Payroll for transport and fleet operators

Fixed salary first, within the wage rules

Start with a fixed monthly gross for every driver and split it so that basic pay plus dearness allowance is at least half of total remuneration, as the Code on Wages requires. Take a driver on ₹24,000 gross: ₹12,000 as Basic and DA, ₹4,800 as HRA and ₹7,200 as a special allowance adds up to the full ₹24,000. Anything paid as allowances beyond that half is counted back into wages when PF, gratuity and bonus are worked out, so read the wage definition rule before deciding how bhatta and other trip payments are treated.

Worked example: a month of trip pay

Gurpreet drives long-haul out of Ludhiana. In March he spent 18 days away from base, completed 3 round trips and had 6 night halts. At his fleet's rates of ₹300 bhatta a day, ₹1,500 per round trip and ₹200 per night halt, his variable pay is 18 x ₹300 = ₹5,400, plus 3 x ₹1,500 = ₹4,500, plus 6 x ₹200 = ₹1,200, a total of ₹11,100 on top of his fixed salary.

The depot manager checks these figures against the trip register and signs off the list. HR then adds each amount as a payroll input for the month. Decide once, with your payroll adviser, whether bhatta is an allowance or an expense reimbursement, and enter it the same way every month.

Trip advances versus salary advances

Keep two kinds of money apart. Trip advances for diesel, toll and food belong to the fleet's trip accounts and are settled against bills after each trip. Salary advances belong to payroll and are recovered through the advance recovery deduction over agreed months. Traffic challans and damage are the risky ones: recovering them from salary counts as a deduction from wages, so read the deduction rules first and keep a written record before any amount is cut.

Statutory items and deadlines

Payroll deducts employee PF, ESI and the professional tax of the state where each driver is based, and calculates the employer's share of PF, divided between EPS and EPF, along with the employer's ESI. The Code on Wages deadline for a month's wages is the 7th of the next month. Drivers who are on the road on payday can download their payslip PDF from the mobile app instead of waiting to collect a printout at the depot.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Switch on Direct Payroll and enter each driver's monthly gross, using Basic and DA percentages that add up to at least 50 percent of it.
2. Choose calendar-day proration or a fixed 30-day month for part months; approved on duty days in the locked attendance month count as paid days.
3. Each month, add the bhatta, trip incentives and night halt amounts signed off by the depot manager as payroll inputs per driver.
4. Recover salary advances through the advance recovery deduction, and settle trip advances in the fleet's own trip accounts.
5. Draft each month's run, recompute it when late trip inputs arrive, finalize it, and release the payment batch so salaries reach drivers' accounts before the 7th.

Read more about payroll in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions