Freight, trucking & delivery

Books and taxes for heavy haul and oversize transport companies.

High-value loads on a lowboy or RGN trailer, state permit costs that change load by load, pilot car escort fees, and the route survey work before a big piece ever moves. Your own bookkeeper sorts it, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.

Book a call What we handle

From $197 a month
An accountant on every transaction
Cancel whenever

SeptemberExample month

$10,200

what you made

September had two big moves. One crossed four states, so the permit and pilot car costs for that single load were the largest expense of the month.

Oversize load paymentLoad pay
Multi-state permit feesPermit costs
Pilot car escort serviceEscort and pilot car fees
Route survey serviceRoute survey and engineering
RGN trailer maintenanceTrailer maintenance

Money in$41,000

Money out$30,800

Set aside for taxes$2,600

An example month. Yours will have your numbers.

Why your books are different

Heavy haul books go wrong around permits and per-load costs.

A generalist sees one big deposit and one big trailer payment. Your business moves fewer loads for far more money, and each one carries its own state permit costs, escort fees, and sometimes a route survey before it ever leaves the yard. When the books do not tie those costs to the load that caused them, you cannot tell which moves actually paid.

1
Permit costs get treated as one flat number

A load crossing four states can rack up different permit fees in each one, and if they all land in one general permit line, you cannot tell which routes are actually expensive to run.

What we doTies permit costs to the specific load and states involved, so you can see the real cost of a route before you quote the next one like it.
2
A pilot car fee looks like a routine expense

Escort services for an oversize load are a required cost, not optional, but lumped into general trucking costs, they hide how much of a load's payout actually goes to compliance.

What we doKeeps escort and pilot car fees in their own category, so the real cost structure of an oversize move is visible.
3
A single load's revenue and cost blend into the whole month

With only a handful of moves a month, one bad-margin load can quietly drag down the whole month's numbers without ever standing out on its own.

What we doTracks revenue and direct costs by load where you tell him which is which, so a specific move's real margin is visible, not buried in a monthly average.
4
A new RGN trailer wrecks one month's numbers

An RGN lowboy or specialized heavy haul trailer can cost as much as a house, and filed as a plain expense it makes a normal month look like a catastrophic loss.

What we doFlags a trailer purchase the day it posts, logs it as equipment, and gets the accountant's call on how it gets written off.

Your categories

The categories Gus keeps for a heavy haul carrier.

Set up once for how loads pay you and what moving oversize freight actually costs. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.

Money in

Load payPayment for the move itself, apart from permit and escort reimbursements.
Permit and escort reimbursementAmounts a client reimburses for permits or pilot cars you fronted.
Route survey feesFees billed for surveying a route before a move.
Standby and detention payReimbursement for delays waiting on permits or site access.

Money out

Permit costsState-by-state permit fees for a specific oversize or overweight load.
Escort and pilot car feesRequired escort services for wide, tall, or heavy loads.
Route survey and engineeringCosts for surveying bridges, clearances, and routes before a move.
Trailer maintenanceUpkeep on the RGN or lowboy trailer, specific to heavy haul equipment.
Truck payment and repairsLoan or lease payment and mechanical work on the tractor.
InsuranceCargo coverage sized for high-value loads, plus liability and physical damage.

What we watch for you

Margin per load
What a specific move actually paid after permits, escorts, and fuel. It tells you what to quote next time.
Permit cost per state
Which states are the most expensive to run through, useful before quoting a new route.
Standby days
How much time gets lost waiting on permits or access. It affects what a route is really worth.
The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so filing season is a number already known.

Ask Gus

Things heavy haul carriers ask Gus.

Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.

That four-state move last month barely felt worth it. Was it?

I tracked permit and escort costs for that specific load, and once they are all added up, the real margin was thinner than the load rate suggested. Worth pricing that route differently next time.

Do pilot car fees count as a real cost or just something the client should cover?

They are a real cost either way, whether the client reimburses you or not. I keep them in their own category so you always see the true cost of the move.

I just bought a new RGN trailer for $85,000. Does that all come off this year?

Usually a large share can. I logged it as equipment and flagged it, and the accountant makes the call with your whole year in view.

The tax side

The tax side of running a heavy haul business.

Most of what trips up a heavy haul carrier is treating permit and escort costs as generic expenses instead of tying them to what a specific load actually earned.

What your return has to get right

Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.

Writing off the tractor and specialized trailerA tractor and an RGN or lowboy trailer bought for the business can often both be written off in the year they are bought, since the lower $32,000 heavy SUV cap does not apply to hauling equipment. Bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
Self-employment taxRunning heavy haul moves as your own business means 15.3 percent self-employment tax on net profit, up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500. Gus builds a set-aside from each move's real margin.
Permits and escort fees as deductible costsState permit fees and pilot car escort services are ordinary deductible costs of moving an oversize load, whether or not a client reimburses them.
The pass-through deductionMost owner-operators can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. It comes out right when load pay, permits, and escorts are tracked cleanly by move all year.

Deductions heavy haul and oversize transport companies miss

Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.

State permit fees
Pilot car and escort services
Route survey and engineering fees
Fuel
Trailer maintenance and tie-down equipment
Truck loan interest
Cargo insurance for high-value loads
Tolls and scale fees
CDL and specialized endorsement renewal
Phone and dispatch fees

General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.

All year, not just April

A heavy haul year, kept every month.

Big moves come on their own schedule, not a predictable calendar. Your taxes come on a schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of both. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.

January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, and you get a monthly set-aside built from real load margins, so April is already handled.
April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been building since January.
July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether a big move this year changed the number.
October
Before the year winds down
Gus looks at whether a trailer purchase or upgrade makes sense before December and what still needs doing before the return gets started.

What you get

Starts at$197a month

What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.

Book a call

Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for heavy haul and oversize transport companies. You never categorize a thing.
An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.

Straight answers

Questions heavy haul carriers ask first.

Can the books tell me if a specific load was actually worth taking?

Yes. When you tell Gus which permit, escort, and fuel costs go with which load, he tracks the real margin for that move instead of just a monthly average.

I run through several states on one move. Can permit costs stay organized by state?

Yes. Permit fees get tied to the load and the states involved, so you can see which routes cost the most before quoting something similar again.

Does a route survey count as a real deductible cost?

Yes, it is an ordinary cost of preparing an oversize move safely, and Gus keeps it in its own category so the accountant can confirm what applies to your return.

My loads are infrequent but expensive. Does that make the books harder to keep?

No, Gus works the same way whether you run one load a week or one a month. What matters is tracking each move's real costs, not the frequency.

Do I need to separate client-reimbursed permit costs from ones I absorb myself?

Yes, and Gus does that automatically once you note which is which, so your real cost per load stays accurate either way.

My records for the last few big moves are just invoices and permit receipts in a folder. Can you work with that?

Yes. Send what you have. Gus sorts it out load by load, the accountant checks it, and most owners know where they stand within a week or two.

Is a real accountant checking my books?

Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.

What does it cost, and can I cancel?

It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.

We keep books for the business next door too.

What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for

Book a call

Pick a time. That's the whole signup.

Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.

$197 a month to start
An accountant on every transaction
Cancel whenever

Books and taxes for heavy haul and oversize transport companies.

Heavy haul books go wrong around permits and per-load costs.

Permit costs get treated as one flat number

A pilot car fee looks like a routine expense

A single load's revenue and cost blend into the whole month

A new RGN trailer wrecks one month's numbers