The 6 Best Trucking Payroll Software Vendors in 2024
The best trucking payroll software, tested by in-house HR tech experts at SSR. Find pricing info, feature breakdowns, advice on product demos and more below.
Running payroll in the trucking industry can be different than in most other fields. Since drivers can sometimes be compensated by the mile or load instead of getting a weekly or monthly paycheck, having the right payroll software can be key to saving time and headaches for HR.
While some of these solutions are geared specifically toward trucking companies, others are general payroll providers whose solutions adapt to the needs of any trucking business. Some are general bookkeeping tools, while others are full-on trucking management systems.
If you’re looking for a software solution that can run driver payroll, we’re confident that you’ll find at least a couple of these options to your liking. These are the best trucking payroll software vendors as of 2021.
In case you want more information on general payroll vendors, we’ve put together a roundup of the best payroll software, and another one of the best free payroll solutions for small businesses.
Top Trucking Payroll Software
To identify the few companies that would make sense to recommend as trucking payroll software vendors, we talked to business owners and HR professionals at trucking companies of various sizes, mainly in the US. We leveraged our years of experience in the payroll space, engaging in conversations with each product team and some of their trucking clients.
Our final selection was guided mainly by vendors’ performance across three critical criteria: trucking-friendly payroll features, ease of use, and customer support.
- Trucking-Friendly Payroll Features: Naturally, we placed significant emphasis on payroll software that caters to the unique needs of trucking companies. The chosen solutions may provide specialized functionalities such as driver pay calculations, per diem tracking, compliance with Hours of Service (HOS) regulations, and seamless integration with fleet management systems.
- Ease of Use: User-friendliness is paramount for efficient payroll management within the fast-paced trucking industry. We focused on software solutions that prioritize intuitive interfaces and straightforward workflows.
- Customer Support: We prioritized the payroll software vendors who are well known for their reliable assistance. The chosen solutions are very customer-centric, striving for uninterrupted payroll operations and timely issue resolution.
Our selection process also prioritized tools boasting a contemporary user experience (UX) and streamlined workflows that effortlessly guide both payroll managers and trucking business owners. To gain deeper insights into our methodology, delve into our comprehensive criteria for evaluating HR tech vendors.
Gusto
ADP
QuickBooks
Axon Software
Axis TMS
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Gusto
Gusto's powerful payroll software makes it easy to pay contractors, including contract drivers, whether they operate within the U.S. or globally. While it can accommodate businesses of any size, it is particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized companies.
PROS
- Gusto supports payments for domestic and international contractors.
- Supports online signatures, automatic deductions, and automated tax filing.
- Flexible payroll schedules and unlimited pay runs.
- Unlimited contractor payments in the U.S.
- Responsive customer support.
- Transparent pricing. No long-term contract is required.
- Free account setup.
- The dashboard feature keeps tabs on compliance tasks
- The hiring and onboarding sequence is nicely streamlined between HR and the new hire
- Post-offer, pre-start tasks are made easy with integrations like CorpNet (state tax set up) Checkr (background checks)
- Easy payroll for U.S.-based W-2 folks, domestic, and international contractors
- Person-to-person phone support, email, and other customer service resources
- The business model is responsive to customer needs
CONS
- While it’s one of the best payroll tools around, it’s not built specifically for the trucking industry and might lack features for this market.
- No built-in accounting tool for earnings and expenses monitoring.
- The 'Simple' tier plan lacks in-built time tracking and online signature features, necessitating third-party integrations.
- Premium plan or Plus plan with add-ons offer features like federal/state compliance alerts and broker/health insurance plan integration, not available with the Simple plan.
- No provision for a free trial.
- Gusto can support payments for international contractors, but not employees
- No native accounting feature to keep earning and spending under the same roof
- Analytics dashboard is simplistic
Gusto offers unlimited contractor payments in the U.S., ensuring hassle-free processing. With features like online signatures, automated tax filing, and flexible payroll options, it is a convenient and efficient solution for managing trucking payroll.
The platform's automatic deductions streamline benefits administration, while person-to-person support and licensed benefits advisors ensure excellent customer service.
Gusto's transparent pricing, responsive business model, and free account setup make it an attractive choice for small to medium size trucking businesses.
Note that the platform lacks a native accounting feature for tracking earnings and spending, and advanced features, like time tracking and online signatures, are only available through third-party integrations.
Additionally, the analytics dashboard is simplistic, and federal/state compliance alerts and broker/health insurance integration are only included with the Premium plan, or as add-ons with lower-tier plans.
