Tax rules · rates of IRS notices
Per diem for truck drivers: the transportation industry rate
Count full days and departure or return days away from home in the year: the tool applies the special rate and the deductible share that fits your case.
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Meals and incidentals for the year
$1,560
Deductible part: $1,248
| Full days × $80 | $1,440 |
| Partial days × 75% | $120 |
| Deductible share | 80% |
Special rate of Notice 2026-60 (from October 1, 2026); a deduction must prorate partial days at 75% (Rev. Proc. 2019-48, 6.04(1)). Employees get it only through an employer plan. How this is calculated.
Truck drivers and other transportation workers may use one special M&IE rate instead of the rate of every town where they stop: $80 a day for travel in the continental United States and $86 outside it, under IRS Notice 2026-60 for the year from October 1, 2026. For a driver subject to the Department of Transportation's hours of service limits, 80% of that meal allowance is deductible instead of the usual 50%. Departure and return days count at 75% when the figure is used for a deduction. Who benefits depends on status. A self-employed owner-operator deducts the allowance on Schedule C. A company driver gets it only as a per diem paid by the carrier under an accountable plan, tax-free up to the special rate; unreimbursed meals are not deductible for an employee. Choosing the special rate binds the driver or the carrier for the whole calendar year.
Why a single rate exists for drivers
$80 a day anywhere in the 48 states. A long-haul route can cross counties at all five GSA tiers, from $68 to $92, in one week, and the regular rule would make the driver look up the rate of each place where they stop to sleep. Section 4.04 of Rev. Proc. 2019-48 lets transportation workers skip that with one CONUS rate and one OCONUS rate, published each year; Notice 2026-60 sets them at $80 and $86 for travel from October 1, 2026.
The rate is for meals and incidentals only. Lodging, when a driver pays for a motel, stays at actual cost.
A month of driver per diem, checked
Tax-free for the month
$1,500
| Ceiling: $80 a day, 75% on travel days | $1,520 |
| Above the ceiling: wages on the W-2 | $0 |
Partial days at 75% here; a payor may prorate by another consistent method.
Who counts as transportation industry
The definition has two parts. The work must directly involve moving people or goods by airplane, barge, bus, ship, train or truck, and it must regularly take the worker away from home with stops, during a single trip, in places with different federal M&IE rates. A local delivery driver home every night does not meet it. A carrier decides which drivers qualify with a method applied consistently and in line with reasonable business practice.
The 80% rule, and who it covers
Meals while away from home are normally deductible at 50%. Publication 463 raises that to 80% for meals eaten during, or incident to, a period subject to the federal hours of service limits. It names interstate truck operators and bus drivers under Department of Transportation rules, certain air transportation workers under FAA rules, certain railroad employees and certain merchant mariners.
Self-employed or company driver
An owner-operator with 200 full days and 50 departure or return days away from home in a year reaches $19,000 of meal allowance at $80 a day, the partial days counted at 75% as the revenue procedure requires for a deduction. At 80%, $15,200 of it is deductible, on Schedule C. The driver keeps a log of dates, places and business purpose but needs no meal receipts.
A company driver is in a different position. Unreimbursed employee expenses have not been deductible since 2018, so the only way to benefit is a per diem paid by the carrier under an accountable plan. Up to the special rate for the days away, it is not wages. A carrier may pay it per mile driven; Rev. Proc. 2019-48 uses exactly that case as an example, and lets a transportation employer test the total at least monthly instead of day by day, against the days or partial days away multiplied by the rate. Anything above that ceiling is wages on the W-2, as the travel reimbursement page explains.
One rate for the whole year
The choice is sticky. A driver or a carrier that uses the special rate for a person must use it for all that person's trips in the calendar year, and the reverse holds: one that used the regular federal M&IE rates in the first nine months cannot move to the special rate before January 1. On partial days a carrier may prorate by any method it applies consistently; the first and last day page covers that difference, and the per diem calculator gives the regular GSA figure for comparison. Outside the 48 states the same logic runs at $86, and the OCONUS page lists who publishes the regular rates there.