Taking MyMileMarker For A Spin

Tuesday July 10th 2007, 2:21 pm

Written by: Brian Benzinger

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mymilemarker, gas, fuel, travel, expense

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Still tracking your car mileage with spreadsheets and scrambling to gather old gas receipts? Try MyMileMarker, a new service by Sidebar Creative that allows you to track and analyze your car mileage online through a browser or mobile phone. It’s extremely easy to use and unlike some services which require you to record every mile you drive, MyMileMarker only asks that you record when you fill your vehicle with fuel. After a few fill-ups at the gas station, MyMileMarker calculates your averages and predicts future mileage and costs.

Getting started with MyMileMarker is as simple as creating an account (OpenID support) and listing each vehicle that want to track. MyMileMarker then creates individual pages for each vehicle where you can log your mileage and view your history. You are also able to record your mileage on a mobile phone using MyMileMarkers mobile friendly website or Twitter, enabling you to access your account from any location. Adding a record with the mobile interface works much like the browser-based version, but if you are a Twitter user, you can very quickly log your mileage by sending a one-line Twitter message. Just add the official MyMileMarker Twitter user as a friend and send a direct message in the format, “D mymm [miles] [gallons] [price]”, and MyMileMarker will handle the rest - even make a guess at which car you filled up based on the mileage you entered.

MyMileMarker Add Record

When adding an entry, MyMileMarker requires that you fill in your vehicles current mileage, the amount of fuel you filled it up with, and the cost of fuel per gallon. There are also a few optional questions that MyMileMarker asks so it knows when you last changed your oil and filled your tank. Furthermore, MyMileMarker is location based, so when filling in your information, it will either ask for either miles and gallons or kilometers and liters depending on where you’re from. You can pick your location in the account settings area. Lastly, be sure the information you enter is correct the first time because you can only remove the latest record from your history. In other words, if you make a mistake three records back, you will have to remove the last three records and add them back again just to correct the one entry. (Feature request: edit past entries!)

MyMileMarker History

After logging your mileage a few times, MyMileMarker will begin to show graphs and make projections based on the mileage and fuel costs that you have entered. It will try and project the amount of miles your car will have and how much you may spend by the end of the year (or any set date). It will also show line graphs plotting your miles per gallon (MPG) and total vehicle miles helping you learn about your fuel economy. Additionally, MyMileMarker estimates your vehicles overall MPG and allows you to view your entire vehicle history. Sadly, I could not find any method of exporting my vehicles history.

MyMileMarker Projections

MyMileMarker is off to a good start. What I like most is that you only record your mileage after filling up your vehicle, unlike many services which have you record your mileage every time you drive. It’s also nice being able to log your mileage from anywhere using a mobile phone. Additionally, I found MyMileMarker’s projections of year end costs and mileage to be useful and a real eye-opener. There are a few things that I don’t like though. For starters, there’s no way of importing or exporting your vehicles history. It would save a lot of time if you could import a spreadsheet or some kind of CSV (comma separated values) file. Also, you can’t edit past entries and fixing a mistake involves deleting old records and adding them over again. Otherwise, I like MyMileMarker for its simplicity and accessibility and plan to continue using it.

26 Comments

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# 1. Dan Rubin on Jul 10, 2007 at 3:25 pm

Thanks for the write-up, Brian! We always appreciate comments and suggestions, and since we’re still in a very limited (but open) testing period, we’re paying close attention to everyone’s thoughts.

We’re actually looking at import/export of vehicle histories right now, and editing entries may also be on the near-horizon.

Bugs or feature requests can be posted to our forums: http://forum.mymilemarker.com/

# 2. Paul on Jul 11, 2007 at 10:35 am

I’ve been using http://www.fueleconomy.gov for a while now. It allows you to compare your fuel economy to similar vehicles. The interface isn’t as nice as MyMileMarker, but there are some interesting features. It would be nice if I could import all my data into MyMileMarker (fueleconomy.gov lets me export …)

# 3. SEO on Jul 22, 2007 at 9:59 am

Thanks for the write up Brian, you have bought yet another good application to my attention. I really like the ability to use a mobile with it.

Also thanks for taking the suggestions on board Dan, i love it. After i explore it properly i’ll be sure to post up any suggestions if i find any.

Carly.

