Practical guides on delivery driver reimbursement, mileage rates, taxes, and wage-law compliance for pizza and QSR franchise operators.
The used compact reigns, hybrids quietly win the coasts, EVs dominate exactly one kind of state, and SUVs are a reimbursement problem on wheels. Full class ranking plus a 50-state table.
The complete guide to all four components of driver pay: dual-rate tip credit, mileage reimbursement under both rulebooks, weighted-average overtime, and the deduction traps that create claims.
The actual-cost standard, Gattuso and Cochran, why the IRS rate is not a safe harbor in either direction, the attorney fee engine behind 2802 litigation, and a five-step compliant program.
All 50 states on one table: illustrative actual-cost delivery rates, the gap versus the $0.76 IRS rate, and each state's legal regime from expense statutes to Sixth Circuit precedent.
The rare mid-year adjustment raised the rate 4.8% overnight. What it costs IRS-rate operators, how it widens the litigation gap for flat-fee operators, and the split-year bookkeeping detail.
The kickback theory, the Ohio cases, the Sixth Circuit's 2024 rejection of both compliance shortcuts, and what 2025-2026 rulings mean for flat-rate operators.
Actual per-mile delivery costs range from about $0.41 in Jacksonville to $0.63 and up in Los Angeles. A market-by-market look at why the national average fails in both directions.
Accountable plans, the three-part test that keeps reimbursement tax-free, why flat fees leak payroll tax, and what changed for drivers who used to deduct unreimbursed miles.