CCQ Travel Expenses: How to Automate Mileage Calculations? An Employer’s Guide

In Quebec’s construction industry, CCQ travel expenses show up on your workers’ pay every single week. The amount you owe depends directly on the mileage calculation between the worker’s home and the jobsite, a calculation governed by Act R-20 and the collective agreements. Done by hand, this calculation is a frequent source of errors, disputes and, eventually, claims. Yet with the right method and the right tools, calculating mileage for your travel allowances can be simple, fast and defensible.

This guide is written for construction employers who want to master this obligation from end to end: what travel expenses cover, how mileage is calculated, which rates and thresholds apply by sector, a detailed worked example, the most common mistakes, and how to automate mileage calculation so you never have to think about it again.

Important notice: this article is informational and does not replace legal, tax or professional advice. Rates, thresholds and rules vary by sector, trade and applicable collective agreement, and they are revised periodically. Always confirm your situation with the CCQ, your payroll service or a qualified professional.

What are CCQ travel expenses?

Travel expenses are the indemnities an employer pays a worker to cover work-related travel. Under the collective agreement, the term covers three components: transportation costs, room and board and travel time.

Two principles structure these indemnities. First, during the normal workday, travel between the employer’s place of business and the jobsite, or from one jobsite to another, is the employer’s responsibility. Second, when a worker uses their own vehicle at the employer’s request, they receive a mileage allowance. The exact amount and thresholds depend on the sector (residential, institutional-commercial, industrial) and the trade. For the complete rules by sector, consult the CCQ collective agreements.

How is mileage calculated for travel expenses?

Mileage is calculated on the distance between the worker’s home and the jobsite, using the most commonly travelled route between those two points. If the employer and worker disagree, the agreement provides that Google Maps serves as the reference for establishing the distance (article 23.08 of the residential sector).

Three important points frame this calculation:

• The reference home address is the one shown on the worker’s competency certificate issued by the CCQ. This address, and no other, is what the calculation uses.
• The destination is the exact jobsite address, not the city or an approximate postal code.
• The route used is the most commonly travelled path, the one Google Maps typically suggests between the two addresses.

This mileage then determines whether a threshold is crossed (for example 40 km or 120 km) and which indemnity applies. Because distance drives the amount, a mistyped address or an approximate route translates directly into a payroll error. To make this data reliable at the source, many employers tie it to each worker’s CCQ timesheet.

What are the rates and thresholds by sector?

Rates and thresholds differ from one sector to another. Here are the main benchmarks, to be validated according to your agreement and trade. The amounts below follow the schedule of increases set through 2028.

1. Mileage allowance (residential sector)

In the residential sector, when a worker uses their vehicle at the employer’s request, the allowance is $0.67 per kilometer travelled. In heavy residential construction, this same rate of $0.67 per kilometer applies to each kilometer travelled beyond 40 km, between home and jobsite, both ways. This rule does not apply once the distance reaches 120 km or more (you then switch to room and board). Room and board can also apply below 120 km when the worker, at the employer’s request, agrees to take it (article 23.07). The rate increases on the following schedule:

2. Flat-rate allowances (institutional-commercial and industrial sector)

In the institutional-commercial and industrial sector (IC/I), the travel indemnity often takes the form of a flat daily amount, based on distance bands and the trade. Here is the general rule (amounts may vary by trade):

3. Room and board (120 km and more)

When the distance between home and jobsite reaches 120 km or more, the worker instead receives a room and board indemnity per day worked, on top of the transportation costs provided for. The general residential-sector rule provides:

Parking fees (all distances)

Regardless of mileage, when no free parking is available within 500 meters of the jobsite, the employer reimburses the parking fees incurred, up to $15 per day, on presentation of supporting documents (article 23.03 of the residential sector). The exact rates and terms by sector and trade appear in the official documents, including the CCQ collective agreements and the ACQ 2025-2028 travel expenses table.

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How to calculate a mileage allowance: a worked example

Simplified example (fictional amounts): a worker in the heavy residential sector lives 70 km from the jobsite, according to the most common route shown by Google Maps. The allowance applies to the kilometers beyond 40 km, both ways.

• Outbound: 70 km minus 40 km = 30 km eligible.
• Return: 30 km eligible as well.
• Daily total: 60 km × $0.67 (rate in effect since April 26, 2026) = $40.20 for the day.

Over a five-day week, this allowance amounts to roughly $201 for this one worker, paid separately from wages. Multiply that by a crew of ten spread across several jobsites and you can see both the financial stakes and the risk of error in a manual calculation. Reminder: this example is fictional and the applicable rate depends on your sector and agreement. Confirm with the CCQ.

Are CCQ travel expenses taxable?

The tax treatment depends on the nature of the indemnity and the worker’s situation. In general terms, a cash travel allowance may be added to the worker’s income and become taxable, whereas certain reimbursements of actual expenses on presentation of supporting documents may be treated differently. There is no single answer: the tax status must be determined case by case. This question falls under tax and payroll: validate each situation with your payroll service, your accountant or the tax authorities before drawing conclusions. One thing stays true in every case: the more accurate and documented your mileage data, the more reliable your payroll processing, as our article on payroll processing precision explains.

The most common mistakes to avoid

After years of supporting construction companies, here are the traps that come up most often in calculating travel expenses:

• Using the wrong distance: estimating mileage from memory instead of taking the most common route shown by Google Maps, between the home address and the jobsite address.
• Starting from the wrong address: calculating from the office address or an approximate one rather than the home address listed on the worker’s competency certificate.
• Forgetting the applicable threshold: charging from the first kilometer when the 40 km threshold (heavy residential) has not been crossed, or ignoring the switch to room and board at 120 km.
• Applying another sector’s rate: using a residential rate for an IC/I jobsite, or an old rate instead of the one in effect.
• Not keeping supporting documents: forgetting receipts for parking or room and board, which weakens the file in the event of an audit. On this topic, see the daily activities and payroll register.
• Calculating by hand: manual timesheets and paper calculations multiply data-entry errors and discrepancies from one worker to another.

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How to automate mileage calculation with time-tracking software?

The good news: employers who use a mobile time-tracking app such as Mobile-Punch can automate a large part of this work. Rather than recalculating each trip by hand, the tool captures the mileage travelled by each worker between home and jobsite (or between office and jobsite), based on the real addresses.

Concretely, a tool like Mobile-Punch lets you:

• Automatically calculate the mileage travelled by your employees between home and jobsite, or between office and jobsite.
• Set the unit in kilometers or miles, as needed.
• Display the result automatically on the employee’s timesheet, ready to validate.
• Export the mileage data collected to an Excel file or to your Quebec accounting and payroll tools (Acomba, Employeur D, Nethris, Avantage).

These hours and trips are recorded by jobsite and project code, timestamped and geolocated, which reduces transcription errors and disputes. By linking mileage to the CCQ timesheet, the work-hour calculation and project management, you get a consistent calculation base for the whole team. Software does not replace your payroll service or the CCQ rules, but it makes the raw material of the calculation reliable: distances and hours. Tools like Mobile-Punch were designed precisely so that compliance becomes a natural outcome of how you work, not a weekend chore.

Want to see how Mobile-Punch can automate your mileage calculation and travel expenses?

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