The short answer
For light vehicle fleets of utes, vans and salary packaged cars, the hard software problems are tax and money, not dots on a map. Telematics from Teletrac Navman, MTData, Geotab or EROAD tracks the vehicles; what is usually missing is FBT ready logbook data, EV exemption and charging records, and reconciliation of tolls, fuel cards and fines back to drivers and cost centres. The ATO lets employers use a home charging rate of 5.47 cents per kilometre for the FBT year starting 1 April 2026. Typical custom builds sit in an indicative $15,000 to $70,000 (AUD, ex GST) market range.
Key takeaways
- Telematics, fleet administration and maintenance are three different jobs; most fleets have the first and run the other two on spreadsheets.
- A logbook for the FBT operating cost method usually covers a continuous, representative 12 week period and needs dates, odometer readings, kilometres and a specific purpose for each business journey.
- Battery electric cars first held and used from 1 July 2022, below the LCT threshold, can be FBT exempt, but the benefit is still reportable; plug in hybrids lost eligibility from 1 April 2025 except under a financially binding commitment made before then.
- Tolls paid on a car that carries an FBT liability are generally subject to FBT too, unless the minor benefits exemption applies.
- Heavy vehicle rules sit elsewhere: this page is about light vehicles, and our logistics page covers the HVNL.
Telematics, fleet admin and maintenance: which job is actually broken?
Most light vehicle fleets already have telematics; the gaps are in fleet administration and maintenance, which still run on spreadsheets. It helps to separate the three jobs before buying or building anything.
| Job | What it covers | Typical tools | Common gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telematics | Location, trips, speed, harsh events, engine data | Teletrac Navman, MTData, Geotab, EROAD, Webfleet, Linxio | Data stays in the vendor portal |
| Fleet administration | Vehicle register, allocation, FBT, tolls, fuel cards, fines, leases | Spreadsheets, Fleetio, finance system | Reconciliation and tax reporting |
| Maintenance | Services, tyres, registration, defects, inspections | Fleetio, dealer portals, telematics add ons | Joining odometer data to schedules and costs |
MTData, for example, markets Australian designed telematics and fleet software for Australian businesses, and the larger telematics vendors all offer trip logs and maintenance reminders. Where they stop is finance: who pays for what, which cost centre carries it, and what goes on the FBT return. That is where custom work tends to earn its place.
This page is about utes, vans and cars. If you run heavy vehicles, fatigue, mass and Chain of Responsibility rules apply, and our logistics software page covers them.
What does the ATO need from a digital logbook?
A logbook for the operating cost method usually covers a continuous 12 week period that is representative of the car’s business use, with specific details for every business journey. The ATO’s employer guide lists them: the dates the journey began and ended, odometer readings at the start and end, kilometres travelled, and the purpose. It is explicit that “business” or “miscellaneous business” is not enough as a purpose.
Odometer records of total distance are also needed, both for the 12 weeks and for the whole year. Without logbook and odometer records, the operating cost method is not available and the statutory formula method applies, which for most arrangements uses a 20% statutory percentage. Electronic records are treated the same as paper ones and must be kept for five years.
What this means for software:
- Purpose capture. A telematics trip log is not a logbook until each trip carries a real purpose. A driver app that prompts at trip end, with suggestions from the calendar or job system, fixes this.
- Odometer, not just GPS. Pull true odometer readings from the vehicle where the telematics unit supports it.
- Representative period. Let the fleet manager choose and lock the 12 weeks, and flag cars whose use has changed since.
- Retention. Store logbooks with the FBT records for the required period, outside the telematics vendor’s rolling history.
How do EVs change the paperwork?
Electric cars can remove FBT on private use, but they add eligibility tests, reporting and charging calculations that someone has to keep straight.
The ATO’s conditions for the electric cars exemption are that the car is a zero or low emissions vehicle (battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell), first held and used on or after 1 July 2022, used by a current employee or their associates, and that luxury car tax has never been payable on it. Salary packaged cars are included. The benefit is still reportable, so values flow to employees’ income statements.
