Transport and Freight Accounting in Iran: From the Waybill to Cost per Kilometre

This is written for transport and freight company managers, fleet owners and the accountants who handle their files. Haulage is a high-turnover, thin-margin industry in which one accounting decision — gross or net recognition of the haulage charge — can change the size of your declared revenue several times over. In the transport files I have handled, this single issue has generated more dispute than anything else.

Is the haulage charge revenue or pass-through money?

In the common market structure the cargo owner pays the charge to the transport company, which issues the waybill and, after deducting its share, pays the balance to the driver or vehicle owner. The accounting question is which number is your revenue.

The test is your real role:

• If the service is performed with your own fleet, or under your responsibility and risk, you are the principal: the full charge is revenue and the driver payment is cost of service.
• If you are purely an intermediary between the cargo owner and the vehicle owner, and neither performance risk nor damage liability rests with you, your revenue is the commission and the pass-through must not sit in sales.

The contract, the waybill wording and the accounting treatment must be consistent. Inconsistency between the three is exactly what turns into a dispute on audit. Recognition principles are covered in the revenue recognition article.

The waybill as the unit of account

The waybill acts simultaneously as invoice, carriage contract and control document. Every waybill should open a trip file in your system to which all trip income and cost attach: charge received, driver share, fuel, road tolls and weighing, loading labour and any damage claim. If your accounting is not tied to the waybill, you will never know which routes make money.

Electronic waybills and mileage registration in government systems have a useful side effect: your mileage data is verifiable independently of your books.

Chart of accounts and fleet cost centres

Each vehicle or trailer should be its own cost centre. The minimum split:

• Revenue by service type: domestic haulage, intercity, international, warehousing and ancillary services
• Direct trip cost: driver share, fuel, tolls and weighing, loading and unloading
• Fleet cost: repairs, tyres, oil and filters, third-party and hull insurance, technical inspection, depreciation
• Administration: office, head-office staff, licences and memberships

Without this, company profit is one number that supports no decision.

Cost per kilometre

The total divided by total kilometres gives cost per kilometre, which is the real basis for pricing a charge and for accepting or refusing a load. Empty return kilometres still carry cost and earn nothing.

Fuel is the largest variable cost and the largest leak. Three controls: record consumption in litres as well as rials, compute litres per hundred kilometres by vehicle and driver, and compare monthly against the fleet average. A vehicle that persistently deviates has a mechanical or behavioural cause; both are fixable once visible.

Depreciation and overhauls. Vehicles depreciate under the statutory schedule. The boundary matters: routine repair is period expense, while a major overhaul that materially extends life or capacity is capital and joins the asset's carrying amount. Detail is in the depreciation article.

Settling with drivers

Driver settlement is where documents go missing.

1. Issue a settlement sheet per trip with the waybill number, route and travel and unloading dates.
2. Compute the driver share per contract or tariff on that same sheet.
3. Offset the pre-trip float on the sheet, not in a separate forgotten account.
4. Attach receipts or signed forms for on-road expenses.
5. Apply deductions — cargo damage, fines, fuel shortfall — with documentation and the driver's knowledge.
6. Make the final payment through the bank, to that person's own account.
7. Withhold and remit tax on service payments where applicable.
8. Produce and have signed a monthly statement of each driver's balance.

No trip should close without a settlement sheet.

VAT

Public passenger transport, urban and intercity, is exempt, while freight haulage is a taxable service at the standard 10 percent rate. If your company does both, revenue must be split and shared input credit apportioned on a documented basis, or the entire credit is exposed to reversal.

International freight is subject to different arrangements, with customs and shipping documents decisive in supporting the treatment; confirm the current position from the latest circular. See the VAT article.

Cargo damage and claims

A carrier's liability to the cargo owner is a real contingent liability, not a theoretical risk. Open a file for each claim and track three numbers: the amount claimed, the amount recoverable from the insurer, and the share deductible from the driver. Until settlement, a reliable estimate of the net exposure should be provided for; recognising it next year makes this year's profit fictional.

Monthly numbers worth watching

• Revenue per kilometre and cost per kilometre by vehicle
• Empty running ratio against total kilometres
• Fuel consumption per hundred kilometres by vehicle and driver
• Fleet utilisation — days per month each vehicle was on the road
• Margin on each recurring route

Key takeaways

• Establish first whether you are principal or intermediary; that decision sets the size of your declared revenue.
• Every waybill should be a trip file with its own income and cost.
• Cost per kilometre is the real pricing basis, and it must include empty running.
• Freight is VAT-taxable while public passenger transport is exempt; mixed activity must be split.
• Driver settlements without trip sheets and receipts become disallowed expenses.