This is a good tool for trucking businesses seeking efficient payroll management.
American Canning, Matchless Builds, Citizen Pilates, Pain Clinic, Distant Moon.
- Simple Plan: $40 per month plus $6 per person.
- Plus Plan (Limited Time Sale): Starting at $60 monthly plus $9 per person.
- Premium Plan: Customized plan options available by contacting sales.
- Contractor Only Plan: $6 per person per month, designed for businesses with contractor drivers and no W-2 employees.
Best For
Gusto offers robust payroll software for contractor drivers within the U.S., and the ideal business size is small to medium.
We used Gusto to manage payroll, streamline benefits administration, and centralize HR tasks. The platform simplifies payroll processing, ensures compliance with tax regulations, and automates various HR functions. Additionally, Gusto facilitates employee self-service, allowing individuals to access their pay stubs, tax forms, and benefit information conveniently. Its reporting tools provide valuable insights for strategic decision-making. Overall, Gusto plays a pivotal role in enhancing our HR efficiency and employee experience.
Gusto offers an intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate various tasks. Their system consolidates our processes and reduces the need for multiple platforms. Additionally, they provide excellent customer support, offering timely assistance whenever needed.
We chose Gusto due to its comprehensive payroll, benefits, and HR solutions, streamlining our administrative processes. The user-friendly interface and automation features enhance efficiency. Overall, Gusto has been a valuable asset to our HR team.
- While Gusto is comprehensive, we have encountered some challenges with integrating it with other existing HR tools. Also, there are instances where we wished for more customization options within Gusto.
- Periodic updates to the platform have previously disrupted our workflow.
Gusto is a bit more user-friendly. Also, their comprehensive approach distinguishes them from competitors that may offer specialized services but not the same breadth of integrated solutions.
Ensure it aligns with your organization's specific needs and growth objectives. Also, look for a platform that is intuitive and requires minimal training for your team to navigate and operate effectively.
Given the dynamic nature of tax regulations and HR compliance, Gusto has demonstrated platform update agility. Over time, they have refined the platform's interface, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.
It seems to be best fit for smaller organizations.
A small team that is looking to grow and provide more impact for their organizations.
ADP
An affordable payroll solution from one of the top names in this type of software, used by thousands of organizations.
PROS
CONS
As what is probably the best-known company in the payroll services space, it’s no surprise that ADP has an offering that could adapt to the trucking industry. Although not made specifically for trucking companies, ADP Run is their simple, fast, and affordable payroll solution for SMBs. It is used by nearly 700,000 organizations.
They strive to make the payroll process effortless, so you have more time to run the other parts of your business. You can do payroll and tax filing in just a few easy steps, pay employees by check, direct deposit, or paycard, and it’s all doable from either the phone, the web, or their mobile app. One thing to note, however, is that they lack trucking-specific features like being able to pay drivers by the mile.
Should you run into any snags with the rest of their offering, ADP has 24/7 customer support from a team of payroll experts. They can also manage health insurance for truckers in all 50 US states. It is also worth mentioning that ADP does have other products for larger businesses, and not just for payroll, so they can certainly grow with you.
Best For
The company used ADP for payroll. It also uses it for 401k retirement programs. Our HR department has been happy with it. ADP has provided nice incentives to move to it.
Easy to use. Provided sign up incentives. Respected brand.
Colleagues had experience with ADP in the past and were lobbying for the company to make a change. We have made that change and then continued to increase the services that we were obtaining from them. It has been a positive experience. The vendor is exceeding our expectations. We don't foresee making changes in the near future.
It is a big company so you don't always feel like an important customer. We often deal with different people at the company. It would be nice to have one consistent contact.
The breadth of products that it offers is important to us. We know it has quality products and services.
A company with a long track record. Incentives to move to it. Suggested enhancements to the products.
It is continually updating its service offerings with improvements. It contacts us for associated products and services that may assist our business.
Small to medium business.
I cannot think of any.
QuickBooks
Quickbooks is one of the highly-trusted names in financial tracking, payroll, expense reports, and even time and attendance software for small businesses.
PROS
CONS
As one of the most popular payroll and accounting software in the world, QuickBooks’ offering for the trucking industry fits the niche particularly well. More than 10,000 transportation SMBs use the product to manage labor costs, tackle payroll tax calculations, track time, and much more.
The QuickBooks accounting platform can help to provide same-day direct deposits to drivers, manage health benefits & workers comp, create customizable payroll reports, generate stubs, and much more. Payroll can be automated along with taxes and forms, almost in a set-it-and-forget-it manner.
