In a recent court ruling, a former executive director of a non-profit rehabilitation center was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and ordered to pay $14,645 in restitution for submitting fraudulent mileage reimbursement claims.

This court ruling may seem surprising, but mileage fraud is actually one of the most common forms of employee theft. In fact, it is estimated that expense fraud cost employers $1.9 billion in 2020. Organizations with a mobile workforce are especially at risk, and even 35% of business travelers in a recent survey self-reported exaggerated business mileage.

Employees may feel that padding their mileage is a harmless exercise, but the true cost to employers is multiplied across their workforce. Even employees who record as little as 20 extra miles per day can cost employers $2,600 per employee per year in unnecessary reimbursement.

How can you protect your organization against mileage fraud? Of course, the job cannot be left to your accounting department to verify individual mileage claims. The solution begins with automation, not blind trust, and it requires a system like SureMileage.

SureMileage, by CompanyMileage, eliminates fraudulent mileage claims by providing employees with point-to-point reimbursement. Rather than verifying the miles that were driven, employees report their starting point and destination from SureMileage or the mobile application SureMobile, and the system calculates the exact mileage to be reimbursed.

CompanyMileage is helping employees remain honest, and employers build stronger companies. Watch a demo of CompanyMileage today to learn more.