Automatic travel cost compensation

The FieldPay module offers you the opportunity to calculate the working hours and payable travel compensation per employee per day; the travel compensation based on the collective labour agreement construction (‘Bouw CAO’) or on the specific rules used by your company. FieldPay also offers the opportunity to edit, where necessary, the details calculated by the application. In this chapter we would like to inform you about the calculation of the travel time compensation. For calculating the working hours we would like to refer you to the chapter ‘Automatic calculation worktime and overtime. For editing of details we would like to refer you to chapter ‘edit data'. 

If, in addition to their working hours, employees within your company are entitled to travel time compensation it is important in the registration of the information that a differentiation is made between these working hours and the travel time. To this effect Fleet Complete developed the shift calculation. The difference between working hours and travel time is calculated dynamically.

Shift Calculations

It is checked on a daily basis whether a shift can be calculated. A shift consists of an outward journey, working hours and a return journey. The daily calculation of shifts means that you can today assess and approve yesterday’s shifts. On Sunday a weekly calculation is also performed. This takes into account the number of shifts set per week and any corrections/approvals you implemented.

Basic Rules

Calculation of shifts initially happens according to three basic rules:

• Home address

A shift is calculated using the “home address”. This is listed in quotation marks because it is recalculated every day. It is the address where one spends most time on that day/in that week. In most cases this home address will match the address that was entered at employee level in FieldDesk. Should this not match (one departs from an unknown address all week, but it is the same address all the time) then the shift can still be calculated. In case of such a calculated shift the travel time is also calculated but there is a chance that it will not be labelled as compensable. Such trips have to be changed using ‘edit data’.

• Short stop

Next the system will look for short stops within the determined shift. If a stop takes longer than a set amount of time, the working time will start.

• Shifts per week

In the end a weekly calculation is also performed on Sunday. The system analyses the details of the week. The system looks for the maximum number of shifts that has been indicated under ‘number of shifts per week’. If the number of shifts is more than indicated in the settings then the most logical shifts will be selected (based on duration). If somebody spent time at a business address, a shift is always calculated, also if this exceeds the maximum number of shifts per week. A week must contain at least two shifts. IF you edit and approve shifts during the week, these will however no longer be influenced by the week determination. These will automatically be copied over as shifts from the week concerned.

Dynamic

The automatic calculation will be optimised through:

• Self-learning system

The system contains a pattern recognition algorithm; does someone visit a certain address often, do other colleagues visit this address often etc.

• POI’s

By indicating in the system what are business, private etc. addresses you ‘help’ the system to better determine what are working hours. You can create (Naming of locations (POI)') and import POIs. An attribute is connected to that POI which contributes in determining whether a location is a work address or not.

• Edit/approve

By using the shift screen in FieldPay you can view, edit (refer to hf edit) and approve proposed shifts. Your changes will be remembered by the system and applied automatically the next time. This way you will also optimise the shift calculation.

Settings

Before the shift calculation takes place, you must set a number of items yourself:

Activation Shift Calculation

Per employee (group) you must determine whether shift calculation should be activated.

1. Go to the ‘Management’ module
2. Go to the ‘time schedule’ option under ‘Settings’ menu
3. Determine per employee group or employee whether you would like to enable shift calculation;
   
   
• Per employee group: click on the [edit] button next to the employee group concerned
• Per employee: click on the [+] button in front of the employee group concerned and then click on the [edit] button in front of the employee concerned. The setting 'default timetable' will be deactivated if the employee settings deviate from the employee group settings.
4. Open the tab ‘shift calculation’
5. Indicate how many shifts per week should be calculated at most and whether multiple shifts per day could occur (for example in shift work)
   
   
   
   
6. Click [ok]

FieldPay in use

Per employee (group) you must indicate that shifts should be calculated for the employee

1. Go to the ‘FieldPay’ module
2. Click on option 'Settings travel time’
3. Determine whether you want to set the use of FieldPay per employee group or per employee;
   
   
   1. Per employee group: click on the [edit] button next to the employee group concerned
   2. Per employee: click on the [+] button in front of the employee group concerned and then click on the [edit] button in front of the employee concerned. The setting 'default timetable' will be deactivated if the employee settings deviate from the employee group settings
4. Indicate whether FieldPay is in use
   
   
   
   
5. Click [ok[

Short Stop

The duration of the short stop must be indicated

1. Go to the ‘FieldPay’ module
2. Click on option 'Settings travel time
   
   
   
   
3. Indicate at 'maximum stop time’ indicate the duration of the short stop;
4. Indicate at ‘'maximum stop time counts per visit' whether the indicated stop time counts per stop or for the total duration of the stops;
5. Click [confirm] to confirm the settings

Use of a Time Schedule

You can set up a time schedule per employee (group). In this screen you determine the commuter time blocks, the shift calculation will then take these settings into account in determining the travel time and working hours. Furthermore only the trips made within this block will be eligible for compensation.

Setting the time schedules can be found in the 'Management' module under the 'Private' menu.

1. Click on the option 'Time table';
2. Determine whether you would like to set the time schedule per employee group or per employee;
   1. Per employee group: click on the [edit] button behind the employee group concerned
   2. Per employee: click on the [+] button in front of the employee group concerned and then click on the [edit] button in front of the employees concerned. The setting 'default timetable' is deactivated if the employee settings are set differently from the employee group settings.
3. The opened screen displays 3 tabs. In the second tab 'Weekdays' you indicate that you wish to use the time schedule. At 'end private' and 'start working hours' you indicate the time block for the commute to work and at 'eind working hours' and 'start private' the time block for the commute back.
4. Click [update] to confirm the settings

Should you wish to calculate the travel compensation on the basis of the trips made within the time schedule, it is important that you indicate this in the ‘travel time settings’ FieldPay.

1. Click on the option 'settings travel time’;
2. Tick the option ‘calculation on the basis of time schedule’
3. Click [confirm] to confirm the settings
   
   
   

Using these settings the shifts are calculated. In the end the following definitions apply within the services:

Please note!

• In calculating the information above, trips with attribute ‘private’ or not taken into account.
• In using the time schedule you will therefore have to take the following into account: if a ‘start work’ has been set in the time schedule at 8 o’clock and somebody starts their first trip at 9.00 o’clock and finishes it at 10 o’clock then ‘start work’ is ‘8:00’!
• Calculating the above details occurs daily over the past 14 days. If shifts are edited the week needs to be approved or else the changes are lost.

Use a switch

In calculating the travel time (outward and return journey) the business/commuter position of the switch is not taken into account, can no longer be calculated on the basis of the switch.

Please note!
Incorrectly calculated shifts can be edited/added through the shift screen ('edit data').

Furthermore shifts per employee/period van be recalculated after being changed (Management module, option 'recalculate shifts’). This recalculation does not take previous edits into account that were performed on changing the shifts (determining outward/return journey) but does take into account previous changes to trip types.

Never perform this recalculation on working days between 5.00 PM and 7.00 PM.

Regulations for Travel compensation

Taking into account the aforementioned settings, shift calculation finally calculates what the outward journey, the working hours and the return journey are. The time and/or distance of the so determined outward and return journeys will then be compared against set rules for travel compensation.

If the outward journey occurs on day 1 and the return journey occurs on day 2 then the compensation will be presented fully on day 1. These calculations take place independent of time of work, so night shifts are also included.

Travel compensation is calculated on the basis of a number of rules. These are discussed here.

Employee Rate

It can be indicated per employee at what rate the calculated hours should be paid. This is not a compulsory setting. In case of the Belgian collective agreement (CAO) you always set this to 1.

1. Go to the ‘FieldPay’ module
2. Click on the option 'Settings travel time’
3. Determine whether you want to set the time schedule per employee group or per employee;
   1. Per employee group: click on the [edit] button next to the employee group concerned
   2. Per employee: click on the [+] button in front of the employee group concerned and then click on the [edit] button in front of the employee concerned. The setting 'default timetable' will be deactivated if the employee settings deviate from the employee group settings.
4. Enter the rate
   
   
   
   
5. Click [ok]

Trips Eligible for Compensation

Depending on trip type, a trip will either be eligible for compensation or not. Trip types that are eligible for compensation, need to be activated. 

1. Go to the ‘FieldPay’ module
2. Click on the option 'Settings travel time’
3. Determine whether you want to set the time schedule per employee group or per employee;
   1. Per employee group: click on the [edit] button next to the employee group concerned
   2. Per employee: click on the [+] button in front of the employee group concerned and then click on the [edit] button in front of the employee concerned. The setting 'default timetable' will be deactivated if the employee settings deviate from the employee group settings.
4. Select the trip types
   
   
   
   
5. Click [ok]

Compensated distance

The distance (of trips to be compensated) determines which calculation rules are used. The collective employment agreement in the construction industry for example pays a compensation based on an average speed for a certain distance; for a larger distance the actual travel time is compensated. It is therefore important to determine which distance intervals apply and whether the distance of the outward journey and the return journey should be compared to the table separately, in total or as an average.