The main benefit of QuickBooks in relation to trucking companies is that it’s got built-in time tracking, letting you account for every hour worked and then approve payroll when ready. Additionally, it helps that QuickBooks is a fuller accounting solution, so you can manage all your finances in one place.
Best For
We use Quickbooks for all of our invoicing needs, as well as for AR reporting when needed. We can also keep track of all of our contacts in the vendor section which makes it an easy place to go if we need information.
- User-friendliness is the main pro we find when using Quickbooks.
- It’s been very easy to train my HR employees how to send and receive invoices.
- It’s linked to our bank.
- It gives the option for people to pay via ACH when sending out invoices (easy for them to pay with a touch of a button).
When my organization was looking for options to help quickly get out invoices to our clients they thought Quickbooks would be the perfect solution. We have now successfully been using Quickbooks for 10 years for our invoicing needs as well as AR reporting which helps our HR team run smoothly.
- Sometimes it runs slow if more than one user are in the software at a time.
- Connectivity issues will happen at times which could make it frustrating to use when you are in a hurry.
- You have to add in other apps to be able to use all the functionality of Quickbooks and pay further pricing.
The only other software we have tried in the past was NetSuite, and we ultimately decided to go with Quickbooks due to its pricing and ease of use. NetSuite did have more functionality but overall we liked the way Quickbooks worked with our company’s needs.
They should figure out what they specifically want to use the tool for, and make sure they do their research and pick the correct type of Quickbooks so they can easily work through what they need to get done.
The website itself has changed over the years but in a good way! We feel it is super easy to navigate and works for our business needs.
Really any corporate type of business that needs to send invoices out to customers, our organization does staffing and recruiting and we rely on Quickbooks to be able to send out invoices to clients.
Maybe manufacturing companies or just very small, less than 10 person companies might not benefit from QuickBooks online.
Axon Software
As a fully-fledged trucking management system, Axon offers real-time and meaningful information that is instantly updated across every area of the business.
PROS
CONS
This Canadian company has been doing trucking software exclusively for decades, boasting a trucking accounting software tool that can help to increase cash flow and staff retention. It aids in saving time for fleet owners by streamlining payroll, settlement processes, accounts receivables, payables, invoicing, and other recurring financial tasks.
While it’s not the most modern-looking solution out there, Axon Software is notable for its real-time approach to the handling of trucking data. Information entered into the system automatically updates your dispatch, driver pay, fuel management, fleet maintenance, accounting, routing, and billing.
Best For
Axis TMS
Axis is a trucking command center with all the features you'd need to run a trucking business smoothly, although payroll is offered as an add-on.
PROS
CONS
Axis is a trucking management system which claims to have all the tools you’d need to run such a business. Their trucking software features includes a driver mobile app, a billing module, carrier functionalities, maintenance management, an IFTA add-on, and brokerage.
As for trucking payroll, Axis does it as an add-on. You can run payroll weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, and do auto-recurring or amortized deductions. Their systems also lets owner operators choose between paying drivers by the mile, load, or hour.
Lastly, Axis is also notable for being the only vendor on this list that does hardware for trucking as well as software. They sell tablets for truck drivers, dash cameras, asset trackers, and sensors.
Best For
TruckLogics
Up-and-coming vendor in the trucking payroll space, with years of experience on pure trucking management software.
PROS
CONS
As a trucking management software company, it makes sense that TruckLogics has a part of their product made specially to pay contractor drivers. While not fully available yet, the system will be integrating with PayWow in order to offer a specialized trucking payroll solution within their platform. If you’re not convinced by the vendors above, this one might be worth keeping an eye on, or getting in touch with.
Best For
Final Advice on Buying Trucking Payroll Software
The main question with picking out trucking payroll software is whether to go with a full trucking management system, or pick a payroll-focused solution and integrate it with what you already use.
On the one hand, you’d get a myriad of trucking features and specialized support, but on the other you’d get a more modern solution with better UX and far more payroll & HR features.
Our advice here would be to make a list of the 3-5 key features that you need and see which vendors from this list fulfill all of them. If you’re leaning towards a payroll-focused vendor, it’s just a matter of making sure they integrate well with your other software.
The best way to make sure of these two factors, is to get a demo with the vendors that you shortlist. Then, show up to that with a detailed set of questions from you and your team, take notes, and don’t be afraid to take control of the demo or even request a trial of the solution.
It could be a lengthy process, but in the long run, considering all the man hours and tedious tasks that it will save you, it will certainly be worth it.
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- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