Plug in hybrids stopped counting as zero or low emissions vehicles from 1 April 2025. The ATO lets the exemption continue for a PHEV only where the use was provided before that date under a financially binding commitment to keep providing it, and an optional extension does not count.
| Item a fleet system should store per EV | Why |
|---|---|
| Drivetrain type | Battery electric, fuel cell or plug in hybrid decides eligibility |
| Date first held and used | Must be on or after 1 July 2022 |
| LCT status at purchase or import | Any LCT payable removes eligibility |
| For PHEVs, the commitment date and terms | Grandfathering depends on a binding commitment before 1 April 2025 |
| Reportable value per FBT year | Feeds payroll reporting |
| Home charging method and percentage | Rate method or actual cost, chosen per vehicle per year |
Home charging is the fiddly part. For the FBT year starting 1 April 2026, the ATO’s PCG 2024/2 sets an EV home charging rate of 5.47 cents per kilometre; earlier years used 4.20 cents. The ATO’s own example applies a 75% home charging share to 10,000 kilometres, giving 7,500 kilometres at 5.47 cents, or $410.25. Software that holds odometer readings and public charging receipts can produce that number per car without a spreadsheet.
How should tolls, fuel cards and fines be reconciled?
Match every transaction to a vehicle, a driver and a moment in time, then decide who pays and how it is treated for tax. Toll statements, fuel card files and infringement notices arrive in different formats on different cycles, and the reconciliation often falls to one person in finance.
Tolls need care for FBT. The ATO says that if FBT applies to an employee’s private use of a car or eligible commercial vehicle and you pay their tolls, the tolls are generally subject to FBT as well. A minor benefits exemption can apply where the employee’s total tolls for the FBT year are under $300 and treating them as a fringe benefit would be unreasonable, for example because they are infrequent and irregular.
A reconciliation tool typically:
- Imports toll, fuel card and fine data on a schedule.
- Matches each item to a vehicle by plate or card, then to the driver allocated at that time.
- Uses telematics to test whether the trip was during work, and flags private use.
- Routes fines for driver nomination within the issuing authority’s deadline.
- Posts costs to the right cost centre and summarises private tolls for the FBT return.
Our data analytics service covers the reporting side, and workflow automation covers the nomination and approval steps.
Utes and vans: when is private use exempt?
An eligible commercial vehicle can be exempt from FBT when private use is limited to home to work travel, incidental travel and other minor, infrequent and irregular use. The ATO’s eligible vehicle pages describe the vehicles (such as utes and vans designed to carry less than one tonne and not mainly for passengers) and point to PCG 2018/3 for its compliance approach. They suggest regular comparison of opening and closing odometer readings with expected home to work distance. That is an easy automated check: flag any vehicle whose monthly kilometres outside work hours exceed its expected commute.
What should you know before tracking staff vehicles?
Tracking is legitimate, but staff should know what is collected and when, and access to history should be narrow. For employees, state workplace surveillance laws can require notice; NSW has a Workplace Surveillance Act 2005. Vehicles taken home raise the obvious question of after hours tracking. A privacy mode outside work hours that keeps only odometer totals usually satisfies both FBT needs and staff concerns. Get advice for each state you operate in.
Is a work vehicle covered by WHS duties?
Yes. A business’s duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers extends to the vehicles they drive for work. Safe Work Australia’s transport guidance frames this as the PCBU’s duty and points to its model codes, including managing the risk of fatigue. For a light fleet, software usually supports pre start checks, defect reporting that takes a vehicle off the road until fixed, and incident records linked to the vehicle and driver.
Where does AI help a fleet?
Mostly in prediction and paperwork. Maintenance prediction from engine fault codes and odometer trends, reading service invoices and fines into structured records, and plain English cost summaries for managers, such as which team’s vans cost most per kilometre this quarter and why, are realistic. Using AI to judge whether a trip was private should stay a flag for a person to confirm.
What do fleet builds cost?
