Railroader/Long Haul Trucker Meals - New Online Road Meals questions are confusing?!!?

[gregcorbett81]

In the old versions of tax software, for meals I calculated it out myself, and entered the total amount (ie transport 50% of my amount, so 100 meals taking into consideration 1 per every 4 hours, max 3 per 24 hour of a max of $51 per day, etc so let's use 100 meals after all considerations; 100 meals x $17 = $1700; transport/railroader x 50% = $850 was what I put in).

The new software has a bunch of NEW questions, regardless if I choose batch, simplified, or detailed, it asks the same questions.

Number of days, number of trips, number of meals bought, total amount in (CAD), average hours, home & away terminal, service classification, and showers (not applicable for me as lodging is covered by the company).

No matter what combination of numbers I enter in any field or fields (removing some, filling others, trying different combinations), the number listed out under the review section at the end, doesn't match the number I calcaulated for myself. So for example as above, say
Number of trips = 68
Number of days = 34
Avg hours = 16
Number of Meals bought = 100
Cost of Meals = $1700 (or $850)

And the number it shows later in the review section before submitting would NOT be either $1700 OR $850, it'd be something in between.

What am I doing wrong? (I made up the math above, trying to simulate that one claimed the max 3 meals per day having a 16 hour trip in either direction, A to B, which would take two days to make the trip, etc etc not important).

[TurboTaxLise]

Please follow directives below to understand how to claim your meals, lodging, and employment expenses as a transport employee.  Also, there are links at the bottom of that same page for more information on how to calculate all these expenses as well.

Where do I claim meal, lodging, and employment expenses as a transport employee?https://turbotax.community.intuit.ca/replies/3266047

[gregcorbett81]

 Trip Details for Long-haul Truck Drivers and Other Transport Employees

Gregory, Part 2B: Trip and expense entry for eligible travel periods of long-haul drivers. If you have more than 9 trips, combine trips together.


Number of Days


Number of Trips


Avg. hrs*


Home Terminal


Away from Home


Service classification**


Number of meals bought


Cost of meals (in CAD)


Number of lodging and showers


Cost of lodging and showers (in CAD)


* average no. of hours per trip is the average length of time you spent away from the municipality and metropolitan area where your home terminal is located. Do not enter decimal places when entering the Average no. of hours.

** this applies only to claims that railway employees make. Enter your class of service (for example, engineer, maintenance worker, conductor, machine operator, maintenance-of-way employee).


There is no other TIPS than that. And that's not useful. I entered the number of days I was away, the number of trips I made, the average hours of each trip, the number of meals as how I calculated it from previous years (1 meal per every 4 hours to a maximum of 3 meals per 24 hours), and put in the cost ($17 per meal to a maximum of $51 per 24 hour period, or 3 meals per 24 hours, so if I'm gone for 29 hours, that's 4 meals or $68 - and whether I enter $68 or 50% of $68 dollars = $32, I get a number on the review section at the end of the tax form process before submission that is TOTALLY different than what I calculated - which should in the example above be $32 - or an explanation of how you got to the random number you came up with, which was either $0 or $45).