Mileage Claims for Delivery Drivers: Uber Eats, Amazon Flex, Deliveroo

Self-employed delivery drivers leave a lot of money on the table at tax time. Some claim nothing because they assume fuel costs are covered by the platform. Others claim every single mile from the moment they leave the house, which is equally wrong. The truth sits somewhere in between, and the exact split depends on how you work, which platforms you use, and whether you operate from a depot or from home.

This guide covers the mileage rules as they apply specifically to gig-economy delivery work. If you drive for Amazon Flex, deliver for Uber Eats or Deliveroo, or do any other self-employed courier work, these are the rules that determine what goes on your Self Assessment return.

The basics: what counts as a business mile

HMRC's simplified expenses rules let self-employed people claim a flat rate per mile instead of tracking actual vehicle costs. For cars and vans, that rate is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, then 25p per mile after that. You cannot claim simplified mileage and actual costs: it's one or the other, and once you choose simplified expenses for a vehicle, you're locked in for that vehicle.

The question for delivery drivers is: which miles count as "business"?

The short answer: miles driven while actively working (collecting parcels, delivering them, driving between drops, heading to a pickup location after accepting an order) are business miles. Miles driven from home to your regular starting point and back might not be. That "might not be" is where it gets complicated.

The commute trap: home to depot

This is the single biggest issue for delivery drivers. If you drive to the same depot or warehouse every day to collect parcels, HMRC treats that journey as ordinary commuting. It doesn't matter that you're self-employed. A regular, repeated journey to the same workplace is a commute, and commutes are not claimable.

This hits Amazon Flex drivers hard. A typical Flex routine involves driving to a specific delivery station, loading your vehicle, completing a block of deliveries, and driving home. The miles from your home to the station and from your last drop back home are the contentious ones.

If you always go to the same station: home to station is likely a commute. Station to first drop, between drops, and last drop to station are all business. Last drop to home is a grey area: if you're heading straight home with no more work, HMRC could argue it's the return leg of your commute.

If you rotate between stations: the picture changes. If no single station is your regular workplace (you might do Enfield on Monday, Dartford on Wednesday, and Luton on Friday) then none of them is your permanent workplace. All your travel becomes business. This is a genuine distinction, not a trick. HMRC's rules treat travel to a temporary workplace as business travel, and a station you visit once or twice a week out of a rotation is temporary.

Platform-specific situations

Amazon Flex

Flex is the most depot-dependent delivery model. You grab a block, drive to the station, load up, deliver, and you're done. The key variable is whether you always use the same station.

If you do, consider this: your business miles are the ones from the station to your first drop, between each drop, and from your last drop back to the station. Your home-to-station journey is a commute. That distinction alone can be the difference between claiming 80 miles and claiming 120 miles on a given block.

One thing Flex drivers sometimes miss: the miles between your last delivery and the station (if you have to return) are business. And if you don't have to return to the station, the miles from your last drop to wherever you go next are the end of your business journey. If you go straight home, your business journey ends at that last drop.

Uber Eats and Deliveroo

These platforms work differently. There's no depot. You log in from wherever you are, wait for orders, and the app sends you to restaurants. This is generally better for mileage claims because you don't have a fixed starting point.

If you work from home (you log in from your kitchen table and head out when an order pings) then home is your base and every journey from home to a restaurant is business. The miles between pickups are business. The ride home at the end of your shift is the return leg from your last business location.

But there's a catch. If you always drive to the same area to start your shift (say you live in a suburb but always drive to the city centre because that's where the orders are) HMRC could argue that the city centre zone is your regular workplace. It's a stretch, but it's the kind of argument they might make if your records show the same pattern every day. The defence is that you don't go to a specific address; you go wherever the app sends you, and the zone is just where demand happens to be.

Multi-apping

Plenty of drivers run Flex blocks in the morning and switch to Uber Eats in the evening, or toggle between Deliveroo and Just Eat depending on demand. Multi-apping actually strengthens your mileage position in one respect: it makes it harder for HMRC to pin you to a single permanent workplace. You're going to different locations, different restaurants, different stations. The variety supports the argument that all your work travel is to temporary locations.

The downside is that record-keeping gets messier. You need to track which miles were business across all platforms. A continuous GPS log helps enormously here: it captures everything and you classify afterwards, rather than trying to remember which app you were on at 3pm on a Tuesday three months ago.

Not everyone drives a car

A lot of Deliveroo and Uber Eats couriers use bicycles, e-bikes, or mopeds. The mileage rates are different.

For motorcycles and mopeds, the approved rate is 24p per mile. There's no tiered rate: 24p whether you do 5,000 miles or 15,000.

