How to Calculate Trip Mileage
by Leonardo R. Grabkowski
Most modern vehicles are equipped with a useful feature called a trip odometer. The trip odometer allows drivers to record mileage accrual between destinations. Knowing the exact mileage of a trip can be important, especially if you are being reimbursed by your company for mileage. Learn to properly calculate trip mileage if you do not have a trip odometer.
Step 1
Write down your odometer mileage immediately before beginning your trip. Some odometers have decimal points to list tenths of a mile traveled; others only update after each mile. Record the tenths if your odometer is equipped with this feature. The example we are going to use is 23,567.6 miles.
Step 2
Drive as you normally would on your trip. There is no need to make additional mileage notations unless you go off your route for a stop. If you are making a stop, make note of the mileage before getting off your main route, as well as your mileage once you get back on your route. Determine the amount of miles your stop required.
Step 3
Arrive at your final destination and write down your total odometer reading. For our example, we will be using a final odometer reading of 23,758.4 miles. We will deduct 0.4 miles for our stop, as an example.
Step 4
Use your calculator to subtract your starting odometer reading from your final odometer reading (23758.4 - 23567.6 = 190.8). In our example, the total mileage accrual would be 190.8; however, we made one stop that added 0.4 miles to our total, so we will deduct the additional mileage from the total (190.8 - 0.4 = 190.4). The total trip mileage would be 190.4.
Things You'll Need
- Notepad
- Pen
- Calculator
Writer Bio
Leonardo R. Grabkowski has been writing professionally for more than four years. Grabkowski attended college in Oregon. He builds websites on the side and has a slight obsession with Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress.
