ROAMWORKS has released a white paper, "Using Fleet Telematics to Reduce Fuel Tax Reporting," which may be worth download. As the company says, it addresses the myriad administrative burdens associated with International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) compliance. Download the white paper here

IFTA is the framework against which jurisdictions work out who pays what fuel tax to whom when transport journeys involve border crossings. ROAMWORKS points out that up to now this used to be the province of some sort of clerical specialist within a road haulage organisation. The job would involve collecting and collating driving records so that the correct allocation of taxes could be determined under IFTA on a quarterly basis. So a time-consuming process of collating checking and authorising is traditionally undertaken every quarter to comply,

On this basis, fuel tax compliance must be an area ripe for M2M plucking. It's a classic case of what should be a close to real-time information stream remaining an old-fashioned 'record and reconcile' process with all the error and lack of transparency that entails.

Truck telematics should be able to automate fuel record-keeping as a real-time process. Not only would it ease the recording pain, but it would open up a window on other processes inherent in the business.

As ROAMWORKS claims in the press release: "While most trucking companies realize the value of telematics from a tracking and recovery standpoint, the real value comes from the data and how customers can use it to automate and improve a number of financial, human resources, management, and in-field business practices."