For bicycles, HMRC's approved rate is 20p per mile. Yes, you can claim mileage on a bicycle. The rate is meant to cover wear and tear on the bike, replacement parts, and so on. It's not just for cars and vans.

These rates apply through the simplified expenses system, same as cars. You use the mileage rate instead of claiming actual costs. For a cyclist doing 30 miles a day delivering food, that's 6 quid a day in tax-deductible mileage. Not life-changing, but over a year it adds up to around £1,500 off your taxable income.

What records do you need to keep?

HMRC doesn't prescribe a specific format for mileage records, but they do require that you can evidence your claim if asked. Their business income manual makes clear that expenses must be supported by records.

For each business journey, you should have:

• Date
• Start and end points (doesn't have to be exact addresses: "Enfield depot to Tottenham delivery" is fine)
• Distance
• Purpose (e.g., "Amazon Flex block" or "Uber Eats deliveries")

A GPS tracking log is the gold standard. It gives you timestamped, route-accurate data that's very hard for HMRC to argue with. Platform records (Flex earnings reports, Uber trip summaries) can supplement this but they don't show the full picture. They don't capture dead miles between blocks or the drive to the station.

For more on what HMRC actually requires, see the guide on whether you need a mileage log.

Worked example: a Flex driver doing 5 blocks a week

Let's put numbers on this. Meet Sarah. She drives a Hyundai i20 and does 5 Amazon Flex blocks per week, all from the same delivery station 8 miles from her home.

A typical block looks like this:

• Home to station: 8 miles (commute, not claimable, same station every day)
• Station to first drop: 4 miles (business)
• Between drops (roughly 12 deliveries): 35 miles total (business)
• Last drop to home: 10 miles (return journey, arguably commute return leg)

Claimable miles per block: 39 miles (station to first drop + between drops). The home-to-station and last-drop-to-home legs are the commute. Sarah plays it safe and doesn't claim those.

Per week: 39 × 5 = 195 business miles

Per year (48 working weeks): 195 × 48 = 9,360 business miles

Mileage claim:

• 9,360 miles × 45p = £4,212

All under 10,000 miles, so it's all at the 45p rate. At the basic tax rate of 20%, that's £842 off her tax bill. At 40%, it's £1,685.

Now, what if Sarah rotated between three different stations? Then her home-to-station miles become business travel (no single permanent workplace). Her claimable miles per block jump to roughly 57 miles. Over a year, that's 13,680 miles: 10,000 at 45p (£4,500) plus 3,680 at 25p (£920) = £5,420. That's £1,208 more in claims, purely because of how she organises her station rotation.

For a full walkthrough of how the 45p/25p calculation works with different annual totals, see the mileage allowance worked example.

Supplier and maintenance miles

There are other business miles that delivery drivers often forget:

• Driving to buy supplies: phone mounts, insulated bags, hi-vis vests, trolleys. These are business supply runs.
• Vehicle maintenance: if you drive to the garage for a service or MOT on your delivery vehicle, that journey has a business purpose. (Note: if you use simplified mileage expenses, you can't also claim the service cost separately; it's baked into the 45p rate. But the journey to the garage is still a business mile.)
• Driving to sort out platform issues: if Amazon requires you to visit a station for an ID check or equipment swap, that's a business journey.

Common mistakes

Claiming every mile from door to door. If you go to the same depot daily, the home-to-depot portion is a commute. Claiming it anyway is the fastest way to get your whole mileage claim queried.

Claiming nothing. The opposite mistake. Some drivers think that because the platform pays them per delivery, they can't also claim mileage. Wrong. You're self-employed. Your mileage is a business expense. The platform payment is your income; the mileage claim reduces your taxable profit.

Confusing mileage with fuel costs. The 45p rate is not a fuel reimbursement. It covers fuel, insurance, road tax, depreciation, servicing: everything. If you claim 45p per mile, you cannot also claim fuel receipts, insurance premiums, or repair bills for that vehicle. It's one or the other.

No records at all. Platform earnings summaries show what you earned, not where you drove. If HMRC asks for evidence of your 9,000 business miles, "I did Flex blocks" is not sufficient. You need dates, routes, and distances.

Putting it together

The rules are not complicated once you understand the commute distinction. Miles driven while actively delivering are business. Miles to a regular depot are commuting. Miles to varying locations are business. Keep a log, classify honestly, and claim everything you're entitled to.

The drivers who get this right typically save between £800 and £2,000 a year in tax. The ones who get it wrong, either by over-claiming or under-claiming, either face an HMRC enquiry or leave money on the table. Neither is a good outcome.

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