Is there a way to figure this out for work reports at all?

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ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 6:50 pm

I wasn't sure if this was the right forum to post this, but here goes.  In my job, I do deliveries a lot and they want me to pay me for the kilometers I drive.  I recorded the number of km every day that I drove for them.  After doing deliveries for a little over a month now, I went to fill out the paper work.  I should have done it sooner, but am hardly ever at the actual office in this job.  But on the paper work, they don't just want the number of km, they want the exact number of km on the odemeter.   But the odometer has km on it going back years since I bought the car.  I do not know the exact numbers for each day for the last month that I drove for them.

But they want me to figure this out.  Is this possible at all, or do I have to take guesses?  Or what is the best way to handle this, if they want me to remember the exact odometer readings for every day of the past month?



kitesandtrainsandcats
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21 Oct 2020, 7:51 pm

Sounds like the thing to do is get some kind of little notebook, and office supply stores will often have special mileage log notebooks.
Write down what the odometer reading is when you begin the deliveries for the day & write down the odometer reading when done with deliveries for the day.

I don't know what the office supply store names are in Canada, but here's a sample of the kind of notebook,
https://www.staples.com/Dome-Auto-Milea ... uct_219022


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ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 7:53 pm

Oh okay, thanks, I will do that for the future. But is there anyway I can figure it out now for the past tense of all my deliveries since that is what they want?



kitesandtrainsandcats
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21 Oct 2020, 8:24 pm

The only way I can think of to do that will be going "the long way around" and will require knowing how many km you have driven in between driving for work.

Yes it is long, laborious, and detailed, but I can't think of any other way to do the thing.
And if word problems aren't your math thing, I'm sorry, I know of no other way to explain and show what all needs to go in to this.

Example for illustration purposes;

Let's say your notes have that your work driving was 8km, 12km, 7km, 22km, for the 4 days you worked that week.
And looking at where you went on days off you probably put 40km on the car during your days off.

Now, how far is it from work to home? Does work mileage include that?
You said you don't go by the office much, is there an outlying location that you work from?
Home to work distance would then be measured to there.

For the purposes of illustration, and to make an easy number, let's say it is 5km one-way between work and home.

Okay, so, ...

1.)
We know that for the week you used 5km per day to get to work & 5km per day to get home from work.
You worked 4 days.
Total, 40km to and from work.

2.)
We know that your delivery driving total for the 4 days you worked adds up to 8+12+7+22 =
49km

3.)
On your days off it looks like you put 40km on the car.

4.)
So, total km accumulated since beginning job is = 40+49+40 = 129km

5.)
Subtract that from current km reading = approximately the odometer reading when starting the job that week.
For the purposes of illustration,
lets make current km reading 22,313.
subtract 129 from that,
odometer was approximately 22,184 when starting job.

6.)
Assuming the mileage between home and the job site doesn't count, we'll ad the 5km between home and job site to that,
and have a start of work day odometer reading of 22,189km.

7.)
Drove 8km first day of work, add that, making end of day reading 22,197km.

8.)
Ya went nowhere that night. was 5km home, then next moening, 5km to work, that makes 10km.

9.)
Alright then, odometer reading start of second work day would be approximately 22,197km +10km =
22,207 when you head out making the second day's deliveries.

10.)
the second day's deliveries were 12km, so
22,207 + 12 = 22,219 on odometer at end of second day.

so forth and so on.
That's my idea.


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ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 8:31 pm

Oh okay. And yes going to and from home does not count.

So I will have to take guesses. But I feel uncomfortable and risky taking a lot of guesses. Unless I just should and leave it at that?



kraftiekortie
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21 Oct 2020, 8:34 pm

Just subtract what was on the odometer at the start of your day (after you drive into work), from what it ends up with at the end of your day (before you start driving home).



ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 8:47 pm

Sure I can do that. But since I found out today that I am suppose to do that, how do I do that for working every day for the last month and a half?



kitesandtrainsandcats
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21 Oct 2020, 8:54 pm

ironpony wrote:
But I feel uncomfortable and risky taking a lot of guesses.
True, it is uncomfortable to not Know and it does feel like guesses.

I'm not your boss and do not know your boss, thinking about my 'boss' attitude from working days:
You have already shown me the records of how many km per day you drove for delivery.
give me that again.
do your math.
give me the resultant odometer readings.
if those results check with the distances you gave me earlier, I'll be a happy camper.


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ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 9:13 pm

Okay so I should just fill in the reports and guess and turn them in then?



kitesandtrainsandcats
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21 Oct 2020, 9:19 pm

Yes. They are a necessary thing for employment.

If you have a thing to do it with, another idea could be to take a picture of the odometer reading at beginning of workday and at end of workday.

Probably simpler, though, to just get in habit of writing it down in a dedicated notebook.
If not one of the official style mileage books, then one of those little pocket sized spiral notebooks would suffice.
It would look more official to use one of the dedicated mileage books.


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ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 10:14 pm

Oh okay, it's just I get so busy that it's really hard to remember, even taking a picture of it is hard to remember, with all the work to be done in a day.



kitesandtrainsandcats
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21 Oct 2020, 10:34 pm

At this point on the calendar I don't remember what the specific things were, but there have been times I taped a post it note to the steering wheel to help me remember something.


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ironpony
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21 Oct 2020, 11:19 pm

Oh okay, thanks, I can do that. But for now, just fudge the last few weeks you think then, and things will be fine?



MrsPeel
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22 Oct 2020, 5:17 am

This is a very strange requirement.
When we use work vehicles, we have to record the odometer reading each trip, and classify trips by whether they are business or private, but you are using your own vehicle, right?
I don't understand why they need the odometer readings in that case.

But what you need to do going forward is to buy a vehicle logbook from a stationary shop and keep a record of all your trips.

And yes, for now just fudge it to be able to fill in the form. If they didn't inform you of the requirements at the start, you've done nothing wrong.