# Is Uber tracking our total mileage?



## Milwaukee Suburb Driver

I noticed on the Uber dashboard that if you go under tax information, you can see a breakdown of earning and mileage for each month of 2018. Everything looked correct until May when my mileage seemed off. In June, it has me at 158 total trips, but only 57 total miles online. Is anyone else seeing goofy mileage for May and June?


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## DocT

It only reports the mileage from Phase 3 (actual live trip). You need to keep track of Phase 1 and Phase 2 mileage on your own.


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## UberTaxPro

DocT said:


> It only reports the mileage from Phase 3 (actual live trip). You need to keep track of Phase 1 and Phase 2 mileage on your own.


For IRS purposes one needs to keep track of all business miles (all phases) in your own log.


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## dirtylee

UberTaxPro said:


> For IRS purposes one needs to keep track of all business miles (all phases) in your own log.


i.e. all miles i drive are business miles. The IRS can go fornicate themselves under a bush in the sahara desert with only sewage for drinking water.


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## Milwaukee Suburb Driver

DocT said:


> It only reports the mileage from Phase 3 (actual live trip). You need to keep track of Phase 1 and Phase 2 mileage on your own.


In years past, uber reported our "on trip miles". Basically the C miles that were only while a passenger was in the car. Now the mileage says "online miles" which would indicate to me that Uber is tracking all miles driven while we are logged into the app, which is the total miles we get to deduct. Looking back at my statements, I'm showing 105 trips done in March and 3134 online miles. This is correct for my total logged miles. I didn't go back and add up all my miles from March that I had someone in the car but I would guess its about half of that 3134 miles that its showing.

Something definitely appears to have changed with the way Uber is recording our miles, I was just wondering if anyone else noticed it too.


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## DocT

Milwaukee Suburb Driver said:


> In years past, uber reported our "on trip miles". Basically the C miles that were only while a passenger was in the car. Now the mileage says "online miles" which would indicate to me that Uber is tracking all miles driven while we are logged into the app, which is the total miles we get to deduct. Looking back at my statements, I'm showing 105 trips done in March and 3134 online miles. This is correct for my total logged miles. I didn't go back and add up all my miles from March that I had someone in the car but I would guess its about half of that 3134 miles that its showing.
> 
> Something definitely appears to have changed with the way Uber is recording our miles, I was just wondering if anyone else noticed it too.


I keep track of my mileage of all phases, and it doesn't add up to the Uber mileage. YMMV though, after all, it IS Uber math as usual, plus the accuracy of the Uber GPS.


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## AuxCordBoston

DocT said:


> It only reports the mileage from Phase 3 (actual live trip). You need to keep track of Phase 1 and Phase 2 mileage on your own.


Not true. It tracks all miles while app is on


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn

AuxCordBoston said:


> Not true. It tracks all miles while app is on


Yes and no...

I can give you three examples of when it doesn't total up properly.

1. You switch the app off to avoid 30+ minute pings way out in the middle of nowhere that are a waste of time/money
2. you have uber/lyft on at the same time
3. You drive to get your oil changed when your not working? That goes on your log as well...
3. My records with uber for 2014/2015 were both 15,000 miles or so off back when i drove full time doing uber. That's over $7,500 in deductions, not exactly a small problem
3A. given that uber consistently gets worse from the day before, i have no faith in it properly accounting for anything.


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## UberTaxPro

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> Yes and no...
> 
> I can give you three examples of when it doesn't total up properly.
> 
> 1. You switch the app off to avoid 30+ minute pings way out in the middle of nowhere that are a waste of time/money
> 2. you have uber/lyft on at the same time
> 3. You drive to get your oil changed when your not working? That goes on your log as well...
> 3. My records with uber for 2014/2015 were both 15,000 miles or so off back when i drove full time doing uber. That's over $7,500 in deductions, not exactly a small problem
> 3A. given that uber consistently gets worse from the day before, i have no faith in it properly accounting for anything.


Yes!!! There's 2 business, Uber and your ride-share business. You don't keep records for Uber and you shouldn't except or count on Uber to keep records for you!


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## wallae

If I'm in a bad area where I don't want a ride I turn it off and go to a good area. I'm still working.
If I take a lyft ride I turn it off.


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## steveK2016

DocT said:


> It only reports the mileage from Phase 3 (actual live trip). You need to keep track of Phase 1 and Phase 2 mileage on your own.


Not what I observed. Last years numbers were very close to what I logged, i logged maybe 5% more miles then they did, so I used my numbers. I believe they started providing (because face it they've had thise numbers every year, theyre just now giving it to us) online miles sometime last year.

I only did Uber so it was easy, but if you do Uber and Lyft, you cant rely on those miles as I routinely log off uber when I have a lyft ride, and vice versa.

Best to just keep track of your ODO yourself .



AuxCordBoston said:


> Not true. It tracks all miles while app is on


Not on, when you are online. Theres a difference with having the app on (open but offline) versus actually online.


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## DocT

Like I said, YMMV. My recorded mileage vs Uber's mileage has always been off by a substantial amount. I back up my mileage with a personal drive log.


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## steveK2016

DocT said:


> Like I said, YMMV. My recorded mileage vs Uber's mileage has always been off by a substantial amount. I back up my mileage with a personal drive log.


You stated it only tracked period 3. That was the case pre-2016 but 2017 they include all periods. It may still not be accurate, perhaps it only includes period 2 and not 1, but my numbers were close enough that it definitely was more than just period 3.

