Dear All,
I need your instant help. Actually, my company is into sales and services. We do glass installations in buildings, hotels, offices, and malls.
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. And as per my manager, we should deduct the amount per kilometer from home to the posted location and only pay for the mileage over and above that.
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 a case, they need to pay the complete amount of conveyance from their pocket, which they cannot afford.
Please help me in making a conveyance policy that is in favor of 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,
Durga
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)
Amend(0)
23I need your instant help. Actually, my company is into sales and services. We do glass installations in buildings, hotels, offices, and malls.
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. And as per my manager, we should deduct the amount per kilometer from home to the posted location and only pay for the mileage over and above that.
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 a case, they need to pay the complete amount of conveyance from their pocket, which they cannot afford.
Please help me in making a conveyance policy that is in favor of 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,
Durga
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Durga,
Good question. When in a conflict, it's easy to decide when:
1. When one party is right and the other party is wrong.
2. When both parties are wrong.
But when both parties are right, it becomes very difficult to decide who is right and what is right. The best method under such circumstances is to decide based on practicality and logic rather than what is right and what is wrong.
In the above case, what you can do best is to take the average annual conveyance charges submitted by the employees. Try to get the lowest and highest amounts submitted towards conveyance by the employees and then calculate the median figure. Use this as the basic benchmark amount towards conveyance. Any increase above this amount can be investigated by you to understand how and why there has been an increase.
Also, you can deduct a basic standard amount from the conveyance. This amount should be standard and represent the normal expenses that an employee would incur if commuting from home to the office or vice versa. This deduction should be treated as compulsory.
Hope this will help you.
Regards,
Octavious
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(1)Amend(0)
Good question. When in a conflict, it's easy to decide when:
1. When one party is right and the other party is wrong.
2. When both parties are wrong.
But when both parties are right, it becomes very difficult to decide who is right and what is right. The best method under such circumstances is to decide based on practicality and logic rather than what is right and what is wrong.
In the above case, what you can do best is to take the average annual conveyance charges submitted by the employees. Try to get the lowest and highest amounts submitted towards conveyance by the employees and then calculate the median figure. Use this as the basic benchmark amount towards conveyance. Any increase above this amount can be investigated by you to understand how and why there has been an increase.
Also, you can deduct a basic standard amount from the conveyance. This amount should be standard and represent the normal expenses that an employee would incur if commuting from home to the office or vice versa. This deduction should be treated as compulsory.
Hope this will help you.
Regards,
Octavious
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(1)Amend(0)
Thanks Octavious, it was really a speedy answer. Can I have your contact no. if you dont mind. I really need your help which I may not be able to explain in this cite.
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Durga I am sorry, I cannot give you my contact details, what you can do is sent email via citehr. Regards Octavious
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
No issues. The suggestion you gave, we tried it on some of our employees. In fact, we tried to make them understand that with this policy they can save conveyance amount when the site is nearby, and that saved money can easily be utilized when the site is far off. But most of them are just not ready to accept it. They are uneducated and easily forget what they saved but complain when expenses go above the approved limit.
How to handle such people? They are highly unorganized. Casual employees are highly uncontrollable. They stop working sometimes to build the pressure.
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
How to handle such people? They are highly unorganized. Casual employees are highly uncontrollable. They stop working sometimes to build the pressure.
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Octavious,
What you can do is hold the median of the average as the base figure, and no amount above that shall be cleared for conveyance. Additionally, you can provide them with a kind of travel pass that allows employees to travel throughout Delhi with just one pass. I believe public transport does offer such a facility.
In the coming future, remember that it is always better to engage such casual laborers through contract laborers.
Regards,
Octavious
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
What you can do is hold the median of the average as the base figure, and no amount above that shall be cleared for conveyance. Additionally, you can provide them with a kind of travel pass that allows employees to travel throughout Delhi with just one pass. I believe public transport does offer such a facility.
In the coming future, remember that it is always better to engage such casual laborers through contract laborers.
Regards,
Octavious
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
I think you are wrong in trying to deduct the conveyance from home to the office and then pay the amount traveled over and above it only. The logic is this - it is the responsibility of the employee to report to the office and bear the expense of that travel, but it is the duty of the company to reimburse the travel to any customer site. Now you can start insisting that everyone report to the office in the morning, and they should do that, but that will only waste everyone's time.
Regards
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Regards
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear,
We also engage in similar kinds of operations. The employees are not required to come to the office on a daily basis because their job will be at various sites. This site might change frequently; therefore, they are required to report at the site whenever such instructions are given.
We have a conveyance reimbursement system paid on a weekly basis on a "consolidated" basis, say, $320 or so. This amount (or any other amount) is arrived at by our past experience, i.e., the number of jobs one can handle in a day. This is for the employees who travel a certain kilometer radius on a day-to-day basis. If the same employee is required to go beyond this distance, we enhance conveyance only for those people. So, it depends on the distance one would travel.
