Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/835233
commercial carrier journal | june 2017 71 TECHNOLOGY: AUTOMATING DRIVER PAY Bolt's activity-based pay features were one reason why Mennel Milling Corp. selected the fleet management soware. e Fostoria, Ohio-based company operates 70 trucks and delivers up to 200 different types of flour from six mills to customers in the Midwest and Eastern regions. Mennel's trucks are stationed at three of its flour mills for domestic shipments and also support the company's intermodal ship- ping business. Mennel's pay structure is different by region, terminal and the type of work performed by drivers. Some drivers are paid straight mileage, which is "easy to keep track of," says Jeremy Decker, transportation safety manager. Other drivers spend time loading and unloading. "In our pay package, drivers are compensated for the hours they are putting in," Decker says. "at doesn't mean they are given an hourly wage, but we calculate the hourly wage into a trip rate based on how long it takes, on average, to load or unload a trailer." Trips that depart loaded and return empty to the same terminal pay a flat rate. For trips that do not return to the same terminal, the company pays drivers an open-ended flat rate that is flat for the trip's first segment and then mile- age-based for subsequent pickups before the driver returns to the home terminal. "Driver pay is then a series of partial flat rates," Decker says. e time of day also can come into play. "If a delivery is made aer midnight on a Friday, a multiplier can kick in to assign additional value," he says. "ere are a lot of moving parts with our structure. We like how Bolt makes all of this easy for us and eliminates extra paperwork and tracking on our end." Mennel's drivers also like Bolt's pay tracking, Decker says. "ey see everything, and pay is transparent," he says. "Plus, they save time every week, too. ey no longer have to man- ually record all of their time." The software automates payroll by tracking the planned dispatch assignments and routes with the driver's actual execution. The geofencing capabilities of the company's PeopleNet mobile platform help automate driver work- flow by capturing arrival and departure event data from planned stops. As long as drivers complete the planned loads, the payroll is automated, says Decker, who administers Mennel's PeopleNet system and Bolt integration while also overseeing fleet safety. "I did most of the setup for payroll," he says. When Bolt starts working with fleets that have activi- ty-based pay programs, "almost 100 percent are doing it with paperwork," says Robertson, adding that most of their payroll process can be automated within six months. Electronic POD e volume of data that can be captured by mobile technol- ogies such as ELDs and fleet tracking systems seldom leaves carriers trying to fill in the gaps in a driver's workday to calculate payroll. On the contrary, having so much activity detail makes it possible to compensate drivers in a number of ways – and to automate that process. Fleets can use mobile apps to speed the delivery of infor- mation and documents from drivers to streamline payroll, among other critical areas of their business. Centurion Auto Transport invested in technology de- signed to give its dealership customers an Amazon-like shipping experience. "We're close," says Claudia Land, training and compliance manager for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based fleet. "We're not quite there, but we are very, very close." With the technology, Centurion can automate shipment com- munications, capture electronic proof of delivery and invoice and pay drivers without delay. Mennel Milling Co. uses Bolt's software system integrated with PeopleNet's mobile platform to automate driver pay, says Jeremy Decker, transportation safety manager. California's labor laws have created an administrative headache and legal risks for intrastate carriers that compensate drivers using piece-rate pay structures.