The traditional image of someone who needs to track their travel expenses is a frequent business traveler, a high-profile sales professional. But in reality, one of the largest group of “business travelers” are truck drivers.

According to alltrucking.com, there are approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States, and about 350,000 of those are owner-operators. Most of these drivers spend a bulk of their time on the road, racking up travel expenses like fuel, food, tolls, and lodging – all requiring proof of those expenses for reimbursement or tax purposes. Truck drivers often find it difficult to keep track of these receipts with a manual paper process: how many times have your drivers lost their fuel and meal receipts in the cracks of seats or in a jeans pocket? In order to better organize these expenses and receipts, many carriers and drivers are turning to a mobile, automated process that allows drivers to reliably submit their expenses and reduces delays in approvals and reimbursement.

Paperless Document Management

A mobile application is the logical choice to streamline expense tracking. Drivers using EBE’s SHIPS Mobile and its Imaging Solution can capture their expenses and have them automatically cataloged by expense type within the SHIPS Mobile Driver Portal. Once cataloged, drivers can go to the portal and query expenses of different types. For example, perhaps they want to see all their fuel receipts for a given month.

Capturing information in this manner results in a fast, paperless expense tracking process for drivers – and with integration into the carrier’s dispatch system, automatic submission to the carrier for quick reimbursement. Additionally, a mobile capture expense tracking application helps your owner-operators get every possible deduction at tax time; since all their documents are in one place, there’s no need to hunt around the truck dashboard and under the seats.

A Valuable Driver Retention Tool

Putting this tool in the hands of your drivers ensures that they have a good system for keeping track of their travel expenses. With mobile capture of expense receipts, drivers don’t need to stress about a lost receipt – and less stress means higher driver satisfaction and retention. Plus, offering an expense tracking application can attract younger drivers who rely on their mobile devices for virtually every aspect of their lives. Expense tracking can be seen as a valuable driver recruiting and retention tool that proves your organization is a technological leader in the transportation industry. Expense tracking is an important part of truck drivers’ jobs – and a crucial piece of the reimbursement process. EBE’s SHIPS Mobile application with the My Expenses expense tracker provides transportation industry leaders with a distinct driver recruiting and retention advantage over the competition. To learn more, visit ebeships.com or call 800.447.0612.