Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about MileClear. Can't find your answer? Contact us.
Getting Started
How do I get started with MileClear?
Download MileClear from the App Store, create a free account, and add your vehicle. MileClear will walk you through a short onboarding to set your vehicle type and fuel type. Once done, tap Start Shift on the dashboard to begin tracking your first journey.
What permissions does MileClear need?
MileClear requires Always On location access to track trips in the background while you drive. Without this permission, drive detection and background tracking will not work. Motion and Fitness access is optional but helps with trip start detection. Notifications are optional but recommended for streak reminders and weekly summaries.
Does MileClear work without an internet connection?
Yes. MileClear is offline-first. Trips, shifts, fuel logs, and earnings are saved directly to your device and synced to the cloud when you reconnect. You will never lose data because of a poor signal.
What are Work mode and Personal mode?
Work mode is designed for anyone tracking business mileage - gig workers, self-employed drivers, and UK employees who use their personal car for work (site-to-site, client visits, healthcare home visits). It shows your business mileage by month, tax deduction, earnings by platform (gig drivers), and what your employer owes if you have set an employer rate. Personal mode is for everyday drivers who want to monitor fuel costs, driving goals, and personal milestones. You can switch between modes at any time from the dashboard.
Trip Tracking
How does automatic trip tracking work?
MileClear uses your phone's GPS to record your route when a shift is active. Start a shift on the dashboard and trips are tracked automatically as you drive, with stop detection separating individual journeys. You can also enable drive detection, which monitors for significant movement above 15 mph and prompts you to start tracking even if you forgot to open the app.
How accurate is the mileage tracking?
MileClear uses high-accuracy GPS combined with OSRM road routing to calculate distances. Rather than using straight-line distances, it snaps your journey to actual roads for a realistic mileage figure. GPS samples are taken every 50 metres while driving.
What is drive detection?
Drive detection watches for significant location changes above 15 mph in the background. When it detects that you are probably driving, it sends a notification with two action buttons: Track Trip to immediately start recording from your current position, or Not Driving to dismiss. Buffered location data from before you tapped is included, so your trip starts from where you actually departed rather than where you tapped the notification.
Can I log trips manually?
Yes. On the Trips screen, tap the add button and choose manual entry. You can specify a start location, end location, date, distance, classification, and platform tag. Manual trips are calculated using road routing where possible.
How do I classify trips as business or personal?
When a trip ends you can classify it as Business or Personal. You can also add a platform tag (Uber, Deliveroo, Amazon Flex, Just Eat, and others). Unclassified trips appear in your dashboard as a reminder to categorise them. You can edit classification at any time from the Trips screen.
Can I merge trips that were split incorrectly?
Yes. If a journey is split into multiple trips - for example after a stop at a petrol station - long-press any trip to enter selection mode, select up to 20 trips, and tap Merge. You choose the classification for the merged trip. Merging is permanent and cannot be undone.
HMRC & Tax
What are the HMRC approved mileage rates?
For cars and vans: 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, and 25p per mile after that. The first-tier rate rose from 45p to 55p on 6 April 2026 for the 2026-27 tax year onwards. For motorbikes: 24p per mile flat rate. These are the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rates and MileClear calculates your deduction automatically using these figures.
Why did the HMRC mileage rate change from 45p to 55p?
HMRC raised the first-tier AMAP rate from 45p to 55p per mile for cars and vans, effective 6 April 2026 (start of the 2026-27 tax year). The rate had been frozen at 45p since April 2011. The 25p above-10,000-miles tier and the 24p motorbike flat rate are unchanged. The headline reason is to better reflect the real cost of running a vehicle in 2026 after years of fuel-price, insurance and depreciation inflation. For a driver covering 18,800 business miles a year that is roughly an extra £1,000 in deduction.
Which rate does MileClear use - 45p or 55p?
Both, automatically, based on the date of each trip. Trips on or before 5 April 2026 calculate at 45p for the first 10,000 miles. Trips from 6 April 2026 onwards calculate at 55p. The 25p above-10k tier and 24p motorbike rate are unchanged across both years. If you have not driven any business miles since 6 April 2026, you will still see 45p applied to your historic 2025-26 figures - this is correct. New Self Assessment summaries for 2026-27 use 55p automatically.
I drove some miles before 6 April 2026 and some after - which rate applies?
Each trip uses the rate that was in force on the date you drove it. Trips before 6 April 2026 stay at 45p (for the first 10,000 miles in the 2025-26 tax year), trips on or after 6 April 2026 use 55p (for the first 10,000 miles in the 2026-27 tax year). The 10,000-mile counter also resets at the tax-year boundary, so each tax year gets its own threshold. MileClear handles all of this automatically when you open the Self Assessment wizard or run any export.
What counts as a business mile?
A business mile is any journey made wholly and exclusively for work purposes. This includes travelling to a customer, picking up a delivery order, driving between depots, or visiting a client. Normal commuting to a fixed place of work does not count. If you work for gig platforms like Uber or Deliveroo, all miles driven during active jobs qualify. If you are an employee using your personal car for work (site-to-site, client visits, healthcare home visits), those miles also qualify. MileClear lets you classify each trip so only business miles count toward your deduction.
