Logistics and distribution payrolls

Specialist payroll and pension services for hauliers, distribution centres, freight and courier businesses.

Providing specialist payroll services to logistics and distribution companies

Logistics and distribution runs on shift patterns, mileage, allowances and a workforce that moves fast, both on the road and through the door. Getting pay right in this sector means dealing with more moving parts than most, and getting it wrong carries real compliance risk.

Drivers, warehouse operatives and depot staff are often paid differently within the same business, and pay can change from one period to the next depending on hours worked, routes covered and bonuses earned.

Add in high staff turnover, a workforce that regularly includes non-UK nationals, and pay that is made up of basic hours plus a mix of allowances and bonuses, and it is easy to see why logistics payroll takes more than a standard approach to get right.

It is also a sector where the stakes are high. National Minimum Wage compliance depends on getting the detail right for every pay period, not just on average, and holiday pay calculations need to reflect irregular hours and variable pay correctly. Getting either wrong can mean underpayment claims, HMRC penalties or reputational damage, none of which any logistics business needs on top of already tight margins.

Why are logistics company payrolls such a challenge?

The complexity of shift patterns and pay made up from bonuses and allowances, make payrolls in the logistics and distribution sector highly complex.

Our team have years of experience running payrolls for hauliers, distribution centres, warehousing operations and courier businesses across the UK.

Here are some of the common issues we deal with:

A varied and fast moving workforce

High staff turnover means constant starters and leavers to manage
A high proportion of non-UK national workers can bring extra checks around ID, bank accounts and Right to Work
Shift patterns including on call, overnight and weekend working all need to be tracked and paid correctly

Pay made up of more than just basic hours

Loading and unloading payments and waiting time payments often sit alongside basic pay
Attendance and performance bonuses add another layer of variable pay each period
Meals, overnight and mileage allowances raise the question of what counts as taxable pay and what can be reimbursed
Uniform costs need to be handled correctly, particularly where deductions are involved

National Minimum Wage and holiday pay risk

Low basic pay topped up with bonuses and allowances means NMW compliance needs close attention
NMW calculations must account for all working time, not just time spent driving, which can pull people below NMW in a specific pay period even when overall pay looks fine
The 52 week reference period, combined with irregular hours, makes holiday pay calculations far from straightforward
Some businesses use HMRC approved scale rates for overnight and subsistence expenses, which need to be applied consistently

Pensions and payroll data

Auto enrolment and postponement rules need careful handling
High staff turnover plays havoc with assessments, opt outs, postponements and refunds
Payroll data often comes from more than one place, whether that is a local depot running its own time and attendance system or a central HR system

One payroll for every depot and every data source

Whether your data comes from a time and attendance system at each depot, a central HR platform, or a mix of both, we bring it all together into one accurate, compliant payroll.

We understand that logistics businesses rarely run on a single, tidy data feed. Drivers, warehouse staff and depot teams can all be tracked differently, and that data still needs to translate into pay that is right first time, every time.

Our team keeps a close eye on National Minimum Wage compliance at an individual pay period level, not just on paper, and we understand how allowances, bonuses and irregular hours interact with holiday pay under the 52 week reference period.

Transform employee engagement with Elementary

Keeping in touch with a workforce that is rarely in one place can be difficult. The Elementary employee app delivers the power of an intranet to your employees’ phones.

In addition to giving them access to their payslips and pay information, it can also be used to store the latest HR policies and even personal HR documents such as contracts of employment.

More engaged employees. Fewer queries and requests to your HR team. It’s a win-win.