Evaluating your employee driving program, reimbursement approach, or current vehicle model? Strong RFP questions go beyond rates and app features to cover the biggest drivers of cost and liability in your employee driving program. Each question below explains why it matters and what a complete vendor response should include.
A full framework to compare vendor responses side by side.
Gather these answers internally first so vendors can propose a program that fits.
These questions are grouped into nine areas. Each one includes why it matters and what a complete response should cover.
Drivers with very different mileage rarely fit one program. Running two programs side by side may improve cost alignment and fairness when matched to different driver populations.
The vendor should explain which program types it supports, when each is appropriate, and how multiple programs are administered, reported, and governed together.
National rates may not reflect differences in local vehicle costs or individual driving needs.
The vendor should explain how it calculates rates, including data sources, geographic detail, cost categories, assumptions, and update methodology. For location-based rates, it should identify how local fuel, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation costs are determined and supported.
Costs change every year. Rates that drift out of date waste money or shortchange drivers.
The vendor should describe its standard rate-update cadence, annual process, treatment of significant mid-year cost changes, and any customer approval requirements.
Tax-advantaged reimbursement programs require appropriate documentation and ongoing oversight to support their intended tax treatment. Without the right controls, organizations risk inaccurate tax treatment, additional administrative work, and potential tax exposure.
The vendor should explain how its solution supports business mileage documentation, monitors applicable program requirements, identifies compliance exceptions and potential taxability issues, and provides reporting for administrative oversight and audit readiness. The response should also clarify which tax and reporting responsibilities remain with the employer.
Ordinary commuting is generally considered personal travel under IRS rules and is not typically eligible for tax-free business mileage reimbursement. Incorrectly accounting for commute miles can lead to overpayments, inconsistent reimbursements, and potential tax-reporting issues.
The vendor should explain how its solution identifies and calculates commute miles, applies company-specific commute deduction policies, and minimizes manual calculations for employees and administrators. It should also address how exceptions are handled to support accurate, consistent reimbursement.
Procurement and finance need a defensible comparison of current and proposed total costs.
The vendor should provide a cost model based on your driver population, mileage, locations, current program, proposed program, fees, and stated assumptions.
Reimbursement rules vary by location. Some states, like California, require employers to reimburse necessary business expenses, and Canadian programs follow different tax rules and reimburse by the kilometer. Organizations should confirm their obligations in each location with qualified legal and tax advisors.
The vendor should confirm which countries, states, and provinces it supports, explain which location-specific requirements the program is designed to support, describe how rates and policies are configured for them, and clarify which responsibilities stay with the employer.
Manual mileage logs cost field teams hours each year and introduce inaccurate mileage.
The vendor should explain how mileage is captured, what drivers need to do to start, review, and submit trips, and how the solution keeps mileage records accurate with minimal manual entry.
Accurately classifying trips helps ensure employees are reimbursed only for eligible business mileage, while minimizing the time they spend reviewing and managing trips.
The vendor should explain how business and personal trips are classified, what automation is available to reduce manual effort, and how drivers can review or correct classifications when needed.
Inaccurate or unusual mileage can lead to unnecessary reimbursement costs. Identifying potential issues helps reduce waste, improve mileage accuracy, and minimize administrative follow-up.
The vendor should explain how its solution identifies potentially inaccurate or unusual trips, alerts drivers to issues that need review, and enables corrections before mileage is submitted for reimbursement.
Business mileage generally must be substantiated with details such as the date, destination or location, mileage, and business purpose.
The vendor should explain how it captures those details for each trip, lets drivers review and correct them before submission, and retains records for audit.
Companies have different reimbursement policies, approval requirements, and processes for handling exceptions.
The vendor should describe which reimbursement rules and approval workflows can be customized, how exceptions are managed, and how easily administrators can update these settings as company policies evolve.
Coverage can lapse or change at any point in the year. An annual check may leave gaps between monitoring points.
The vendor should explain which insurance monitoring cadences are available, whether coverage is confirmed with the insurer or through driver-submitted documents, how drivers are notified when they fall out of policy, and how admins see and resolve exceptions.
An annual MVR check can leave changes to a driver’s record unseen for months. And when MVR results sit apart from reimbursement data, admins reconcile them by hand and drivers may need another login.
The vendor should explain whether MVR monitoring is continuous or periodic, whether it’s provided directly or through a partner, how results connect with other driver records, how administrators identify and act on issues, and who is responsible for notifications and support.
Driver safety training helps organizations reinforce company policies and reduce risk exposure. The ability to assign, monitor, and enforce training requirements helps encourage completion and consistent participation.
The vendor should explain how driver safety training is delivered, how administrators assign and monitor completion, whether training requirements can be incorporated into reimbursement workflows, and how incomplete training is flagged and addressed.
A documented, accepted policy can support the organization’s risk mitigation and compliance processes.
The vendor should explain how drivers review and accept the policy, how acceptance is recorded and renewed when the policy changes, and whether admins can see policy, insurance, MVR, and training status together or across separate systems.
Every extra app adds friction, lowers adoption, and creates more support tickets.
The vendor should list each app or login drivers and admins need for reimbursement, insurance monitoring, MVR monitoring, policy acceptance, and training, note which are provided by partners, and explain how data and support are shared across them.
Time spent on expense reports is time not spent with customers.
The vendor should provide a specific, measured time savings figure, not a general claim.
Driving time alone doesn’t show how field teams spend their day.
The vendor should explain which productivity metrics are available, such as driving time, time on site, and customer visits, how they’re calculated, who can see them, and how personal time stays private.