We have been practicing this system for the last 40 years, and there is no problem at all with our employees. We have more than 4700 employees on our direct roll across the country, and the same system is replicated all over. The casual employees are also employees whether they work through a contractor or in your own roll; they work for your organization, right? Apply the same logic to them too.
See our travel policy attached herewith (original policy and the subsequent amendment in their eligibility). This is meant for our regular employees. We treat "Casual Labours" working with our contractors in the "others" category and apply the rates applicable to them as per this policy.
As someone commented, when their job is at the site, there is no point in asking them to come to the office first in the morning and ask them to disperse; it is a waste of time and energy and is unproductive.
What you can do is to understand the practicality of the situation and go for paying a "reasonable" amount wherein they do not incur a penny from their pocket; and in this pursuit, let them also think that this is not a "money-making" exercise.
Balaji
From India, Madras
Acknowledge(2)
Amend(0)
We also engage in similar kinds of operations. The employees are not required to come to the office on a daily basis because their job will be at various sites. This site might change frequently; therefore, they are required to report at the site whenever such instructions are given.
We have a conveyance reimbursement system paid on a weekly basis on a "consolidated" basis, say, $320 or so. This amount (or any other amount) is arrived at by our past experience, i.e., the number of jobs one can handle in a day. This is for the employees who travel a certain kilometer radius on a day-to-day basis. If the same employee is required to go beyond this distance, we enhance conveyance only for those people. So, it depends on the distance one would travel.
We have been practicing this system for the last 40 years, and there is no problem at all with our employees. We have more than 4700 employees on our direct roll across the country, and the same system is replicated all over. The casual employees are also employees whether they work through a contractor or in your own roll; they work for your organization, right? Apply the same logic to them too.
See our travel policy attached herewith (original policy and the subsequent amendment in their eligibility). This is meant for our regular employees. We treat "Casual Labours" working with our contractors in the "others" category and apply the rates applicable to them as per this policy.
As someone commented, when their job is at the site, there is no point in asking them to come to the office first in the morning and ask them to disperse; it is a waste of time and energy and is unproductive.
What you can do is to understand the practicality of the situation and go for paying a "reasonable" amount wherein they do not incur a penny from their pocket; and in this pursuit, let them also think that this is not a "money-making" exercise.
Balaji
From India, Madras
Acknowledge(2)Amend(0)
Hi Durga,
Thank you, Balaji, Octavious, and Ranjit, for your great suggestions. I am saying that we deduct the km/amount from home to posting location from the total travel, which means employees are going directly to the site without coming to the office. If they had come to the office, they would have paid from their own pocket. Based on this logic, we have implemented a policy where the company will only pay for mileage over and above if you are required to report directly to the site. If you move from one site to another for official work, it will be fully reimbursed by the company.
Some employees raised objections, so we set a lump sum amount for conveyance based on their past month's claims as a baseline. However, when the site changes and the new site is considerably further than the previous one, they request full reimbursement beyond the fixed limit. They do not consider that if the new site is closer to their home, they profit from the fixed conveyance.
To avoid frequent changes, we can consider the following options:
1) Find the median figure between the farthest and nearest distances and fix it, with no further changes.
2) Allow payment for mileage over the limit but retain flexibility for special cases with manager recommendation and HOD approval.
3) Pay the entire amount based on the fixed mode of travel determined for each level if the employee reports directly to the site.
What other options can we explore? Please let me know if you find any merit in the above points.
Regards,
Durga
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Thank you, Balaji, Octavious, and Ranjit, for your great suggestions. I am saying that we deduct the km/amount from home to posting location from the total travel, which means employees are going directly to the site without coming to the office. If they had come to the office, they would have paid from their own pocket. Based on this logic, we have implemented a policy where the company will only pay for mileage over and above if you are required to report directly to the site. If you move from one site to another for official work, it will be fully reimbursed by the company.
Some employees raised objections, so we set a lump sum amount for conveyance based on their past month's claims as a baseline. However, when the site changes and the new site is considerably further than the previous one, they request full reimbursement beyond the fixed limit. They do not consider that if the new site is closer to their home, they profit from the fixed conveyance.
To avoid frequent changes, we can consider the following options:
1) Find the median figure between the farthest and nearest distances and fix it, with no further changes.
2) Allow payment for mileage over the limit but retain flexibility for special cases with manager recommendation and HOD approval.
3) Pay the entire amount based on the fixed mode of travel determined for each level if the employee reports directly to the site.
What other options can we explore? Please let me know if you find any merit in the above points.
Regards,
Durga
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)Looking for something specific? - Join & Be Part Of Our Community and get connected with the right people who can help. Our AI-powered platform provides real-time fact-checking, peer-reviewed insights, and a vast historical knowledge base to support your search.