Uber and Lift Mileage and Expense Tracking

[ajartax]

I drive both Uber and Lyft and keep switching between them.  Many rides require me to drive to the rider and these miles are not tracked by Uber or Lyft reports.  It appears to be a too much manual work after driving for 12 hours  to keep a log of every trip, miles driven and associated expenses. Is there any easy method to keep a track of these miles?  

[JosephS1]

No, unfortunately.  There are several mileage tracking apps you can download to your phone or laptop but manual tracking for the travel to pick up your rider, and then once dropped off, to pick up the next rider, etc. must be done manually.

If you do a Google search for "mileage app for taxes" it will show you various different apps for you to choose from.  There is also the tried and true method of keeping a pad and written log to record your mileage.  It may not be the most modern method but it works so long as you maintain it.

Best apps to keep track of mileage

@ajartax 

[ajartax]

I sent msg to Uber. They replied that their year end tax summary miles include all online miles - miles waiting, driving to take the trip, and miles on the trip.  If that is true, then can I just use the Uber and Lyft year end mile summary to book my mileage expense instead of keeping a manual log?  Moreover Lyft driver app does not even provide every trip information and there is no time during the day to wait and keep this log as the trips are added by the app back to back.

[JosephS1]

Yes, you can use the mileage provided by Uber definitely if it contains your waiting and picking-up mileage, provided you are comfortable with what is being reported to you.  From what you said above about Lyft, I might want to consider keeping a log of your Lyft mileage provided you trust your Uber mileage.  As a suggestion, I would try to keep as much of a log as I could to be able to compare what Uber and Lyft are saying in their statements and what you yourself know based on any log you keep.

@ajartax