Can GTD help forgetful vehicle drivers?

[curtis]

I'd like to help the volunteers and staff where I work to be more reliable at turning in receipts for gasoline purchases after they "fill the tank" when they"ve been on the road transporting people/hauling donated food and produce, instead of taking them home.

The number of receipts turned in is usually well under the actual amount of charges that have been transacted each month.

This obviously cuts into the productivity of the controller as she tries to recoup the receipts.

Can GTD be implemented to help the drivers to be more reliable and solve this kind of issue and if so, does anyone have any "nuts and bolts" suggestions?

[kelstarrising]

Some ideas I thought of:

1. Pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes to mail the receipts to you as they incur them
2. A P-Touch label on the dashboard: Got Receipts?

[cwoodgold]

I don't understand -- could you explain? Are the volunteers driving their own
vehicles, or vehicles belonging to the organization? Are the volunteers
stating that they have spent money on gasoline and trying to get
refunded for it without handing in receipts? If not, how do you know
there are more transactions than the number of receipts?

[curtis]

cwoodgold,

The volunteers drive the organization's vehicles.

The controller compares the charges on the monthly statement against the receipts that are turned in.

[cojo]

This is the kind of thing that's made for the tickler file.

I've always had a reminder to file my expense report. I have it recurring once per month on OmniFocus, but you could also do a calendar reminder, index cards, whatever.

Back when I had a paper system, it used to help for me to drop my receipts into the folder on the day I processed my expense report. That way, when the day came, all my receipts were right there in the folder.

If they frequently fill up their tanks, I'd recommend a once-a-week reminder to process their receipts so the task doesn't seem unmanageable (oh, now I have to go gather up my receipts).

Of course, whether they actually do that is up to them, but that's more of a management problem - I think the best thing to do may be to set a deadline and explain why that deadline is there.

[Myriam]

why not keep the receipts in the car? Define a certain place in the car where they can put the receipt right after getting in the car after filling it up and ...bingo. All you need to do is get them from there.

Myriam

[SiobhanBR]

This is what we do. Along with a mileage report sheet (who drove, where did they go, odometer readings), the fuel receipts are kept in the car in a folder. Once a month, it's all removed by the person designated to prepare the report for that vehicle.

[cwoodgold]

So what you mean is that you want the drivers to put the receipts into the folder in the car, and they're not doing that?

When the person preparing the report takes the receipts, does that person leave the empty folder in the car?

Where exactly is the folder? (In the glove compartment?) One solution may be to position the folder in an easy-to-reach and attractive place. It has to be safe, too, so papers don't blow away or get in the driver's face. Some people might not feel like opening a glove compartment for some reason. (They could have bad memories associated with glove compartments, from having everything fall out, to automobile collisions.) It could be a big box strapped to the passenger's seat with "receipts" in big letters printed on it and a hole in the top like a ballot box, (but a bit bigger so it's easy to put them in). (If the passenger's seat isn't used for other things.)

How does the information get into the monthly statements if the receipts are not "turned in"? Where exactly are the drivers when they receive receipts? Do they actually receive receipts and lose them, or do they forget to ask for a receipt?

[Myriam]

@cwoodgold

the last reply (from SiobhanBR) was from someone different, not the original poster.

So the mention of using a folder inside the car was a proposed solution, not a description of the problem...

Myriam