel tax.
Fuel tax is important for costs of the company.
How many miles those trucks run in a state or province and how much fuel is consumed and allows them to figure out that formula and allows them to do their accounting.
Finally, as well, additional expenses, prepaid expenses, and then additional comments for any delays that you experience in getting loaded or unloaded or delays in a trip, weather, they couldn't find the product when you back into the dock to get loaded.
There was a delay of a couple of hours - you might get paid for that: additional drops, additional pickups.
All that stuff is about you getting paid, so make sure you get your trip sheet filled out correctly.
And if you're unsure about how to fill it out ask somebody at your company, ask one of the other drivers to make sure that you're filling it out correctly, so that you get paid.
And just as an example of the trip sheets that I— did this one here—for example: if I was delivering from yard to yard - so I went from Vancouver to Calgary for example.
I just put Calgary to Vancouver and I got paid the distance from those two yards.
If I went somewhere else in Alberta, I had put the postal code in because if I didn't put the postal code and I would only get paid to the yard.
You want to get paid the exact miles that you're working, so make sure you put the postal code in.
That's just one example of the details of filling that out.
