Say you drive for DoorDash every evening after your day job. You work 25 hours a week, keep every receipt, and diligently check your DoorDash mileage summary at tax time.
The app says you drove 8,200 miles.
Then you check your personal mileage tracker. It shows 13,800 miles.
That’s a 5,600 mile difference. At the 2026 IRS rate of 72.5 cents per mile, you’re about to miss $4,060 in deductions.
If you’re a DoorDash driver relying on the app’s mileage summary, you’re probably leaving thousands of dollars on the table. Here’s what DoorDash doesn’t tell you about their tracking.
What DoorDash Actually Tracks
DoorDash records mileage from the moment you accept an order until you complete the delivery. That’s it.
Specifically, they track:
- Driving from your location to the restaurant
- Driving from the restaurant to the customer
- That’s the list
They report this number on your year-end 1099 form, and they call it your “mileage.” But the IRS definition of deductible business mileage is much broader than that.
What DoorDash Doesn’t Track (And Why It Matters)
Here’s what the app completely ignores—even though every mile is 100% deductible for your taxes:
1. Driving to your starting zone
You live in the suburbs. The best orders are downtown. You drive 8 miles to get to the area where orders are plentiful. DoorDash doesn’t count those miles. But the IRS does.
2. Waiting between orders
You’re parked at a busy shopping center with the app open, waiting for your next ping. You move to a different parking lot with better restaurants. You drive two miles across town because you heard the steakhouse district gets big tips on Friday nights.
None of that shows up in DoorDash’s mileage report.
3. Returning home
You finish your last delivery at 9pm. You drive 12 miles home. DoorDash stops tracking the moment you complete that final order. But you’re still driving home from work, and that’s deductible.
Exception: If your home qualifies as your principal place of business (which it probably does if you’re a gig worker), your first trip out and last trip home count as business miles, not commuting miles. This is huge. Read our deep dive on first and last trip commute rules to make sure you qualify.
4. Multi-apping repositioning
You’re running DoorDash and Uber Eats at the same time. You finish a DoorDash delivery, then drive 3 miles to pick up an Uber Eats order. DoorDash shows zero miles for that stretch.
5. Driving for supplies
You stop at the gas station, the car wash, or to buy insulated bags for deliveries. All business mileage. None of it tracked by DoorDash.
6. Driving to the restaurant before accepting
Sometimes you drive toward a restaurant you know gets good orders, then accept an order while en route. DoorDash only starts tracking after you accept.
Add it all up, and you’re driving 30-40% more deductible miles than DoorDash reports. For someone driving 10,000 miles according to DoorDash, the real number is closer to 13,000-14,000 miles.
That’s a $2,175 to $2,900 difference in deductions at the current IRS rate.
The Multi-App Problem Gets Worse
Running multiple apps simultaneously makes DoorDash’s tracking even less useful.
Let’s say you’re online with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart. You drive 6 miles across town because Uber Eats has a surge. Then you accept a DoorDash order along the way.
- DoorDash tracks: 2 miles (from acceptance to completion)
- Your actual business mileage: 6 miles (the entire trip was for business)
When you’re multi-apping, almost none of your positioning and waiting miles get captured by any single app. But all of it is deductible. If you run multiple apps, read our multi-app delivery driver mileage guide for the full breakdown.
How to Track Everything Yourself
The good news: fixing this is straightforward. You need a third-party mileage tracker that runs independently of DoorDash.
Option 1: Dedicated Mileage App (Best)
Apps like Stride, MileIQ, or OdoAlibi automatically track every mile you drive. At the end of the year, you classify trips as “business” or “personal.” Simple.
- Pros: Automatic, GPS-verified, IRS-compliant records
- Cons: Most charge $5-10/month for full features (but they pay for themselves immediately)
Setup:
- Download the app
- Grant location permissions (“always” not just “while using”)
- Turn on automatic tracking
- Done
The app runs in the background. Every time you drive, it logs the trip. At tax time, you export a report that shows every business mile with GPS coordinates and timestamps.