Program-level trends tell you something is off. Trip-level detail tells you where and lets you fix it.
The vendor should explain whether anomalies are detected at the program, driver, or trip level, what triggers a flag, how admins move from a program-level trend to the specific trips behind it, and whether drivers can review and correct flagged trips.
Finance, HR, operations, and sales leaders need different views.
The vendor should list the standard dashboards for spend, productivity, and risk, explain which stakeholders each one is built for, and describe the custom reporting and dashboard options available.
Seat limits or per-seat fees can keep finance, HR, or operations out of the data and make total cost harder to forecast.
The vendor should state how many admin seats are included, any per-seat fees, and how access and permissions are set for different teams.
Without benchmarks, it’s hard to know whether your rates are reasonable and competitive.
The vendor should explain what benchmark data it provides, where the data comes from, how comparable the peer groups are to your organization, and how benchmarks turn into specific recommendations for your program.
Download the Employee Driving Buyer’s Guide for a full framework to compare vendor responses side by side.
Experience with programs of your size and type reduces rollout risk.
The vendor should share how many implementations it completes each year and provide examples or references from organizations with a similar driver count and current program type.
Rollouts stall on unclear ownership, weak driver communication, and transition timing. Employees may resist a new program, especially when it changes how they’re reimbursed or asks them to use a new app.
The vendor should provide a dated plan with named owners covering program design, integrations, change management (stakeholder alignment, driver communication, and training), go-live, and how adoption is measured after launch.
Growth and acquisitions can double a program’s size with little notice.
The vendor should explain the process, timeline, and any fees for adding drivers, locations, program types, or drivers from an acquired company.
Your vendor handles employee location, financial, and driving record data.
The vendor should provide current, relevant independent assurance such as a SOC 2 Type 2 report, including its scope, review period, material exceptions, and remediation process.
Employee location, financial, and driving record data need controls beyond an independent assessment.
The vendor should explain encryption, access controls, authentication, penetration testing, subprocessors, and incident response and notification commitments.
Manual data transfers create errors and admin work.
The vendor should list the HRIS, CRM, payroll, expense, and single sign-on systems it integrates with as standard, and explain the process, timeline, and cost for custom integrations.
Drivers need help in the moment, and admins need program expertise.
The vendor should list the support channels available to drivers and admins, hours of availability, typical response times, and whether specialized help is available for areas like insurance, rates, and program design.
A set-and-forget program drifts out of date as your business changes.
The vendor should explain what ongoing program reviews include, how often they happen, who leads them, and what data and benchmarks inform its recommendations.
Employees often worry about being monitored outside work. Clear answers protect trust and adoption.
The vendor should provide a plain description of what the app collects and when, what employees can classify or keep private, what admins can and can’t see, and what resources it provides to help explain this to employees.
You need records for audits, control over employee data, and your history if you switch vendors.
The vendor should clearly explain data ownership, retention, access, export rights, and any related fees in the contract.
Per-driver, per-admin, and module-based pricing can lead to very different totals.
The vendor should provide a clear pricing model with a total cost estimate based on your driver count and program needs.
Add-ons and one-time fees can change your total cost after you sign.
The vendor should provide an itemized list of what’s included, what’s optional, any implementation fees, and what each one costs.
Term length, renewal terms, and notice periods affect your flexibility.
The vendor should describe clear options for term length, renewal pricing, and termination notice.
Watch for these answers when proposals come back. Each one can signal cost or risk that shows up after you sign.
If a vendor can't offer location-based rates, drivers in high-cost areas may be underpaid and drivers in low-cost areas overpaid, and you lose the option to change approach as your program grows.
Rates go stale, and fixing them becomes your team's job.
Lapses between checks go unnoticed.
Separate systems can mean extra logins for drivers, manual reconciliation for admins, and unclear support ownership.
If the response doesn't list what costs extra, expect surprises after you sign.
The right partner can explain exactly what admins see and when, giving employers the visibility they need and employees the privacy they expect.
A mileage reimbursement RFP should cover reimbursement accuracy and cost, mileage capture, risk mitigation, field team productivity, analytics, implementation, security, employee privacy, and pricing. Covering only rates and app features leaves cost and liability unexamined.
A mileage app captures trips. A full employee driving solution adds reimbursement, risk mitigation, and analytics in one place. If you have many drivers, more than one program type, or a need to reduce corporate liability exposure, a full solution is usually the better fit.
FAVR is based on where an employee lives and drives, and combines a fixed monthly payment for ownership costs with a variable per-mile rate. Mileage reimbursement pays employees for business miles, typically using a defined per-mile rate. Some providers refer to this as CPM. A car allowance is a flat monthly payment, which is often taxable unless it’s structured as a tax-advantaged allowance.
Finance, HR, operations, sales leadership, and procurement usually all have a stake. Legal and IT often review risk, security, and integration requirements.
A well-designed solution gives employers the visibility they need into business driving while giving employees the privacy they expect on personal time. Ask each vendor what the app collects and when, what employees can classify or keep private, and what admins can see.
Implementation time depends on program size, integrations, locations, and your current program. Ask each vendor for a dated plan, including what your team needs to complete.
Score each response against weighted criteria that reflect your goals, such as cost, risk mitigation, ease of use, and implementation. Have each stakeholder score the sections they own, then compare finalists through scripted demos and reference calls. For a full evaluation framework, download the Employee Driving Buyer’s Guide.
See how Motus approaches reimbursement, risk mitigation, productivity, and analytics across an employee driving program. Book a demo to walk through reimbursement, risk mitigation, and analytics for a program like yours.