I am an employee with a work car - can MileClear help me claim mileage from my employer?
Yes. MileClear is built for both gig workers and UK employees who drive their personal car for work. Set your employer's per-mile rate in Profile > Work Settings (e.g. 30p/mi) and the app shows you “owed by employer” alongside your mileage figures. The Pro export produces a payroll-ready CSV/PDF claim per period. If your employer pays below HMRC's 55p rate (raised from 45p on 6 April 2026), MileClear also calculates the gap you can recover from HMRC as Mileage Allowance Relief. See our employee mileage guide for the full breakdown.
What is Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR)?
Mileage Allowance Relief is the HMRC tax relief that lets UK employees recover the gap between what their employer pays per business mile and the official AMAP rate (55p for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, 25p above that; the rate rose from 45p to 55p on 6 April 2026). For example, if your employer pays 30p/mile and you drive 10,000 business miles, your employer pays £3,000 - the AMAP rate would be £5,500. The £2,500 gap is what MAR lets you reclaim. At basic-rate tax (20%) that returns £500 to you; at higher rate (40%), £1,000. You claim it via Self Assessment or by writing to HMRC.
How does the UK tax year work in MileClear?
The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April the following year. MileClear automatically groups your mileage and deductions by tax year. When you cross the 10,000-mile threshold within a year, the rate automatically drops from 55p to 25p per mile (the 2025-26 first-tier rate was 45p; HMRC raised it to 55p from 6 April 2026). Your exports include a per-tax-year breakdown ready for your Self Assessment return.
Can I use MileClear for my Self Assessment tax return?
Yes. MileClear Pro generates a PDF Self Assessment export that includes your total business miles, deduction amount, vehicle breakdown, and tax year summary. It also exports a detailed trip log as CSV or PDF. These documents are designed to be submitted directly as mileage evidence for your Self Assessment.
Can I claim fuel costs on top of the HMRC mileage deduction?
No. If you use HMRC approved mileage rates (AMAP), you cannot also claim separate fuel costs. The mileage rate is designed to cover fuel, servicing, insurance, and depreciation - you claim one or the other, not both. MileClear uses AMAP rates. If you are a company car driver, different rules apply and you should consult a tax adviser.
Billing & Subscriptions
What is included in the free plan?
The free plan includes unlimited GPS trip tracking, the Tax Readiness card with live HMRC tax estimate and weekly set-aside, the Self Assessment wizard, Anonymous Benchmarking against other UK drivers, HMRC Reconciliation against your Digital Platform Reporting figures, MOT and tax expiry reminders, full DVSA MOT history with advisories, the Activity Heatmap, shift management with the shift scorecard and platform tagging, 1 vehicle with DVLA lookup, fuel logs and nearby fuel prices from over 8,300 stations across the UK, manual earnings and expenses tracking, the pickup wait timer, all 18 achievements and gamification, up to 2 saved locations with geofencing, push notifications, and a first-time Self Assessment guide.
What does MileClear Pro include?
MileClear Pro (£4.99/month or £44.99/year) adds the PDF Self Assessment export with a signed HMRC attestation cover sheet, CSV and PDF trip exports, CSV earnings import from Uber, Deliveroo, Just Eat, Amazon Flex and Stuart, Open Banking auto-import via TrueLayer, auto-classify rules driven by your Work Schedule, the Accountant Portal (read-only dashboard you can invite your accountant to by email), business insights including earnings per mile, golden hours and weekly P&L, Driving Analytics, the Journey Map, pickup-wait community insights ("drivers here average 12-min waits"), unlimited saved locations, and unlimited vehicles. The Self Assessment wizard itself is free; Pro adds the print-ready PDF. See our pricing page for plan details.
Is there an annual plan?
Yes. Pro is £4.99 per month or £44.99 per year. The annual plan works out cheaper than 12 monthly payments, so if you track mileage all year round it is the better-value option. You can choose either when you upgrade in the app or on the web.
How do I cancel my subscription?
On iOS, go to Profile, scroll to Subscription, and tap Manage Subscription. This takes you to your Apple subscription settings where you can cancel. On the web, go to Settings and use the Cancel Subscription option. You keep Pro access until the end of your current billing period and are never charged again after cancelling.
Data & Privacy
Where is my data stored?
Trip data is saved locally on your device first, then synced to MileClear servers when you are online. The server is hosted in the UK on UK infrastructure. We do not use US-based cloud providers for your personal data. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Is MileClear GDPR compliant?
Yes. MileClear is fully GDPR compliant. You can export all your data as a JSON file from Profile, and you can permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time. We only collect data that is necessary for the app to function. We never sell your data. Read the full Privacy Policy.
What diagnostic data does MileClear collect?
MileClear sends diagnostic telemetry on startup to help us improve drive detection reliability. This includes your app version, GPS permission status, detection event logs (timestamps and event types only), and configuration settings. We do not send GPS coordinates or any personal location information. The data is tied to your account for debugging purposes only.
How do I delete my account?
Go to Profile, scroll to the bottom, and tap Delete Account. You will be asked to confirm your password. Deleting your account permanently removes all trips, earnings, shifts, vehicles, and personal data from our servers. This action cannot be undone. Any active subscription will also be cancelled.
Still have a question? We're happy to help.