Option 2: Manual Log (Free, Tedious)
Keep a notebook in your car. After every shift, write down:
- Date
- Starting odometer reading
- Ending odometer reading
- Total business miles
This works, but it requires discipline. Miss a few days and you’re back to the same problem.
Option 3: Hybrid Approach (Practical)
Use an automatic tracker, but also note your car’s odometer reading on January 1st and December 31st. The total miles driven minus your personal miles gives you business miles as a sanity check.
Combining DoorDash Data With Your Own Records
At tax time, you’ll have two numbers. Say DoorDash reports 8,200 miles and your tracking app shows 13,800 miles.
Here’s what you do:
Use your tracking app number for your tax return. That’s your actual business mileage. The 1099 number is incomplete and understated.
DoorDash’s 1099 is for their records, not yours. The IRS wants your total business mileage, not just the miles DoorDash happened to measure. You’re required to report the accurate number.
Keep both records in case of an audit:
- Your tracking app export (the full log)
- DoorDash’s year-end summary (the partial log)
If the IRS ever questions your mileage, you show them the tracking app log and explain, “DoorDash only tracks active deliveries. My log includes waiting time, repositioning, and returning home—all deductible business mileage.”
That’s a perfectly defensible position. You’re not inflating miles. You’re reporting what you actually drove for business.
What About the DoorDash “Mileage Summary”?
DoorDash provides a year-end summary in the app. Some drivers screenshot it and think they’re done. Here’s the problem: that summary is not a mileage log.
It’s an estimate. It doesn’t include timestamps, start/end locations, or trip purposes. In an audit, the IRS wants to see:
- Date of each trip
- Destination
- Business purpose
- Miles driven
A single summary number doesn’t cut it. You need a detailed log.
Use DoorDash’s summary as a baseline, but don’t rely on it as your only record.
Real Numbers: How Much Are You Missing?
Let’s run the math for a typical part-time driver.
Scenario: You dash 15 hours a week, mostly evenings and weekends.
DoorDash reports: 400 miles per month = 4,800 miles per year
What you actually drove:
- Active deliveries: 4,800 miles (DoorDash’s number)
- Driving to your starting zone: 15 miles x 60 shifts = 900 miles
- Repositioning between orders: 10 miles per shift x 60 = 600 miles
- Returning home: 15 miles x 60 shifts = 900 miles
- Miscellaneous (supplies, gas, car wash): 200 miles
Total: 7,400 miles
Lost deduction: 2,600 miles x $0.725 = $1,885
For a full-time driver working 40 hours a week, the gap is even bigger. Missing 30% of your miles could mean leaving $4,000-$6,000 in deductions unclaimed. Run your own numbers with our mileage deduction calculator.
Finding the Missing Miles: What to Do Next
Say you’ve discovered a 5,600-mile gap. Here’s what you do.
Go back through your automatic tracker’s log and categorize every trip from the past year. Most are probably business (especially if you mainly use the car for DoorDash). Filter out any personal trips.
At tax time, report the accurate 13,800 miles on your Schedule C. Keep both the tracker export and DoorDash’s summary in your records.
If the IRS ever questions your deduction, you send them:
- The full mileage log from your tracking app (GPS-verified)
- A letter explaining what DoorDash tracks vs. what the IRS allows
- Your DoorDash 1099 showing the lower number (to show you’re not making up miles)
That’s a defensible position. Contemporaneous records—logged by the app as each trip happened—are what survive an audit.
Start Tracking Today
If you’re still relying on DoorDash’s mileage summary, you’re not tracking your mileage—you’re tracking a fraction of it.
Install an automatic tracker before your next shift. Every mile you don’t log is money you’re giving away.
The best tracking app is the one you’ll actually use. Most offer free trials. Pick one, set it up, and forget about it. At tax time, you’ll export a complete report instead of wondering what you missed. Read our complete guide to automatic mileage tracking for what to look for in an app.
And if you’ve been dashing all year without tracking? Check out our guide on recovering past mileage from your phone’s location history. You might be able to reconstruct more than you think.
Don’t leave thousands of dollars on the table. Start tracking everything.