That being said, I would not rely on their numbers even if they were accurate. They may change their minds and stop providing that data, then youd be screwed.


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## David Propst

Milwaukee Suburb Driver said:


> I noticed on the Uber dashboard that if you go under tax information, you can see a breakdown of earning and mileage for each month of 2018. Everything looked correct until May when my mileage seemed off. In June, it has me at 158 total trips, but only 57 total miles online. Is anyone else seeing goofy mileage for May and June?


may was fine but june was way off. heres what i emailed to uber 
I hav tried multiple times to send support message through the app and getting nowhere. The online mileage for the month of June is incorrect. I have spoken with several agents on this and each agent tells me that my ON TRIP mileagae for June is 100 miles and OFF TRIP mileage is around 169 bringing total online miles to 269. I was told the monthly summary is from the 1rst of the month to the last of the month. I have went on the app in my phone and tallied trip by trip from June 1rst to June 30th and the total for ON TRIP mileage comes to 246.52. again this is just my ON TRIP mileage I have no way to see OFF TRIP mileage. PLEASE HELP. I have spoken with uber support 4 or 5 times on this have sent 5 support messages and i am getting no resolution.


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## UberTaxPro

David Propst said:


> may was fine but june was way off. heres what i emailed to uber
> I hav tried multiple times to send support message through the app and getting nowhere. The online mileage for the month of June is incorrect. I have spoken with several agents on this and each agent tells me that my ON TRIP mileagae for June is 100 miles and OFF TRIP mileage is around 169 bringing total online miles to 269. I was told the monthly summary is from the 1rst of the month to the last of the month. I have went on the app in my phone and tallied trip by trip from June 1rst to June 30th and the total for ON TRIP mileage comes to 246.52. again this is just my ON TRIP mileage I have no way to see OFF TRIP mileage. PLEASE HELP. I have spoken with uber support 4 or 5 times on this have sent 5 support messages and i am getting no resolution.


Uber has no obligation to keep track of your miles so I doubt if you will ever get any resolution. Forget Uber's mileage records, stop wasting time emailing them and just keep your own mileage log with an app or pen and paper.


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## kcdrvr15

Yes, they are tracking all your miles driven, if you are signed in on the drivers app, they are tracking your phone. Now this falls into the area that fuber will not discuss, this is part of the meta data that they need to program the AI into the self driving cars. The data is worth more than anything else in this business model. BUT they are not going to share it with you or anyone else unless the courts order it. The "data" is the goal, they need this information to properly program the AI that they are developing. The rideshare is nothing but a tool to get the "data" with out paying for it, instead they get "partners" to drive for pennies, and create a market where the drivers can drive, the riders get to pay, and the company gets all the data they need to start compiling the data base and information that will be needed to program the AI.

So, unless you want to pay an attorney to get a court order to make uber give you your data, just start a daily drivers log, any old notebook will do, or you can try one of the may apps that will record all your drives.


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## Milwaukee Suburb Driver

Great discussion guys. Looks like the issue is resolved. My June miles just jumped from 57 miles up to 2944 miles. Much better. As for mileage logs, I try to keep my app on as often as possible. With the "find trips towards a destination' feature, I can use it too and from work too. After all, they aren't docking us for having a poor acceptance rates yet, right?


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## Lee239

DocT said:


> It only reports the mileage from Phase 3 (actual live trip). You need to keep track of Phase 1 and Phase 2 mileage on your own.


When I got my year end summary it has by total miles driven while the app was on for all 3 phases. It was off by maybe 100 miles lower for the 45 day period I worked but I had a paper log that I kept in my car about miles driven with the app on. In the end even using their mileage numbers I made no profit and had a slight loss after deductions.


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## Failed Login

Milwaukee Suburb Driver said:


> I noticed on the Uber dashboard that if you go under tax information, you can see a breakdown of earning and mileage for each month of 2018. Everything looked correct until May when my mileage seemed off. In June, it has me at 158 total trips, but only 57 total miles online. Is anyone else seeing goofy mileage for May and June?


Good thread, thanks for starting. Went and looked at my mileage reports for the year, to date. Doing tax planning and didn't want any surprises... I'm just like Milwaukee, miles Uber shows me as logging "online" is marginally less that what I have logged, but is likely due to several factors, such as me not stopping and starting my log when I go offline to get back towards civilization when I drop a pax in the boonies or way north of town at 1am and don't want to get further out, but have used my destination filter, or want to save it for surge time. That and other small factors surely affect my number vs Uber's.

But, the reason I'm reply... *June* and *July* are WAY off on my miles reported "online". Not sure what happened on their end. I went from averaging 1,500 miles online to 360. I did drive much less those months but I still showed over 1,200 and 800 miles each of those months, respectively. Material difference. Wonder what happened those months. I'll check August once it's available and see how it compares, especially since I only drove about 100 miles in August and most of that was dead heading it on the interstate with DF on to stash miles.

On the tax front, last year was my first year to drive and I lucked out that I had enough miles to show a loss of about $200 on my federal return. I have a full time job where I easily cover my SS/Medicare. This year, I need to dead head a little more on my Monday morning interstate drives to the airport with my filter on to get to break even, or at least to a small profit. If I'm driving anyway, might as well be online! Good luck to you fellas, and ladies, here's to no one owing Uncle Sam for Uber/Lyft revenues!


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## To Mega Therion

If one is audited, does the IRS require having starting and ending _locations_ on your mileage log?


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