Paper, Excel, GPS or an app?
Four ways to keep a sõidupäevik. All of them are allowed — the law asks for content, not form. They differ in how much work, how many mistakes and how much tracking each brings.
| Paper | Excel | GPS app or device | DrivLog | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | €0 | €0 | monthly fee, often a device and installation too | €3 per user a month |
| Getting started | a notebook in the glovebox | a template or your own sheet | an app on the phone or a device in the car | an account in the browser, a few minutes |
| Distance | from a map or memory | from a map, typed in | recorded automatically | calculated from the addresses |
| Odometer | by hand | by hand on every row | automatic | moves forward by itself |
| €550 cap | you work it out | a MIN formula, if you know about it | depends on the product | always applied |
| Privacy | complete | complete | location recorded all the time, off-duty too | location is never read |
| Month-end | add up, scan, send | save a PDF yourself | a report from the system | PDF and Excel in one click |
Paper
A notebook in the glovebox is still the most common start, and perfectly allowed. The weaknesses are known: you do the maths by hand at month-end, distances are «about», and the only copy rides around in the car. Lose the notebook and you lose the evidence the allowance was paid on.
Excel
Free and flexible. Good when there are few trips and someone keeps an eye on the formulas. The mistakes are the same as on paper, just in a neater font: blank cells, numbers typed as text, and a formula that doesn't know about the €550 cap. If you go with Excel, start from the free template that already handles those.
A GPS app or a device in the car
Records every trip by itself: start, end, route and time. The driver enters nothing and the data is objective. You pay for that twice. In money: a monthly fee and often a device per car. And in privacy: the system knows where the car is in the evening and at weekends too. For a fleet that also needs live location and fuel use, it's the right choice. For one person's family car, usually not.
DrivLog
You enter from where to where; DrivLog calculates the distance with Google Maps, carries the odometer forward and works out the allowance with the €550 cap. At month-end, PDF and Excel for your accountant. It doesn't read GPS or track your phone: only what you enter goes into the log. €3 per user a month, 7 days free.
How to choose
- How many trips a month? A couple: paper or Excel. Every week: an app saves time and mistakes.
- Who writes the trip down? If the driver does, straight away, a simple app is enough. If someone else does it at month-end from memory, you get exactly the mistakes on the requirements page.
- What do you actually need? To pay the tax-free allowance correctly, a fleet platform is overkill. If you also need live location and fuel, a simple log is too small.
When DrivLog isn't the right choice
With many vehicles and a need for live location, working-time tracking or fuel cards, pick a fleet system. If you drive for work a couple of times a year, a spreadsheet is enough and our fee won't pay for itself. DrivLog is for the case in between: people who regularly drive their own car for work, like home care nurses and personal trainers.