How Can We Create a Fair Travel Policy for Installers Without Hurting Our Budget?

Dear All,

I need your instant help. Actually, my company is into sales and services. We do glass installation in buildings, hotels, offices, and malls.

Conveyance issue for installers

In our company, employees who are installers need to move from one site to another and do not come to the office. Now the problem is related to conveyance. They get complete conveyance reimbursed from home to the site. As per my manager, we should deduct the amount per kilometer from home to the posted location and only pay for mileage over and above. Employees who stay quite far from the posted location are protesting this policy, saying their salary is quite low, and they live far from the posted location. In such cases, they need to pay the complete amount of conveyance from their pocket, which they cannot afford.

Need for a balanced conveyance policy

Please help me in creating a conveyance policy that is favorable for both the company and the employees. It's a startup company, so we really need to control our costs, but at the same time, we need to ensure that our employees do not suffer. Please help me find a middle ground.

Regards,
Devangini Vegda

Hi, For those installers on a monthly basis, how many kilometers will they travel? Is their travel range restricted within the city, or are they required to travel outside the city as well? You need to analyze their monthly reimbursement bill. Based on the outcome, you can fix a fixed monthly conveyance amount so that neither party should suffer. However, whatever fixed conveyance amount you arrive at should be reasonable.

By the way, as installers, they should be carrying some instruments to execute the work, right? If so, why can't the company organize its own transportation, like a mini-van, to make the whole process easier.

Dear Devangini Vegda,

Suppose 'A' is the number of kilometers that the average employee commutes from home to the office.

Suppose 'B' is the number of kilometers that the average employee commutes from home to the project site.

The employees are claiming the conveyance allowance for 'B', whereas your manager wants the conveyance allowance to be paid for (B-A) only.

In the right earnest, to keep the motivation of the employees high, payment for 'B' is the best option. The dissatisfaction arising out of non-payment of the total conveyance should not affect the quality of work. It may, in turn, impact customer satisfaction.

Otherwise, Mr. Lakshminarayan has recommended arranging transportation from the office to the project site. This is a very good suggestion.

By the way, what is the cost for 'B' against the total project cost? I don't think that it is that high to cut corners further. Probably, the manager is living with the dogma that every rupee saved in operations goes to profit. However, if the amount in percentage is too small, then let it be factored in as the staff cost.

While submitting the quotation for future projects, let your salespersons include this cost to avoid wrangling over the small issue.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

From the above replies, it's a great idea to arrange transportation. As you mentioned, it's a startup, you can offer free conveyance up to a certain distance (up to an amount that is affordable for you). Beyond that, you can add transportation charges based on the distance. Customers can understand this, so there would be no worries for your company and also for the employees. That's all I can suggest.

Thanks,
Hemanth