Truck driver meal claims: the simplified method, the 80% rate and the logbook

Meals are the largest deduction most drivers claim, and the one most often reduced on review. The rules are specific: a defined weight class, distance, time away, flat rate and deduction percentage. Miss any one and the claim falls back to a less generous treatment. This guide covers what a Canadian long-haul driver can claim and what the logbook must show.

Related: Trucking CPA for owner-operators and fleets.

Which method pays more depends on the trips, and the logbook decides whether either survives a review. How trucking books are kept, or ask about your claim. The trucks themselves are depreciated through equipment CCA classes.

Truck driver per diem meal deduction: detailed or simplified

Every meal claim uses one of two methods. The detailed method means keeping every receipt and claiming what you actually spent. The simplified method means claiming a flat rate per meal without keeping the receipts.

For the 2025 tax year the CRA’s flat rate is $23 per meal, sales tax included, up to $69 per day per person. Confirm the rate for your filing year. If you find an old truck driver meal allowance 2018 figure online, do not use it for a current return; the rate above is the 2025 one.

The simplified method removes the receipts, not the records. The CRA may still ask for documentation to support the claim, and that documentation is the trip log.

The 80% rate, and who gets it

Meals are normally 50% deductible. For long-haul drivers, meals during an eligible travel period are 80% deductible: $18.40 on a $23 meal instead of $11.50.

You are a long-haul truck driver if your main duty of employment is transporting goods by driving a long-haul truck, whatever your employer’s main business. A long-haul truck is a truck or tractor designed for hauling freight with a gross vehicle weight rating over 11,788 kg. Drivers of lighter vehicles, or transport employees with a different main duty, stay at 50%, as described in the 50% meals and entertainment limit.

What an eligible travel period is

This is where claims most often fail, because the definition has both a time test and a distance test and both must be met.

For an employed driver, it means at least 24 hours away from the municipality or metropolitan area where you report to work, driving a long-haul truck carrying goods at least 160 kilometres from that establishment.

For a self-employed driver: at least 24 continuous hours away from the municipality and metropolitan area where you live, carrying goods to or from a point at least 160 kilometres from home.

So a day trip inside 24 hours never qualifies, however far you drove, and nor does a multi-day trip that stays within 160 km of base. Both still allow a meal claim, at the lower rate.

The forms an employed driver needs

Employed drivers claim on Form TL2, Claim for Meals and Lodging Expenses. You complete Parts 1 and 2; your employer, Part 3. Eligible long-haul trips go in Part 2B (80%), all others in Part 2A (50%).

Your employer must also complete and sign Form T2200, Declaration of Conditions of Employment. The claim goes on line 22900 of your return. You keep the TL2 rather than sending it in, and the CRA asks for it often enough that it should be filed carefully.

Owner-operators and incorporated drivers

Self-employed or incorporated drivers file no TL2: meals are a business expense, at 80% for eligible travel periods. The bigger questions are whether the carrier arrangement looks like employment, how the truck is depreciated, and GST/HST on interlined freight. Settle those with an accountant who works with truckers before a review does.

The logbook is the claim

Either way, the deduction rests on a trip record kept at the time: departure and return dates and times, destination, distance from base, meals eaten, and whether the 24-hour and 160-kilometre tests were met. Whether you call it a trip log or a business travel report for trucking companies, it needs these same entries for every trip.

That last column is the one people skip, and it decides Part 2B at 80% or Part 2A at 50%. Written at the time, it takes seconds. Rebuilt in March from dispatch and fuel records, it takes days and is harder to defend.

Keep the log with your other records. Vehicle costs need the same discipline, often side by side; see the guide to business vehicle and mileage deductions.

Lodging, and what else goes on the TL2

The TL2 covers meals and lodging, and drivers who sleep in the cab often assume there is nothing else to claim. Accommodation you pay for on the road goes on the same form and is not subject to the 50% or 80% limit, which applies only to food and beverages. Keep the invoices; there is no flat rate for lodging like the $23 meal rate.

Showers, parking and similar costs fall under the ordinary employment-expense rules, not the meal claim. An employee’s deductions are bounded by what the T2200 says the job required, so read it: it sets the outer edge of everything claimed.

Common mistakes

Common errors: three meals a day regardless of departure and return times; 80% on trips that missed the distance test; mixing methods in one year; flat-rate claims for days at home; and filing without the T2200, the fastest way to lose a correct claim.

Getting it right

In trucking, one well-documented deduction moves the return, and the records are easy if set up early. If you are based in the Fraser Valley, a trucking accountant in Abbotsford who knows eligible travel periods makes sure your log fits the claim.

This article is general information for Canadian drivers and trucking businesses and is current as of July 2026. The flat meal rate is set by the CRA and can change — confirm the rate for the tax year you are filing. It is not tax advice; please speak with a CPA before acting on anything here.