How to claim transport costs: taxis, Octopus and ride-hailing apps sorted
2026-08-17 · Claim tips · Blog
Transport has a particular shape: each fare is small, but they add up fast. Over a month, a string of $40 rides can easily top a thousand dollars. And these are exactly the ones that slip away — the taxi slip buried at the bottom of your wallet, the Octopus tap that leaves no paper at all, the ride-hailing receipt sitting inside the app where you never look.
This post goes through the common ways you travel one by one: what proof to keep, what to write down, and what to watch out for.
Taxis: take the slip, photograph it on the spot
Taxi slips are thermal paper, and heat and friction are their enemies. Two days in your trouser pocket and the print starts fading; a week later you may not even make out the amount. So the rule is simple: the moment you get out, before you sit down anywhere, take a photo.
Also note that a taxi slip usually prints only the fare and the time — no pick-up or drop-off point. So right after you photograph it, add a line in the notes: "Central to Science Park, client visit." A week on you won't remember either, and you'll have nothing to say when approval asks.
Octopus: rely on transaction records, not receipts
Octopus gives you no receipt, but it does keep transaction records. You can pull recent transactions from the Octopus app, a service centre kiosk, or an enquiry machine at an MTR station. The record shows the date, time, amount and where the deduction happened — enough to serve as proof.
The catch is that Octopus also logs your personal spending — coffee, convenience stores, the ride home, all mixed in together. So when you submit an Octopus record, capture only the relevant lines, or write up a separate trip list. Don't hand over the whole record untouched.
If you travel for work often, consider keeping a separate Octopus card just for work. Once they're split, reconciling and filing both get much cleaner.
Ride-hailing apps: email receipts are the easiest
Ride-hailing platforms usually email a receipt once the trip ends, with the date, route, fare and payment method — far more complete than a paper slip. These are the easiest to handle: set it up once so the confirmation email forwards straight to a fixed receipt address, and it files itself. No photo needed.
The one thing to watch is tips and surcharges. Some platforms list waiting time, tunnel fees and tips separately, so file the final total rather than just the base fare.
MTR, buses and ferries: trip logs instead of receipts
Public transport like this rarely gives you anything, so in practice you rely on a trip log. Note the date, start and end points, single or return, the amount and the purpose — that's enough. Most companies accept this, because the amounts are small and there are standard fares to check against.
Same principle applies: don't wait until month end and rebuild the trip list from memory. Write it down the same day and both accuracy and credibility go up a lot.
Driving and parking: fuel, tunnel fees, meters
If you drive for work, there are usually two ways to count it: actual costs reimbursed (keep the fuel receipts, tunnel fees and parking slips), or a per-kilometre allowance set by the company. You shouldn't mix the two in one claim.
Parking is the fiddliest, because meter and mall parking tickets are small scraps of paper that go missing easily. Same as taxi slips: photograph them the moment you get them. As for tunnel fees, if you pay automatically, remember the monthly statement itemises them and can serve as proof.
Cross-border and business trips: watch the currency
Travelling north or overseas, your receipts may be in renminbi, yen or another foreign currency. When you file, record both the original amount and the converted local amount — don't just write one figure. If you paid by card, the safest basis is the actual amount posted on your statement, because that's what the company owes you back.
One habit that stops transport claims slipping away
The real reason transport gets missed is that the amounts feel too small to bother with right then. The fix isn't to be more diligent — it's to cut the cost of filing to almost nothing: photograph paper slips on the spot, set electronic receipts to forward automatically, check your Octopus record once a month. Three actions, under ten minutes a month in total.
Once every ride files itself, month end means no more digging through your wallet. Just export a single sheet and hand it in.
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