Indicative AUD market ranges, ex GST, not quotes. They sit within the bands Expeed publishes for Australian custom software of $15,000 to $40,000 for simple tools and $40,000 to $150,000 for mid complexity systems.
| Build | Scope | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Toll, fuel and fines reconciliation | Imports, matching to vehicle and driver, private use flags, nomination workflow, finance export | $15,000 to $45,000 |
| Fleet cost dashboard | Telematics plus finance data, cost per kilometre by vehicle and team, EV and FBT reporting | $25,000 to $70,000 |
| Logbook and EV charging module | Driver trip purpose capture, odometer data, home charging calculations, FBT year reports | $20,000 to $50,000 |
Ranges move with the number of data sources and how clean your vehicle and driver allocation records are. If the starting point is a large spreadsheet, our guide to replacing Excel with a web app is a useful read.
How AWLabs works on fleet projects
A Development Consult comes first, focused on which fleet costs nobody can explain at month end. A paid Discovery Audit then checks your telematics exports, toll and fuel card files and finance system, followed by a fixed price Schedule of Work with three options: The Minimum, The Recommended and The Complete. Senior engineers lead every build, with updates every Tuesday and Friday.
AWLabs hasn’t built fleet software before, and we are not tax agents; your FBT adviser confirms the treatment before any report is relied on. See logistics and transport for related work.
Frequently asked questions
Does the ATO accept GPS or app based logbooks?
The ATO accepts electronic records on the same terms as paper ones: they must hold the required details for each business journey and be accessible and readable for at least five years. A telematics trip log can produce a good logbook if each trip is tagged with a real business purpose, not just 'business'. Check that your provider's export includes start and end odometer readings, not only GPS distance.
Are our salary packaged EVs completely FBT free?
The private use of an eligible electric car, and the electricity to charge it, is exempt from FBT, but the ATO says the benefit is reportable, so the value appears on employees' income statements. Eligibility depends on the car being a battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, first held and used from 1 July 2022, with luxury car tax never payable. The government has said it will review the exemption by mid 2027.
How do we pay staff back for charging at home?
For the FBT year ending 31 March 2027, the ATO's PCG 2024/2 allows a home charging rate of 5.47 cents per kilometre for eligible vehicles, applied to the kilometres attributable to home charging. Earlier FBT years used 4.20 cents. You can use actual costs instead, and the choice is per vehicle for the whole year. Software needs odometer data and a reasonable home charging percentage per car.
Do utes and vans attract FBT?
An eligible commercial vehicle, such as a ute or van designed to carry less than one tonne and not mainly for passengers, can be exempt when private use is limited to travel between home and work, incidental travel and other use that is minor, infrequent and irregular. The ATO's PCG 2018/3 sets out its compliance approach. Comparing odometer readings against expected home to work distance is the kind of check software can automate.
Should we track staff vehicles?
Many fleets do, for safety, theft recovery and logbooks. For employees, state workplace surveillance laws can require notice, and NSW has a Workplace Surveillance Act 2005. Decide whether tracking runs after hours in vehicles taken home, tell staff plainly, and limit who can view trip history.
Have you built fleet software before?
No. AWLabs has not delivered a fleet management project, so we won't claim sector experience. We bring data integration, reporting and workflow engineering, and we would rely on your accountant or FBT adviser for how the rules apply to your fleet.
This page is general information, not tax advice. AWLabs is not a registered tax agent. Eligibility for the R&D Tax Incentive depends on your circumstances; speak to a registered R&D tax agent and see business.gov.au and the ATO.
Sources
- Fringe benefits tax: a guide for employers, chapter 4 record keeping, Australian Taxation Office
- Taxable value of a car fringe benefit, Australian Taxation Office
- Electric cars exemption, Australian Taxation Office
- FBT on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Australian Taxation Office
- Fringe benefits tax rates and thresholds, Australian Taxation Office
- Road and bridge tolls and FBT, Australian Taxation Office
- Exempt use of eligible vehicles, Australian Taxation Office
- Transport, Safe Work Australia
- Workplace surveillance, Information and Privacy Commission NSW
- MTData telematics and fleet management, MTData
- Custom software development cost in Australia 2026, Expeed Software