# 4. shelly on Jul 22, 2007 at 11:43 am

The charts up there reminded me a cool new tool I just found from the PriceFad.com service for getting more insight about pricing - are these two services related?

# 5. devein on Jul 29, 2007 at 9:41 pm

This project looks simple comparing to http://www.spritmonitor.de (english & german language)

# 6. cobra0289 on Aug 17, 2007 at 2:14 pm

Looks like this site is down. Anyone know if it will be comming back online?

# 7. Alternative Power Generation on Sep 28, 2007 at 10:27 am

Brilliant idea! I travel a good bit, so a tool like this would be interesting to me.

# 8. cartomanzia on Nov 13, 2007 at 7:53 am

thank you i have seen other tools, but this looks the best

# 9. Jeronimo on Dec 29, 2007 at 5:55 pm

no other tool can replace this one… it’s just great… if there is a version that can calculate gas + petrol consumption… please post here… :-)

# 10. Mika on Jan 21, 2008 at 4:44 pm

Hello, if there is a post with detailed func specification for this tool? If it’s not a problem please post here

# 11. Mike on Feb 15, 2008 at 12:29 pm

The application and the charts are great but what is the point if you can’t export or edit anything?
Anyone tested if the predictions are any good? Are accurate?

# 12. DUI on Feb 20, 2008 at 12:27 am

Thank God I don’t have to worry about mileage anymore!! But my wife still does. She’s a nurse. I’ll email her this post. Cool site mate! I’m having fun poking around here.

:O)

# 13. James burt on Feb 27, 2008 at 9:54 am

With oil currently at all time high of $100 per barrel, it make sense in using MyMileMarker.

# 14. Mike in Indianapolis on Feb 29, 2008 at 12:50 pm

This is getting more and more commonplace for people to really scrutinize their fuel economy. It is a good thing in the long run, I just hate paying that much at the pump. Neat tool, thanks for the heads up.

# 15. Articles on Mar 16, 2008 at 2:12 am

MyMileMarker is brilliant, the guys over at SidebarCreative.com really do some excellent stuff.

Although the main reason i’m posting (finally) is i’m wondering Brian how come you haven’t posted in so long? I hope everythings ok, i have been reading SolutionWatch for a long time and look forward to the cool sites/apps you review that i otherwise would probably of never found.

So just hoping SolutionWatch continues… Please, it’s kind of saddening dropping by every week and no updates to such a great site.

Thanks, Sandra.

# 16. beauty blog on Apr 07, 2008 at 4:37 pm

Oh my god!! I wish i had found out about this before when I was a pharmaceutical sales rep. I always had to manage my mileage and this tool seems it could have helped with all my stress. Well thanks for posting it anywayas, …i was just late…

# 17. James on Apr 08, 2008 at 9:28 pm

Does anyone know what happened to mymilemarker.com?
It seems to have been down for a week or so now. :-(

# 18. Columbus GA Realtor on Apr 12, 2008 at 8:41 am

This is a great tool! Mileage is always an issue in any sales field whether the company pays your mileage or you are just keeping for the IRS. Thanks for the info.

# 19. Wczasy na Kaszubach on Apr 15, 2008 at 6:09 am

MileMaker great tool but what about European ver. with euro transitions for countries with no Euro currency yet.?

# 20. nike air jordan sneakers on May 21, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Nice article. Very helpful, thanks!!

# 21. Age Discrimination Lawyer on May 22, 2008 at 10:01 am

This is great! I would love to have all kinds of charts and pie graphs for my cars information. It’ll make things a lot easier.

# 22. Jim on May 23, 2008 at 3:09 pm

I’ve been using www.fuelfrog.com. It’s great and much easier to use than MyMileMarker.

# 23. Internet Website Design on Jun 25, 2008 at 7:04 pm

Now this is something I can use! Keeping track of my mileage in the tiny spaces provided by my Franklin Covey planner has not been working out well…..

# 24. Jake on Jul 01, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Very cool application. I can definitely use something like that to help me keep track of everything. There are few things that I need more as an independent contractor that relies rather heavily on my mileage!

Jake
NoteScribe: Premier Note Software

# 25. San Antonio Lawyer on Sep 02, 2008 at 2:18 am

This is really something everybody can use anytime and anywhere! Great job!