Determining the distance intervals can be found in the 'FieldPay' module under the 'Travel time' menu.

1. Click on the option 'Distance sets';
2. Click on [add];
3. Enter a name and click on [update]
4. Click on [+] in front of the created distance table
5. Click on [add] and add as many intervals as is necessary. The first interval starts with 0 and the last interval ends with 'infinity'.

It is also important to determine in what way the distance is compared with the table. This can be set in the 'FieldPay' module under the ‘Travel times settings’ menu.

• separately: the outward journey and the return journey are compared separately with the calculation table.
• total: the total distance from the outward journey and the return journey is compared with the calculation table.
• average: the average distance from the outward journey and the return journey is compared with the calculation table.

This setting applies to all staff within the company and cannot therefore be determined per employee group!

Type of compensation

The type of compensation is set per employee group. Next you can set the calculation method per distance interval and per type of employee, type of employee depends on the role that employee had in the vehicle, solo driver, chauffeur or passenger (see chapter 'Registration systems').

Setting the calculation method can be found in the 'FieldPay' module under the 'Travel time' menu.

1. Click on the option 'Trip factor';
2. Click on [+] in front of the employee group of which you would like to enter the calculation table;
3. Click on [add];
4. Select the applicable distance interval and enter a starting date from when the calculation table is valid at 'trip factor settings';
5. Click on edit in front of one of the distance tables and next enter the calculation method per employee type:
   1. Specified value: enter the number of hours to be compensated (1 decimal)
   2. Average speed: enter the average speed on the basis of which the compensation should be calculated
   3. Actual trip hours: the compensation is based on the actual time driven. You can add a minimum number of hours here.
   4. Compensation per KM: here you can enter a number of euro cent. The distance to be compensated will then be multiplied with this amount
6. Click on [update] if the settings are ok.

Deductible

It occurs that part of the commuting time is compensated and part is seen as 'personal travel time' (deductible). The amount of time that is seen as personal travel time can be set per employee (group) and per type of employee. Setting the own travel time is found in the 'FieldPay' module under the ‘Travel time settings’ menu.

1. Determine whether you would like to set the personal travel time per employee group or per employee;
   1. Per employee group: click on the [edit] button behind the employee group concerned
   2. Per employee: click on the [+] button in front of the employee group concerned and then click on the [edit] button in front of the employees concerned. The setting 'default time table' is deactivated when the employee settings are set differently from the employee group settings.
2. The opened screen displays 1 tab in which you can enter the own travel time deduction and the trip types that qualify for compensation.
   
   
   
   
3. Enter the personal travel time deduction per employee type (solo driver, driver and/or passenger). Please note that the indicated number is in minutes and only applies to a single journey. So if you use a personal travel time deduction per day of one hour then you indicate 30 minutes here.
4. Click on [ok] to confirm the settings.

Next you determine also whether the set personal travel time is valid for the calculation table used by you.

Activating the personal travel time deduction can be found in the 'FieldPay' module under the 'Travel time' menu.

1. Click on the option 'Trip factor';
2. Click on [+] in front of the employee group of which you would like to activate the deduction;
3. Click on [edit] in front of the calculation table concerned;
4. Here you can determine per employee type whether the personal travel time should be activated
5. Click [update] to confirm the settings

Recalculate travel compensation

If settings are changed, one can immediately perform a recalculation of the travel compensation.

You will find this in the 'FieldPay' module under the ‘Overview’ menu.

1. Select the period that you want to recalculate;
2. Click on [recalculate travel time].
   
   
   

Reports

There are two ways to retrieve calculated compensations in Fielddesk. We have reporting in FieldPay and in FieldLog.

Report FieldPay

The advantage of this reporting is that each edit is processed immediately and the travel time to be compensated is available to you straight away. Downside is that this reporting cannot be sent as email and can only be exported/printed as file on an employee by employee basis.

This reporting can be found in the 'FieldPay' module under the 'Travel time' menu.

1. Click on the option 'Reports';
2. Select the period of which you would like to see the compensation;
3. You now see the total compensation per employee.
4. If you would like more detail, click on [+] in front of the employee of which you would like to see the travel compensation;

The following columns are displayed:

Report FieldLog

A special reporting category is available in FieldLog called 'FieldPay reports' where you can display columns concerning travel time compensation. These will only be displayed if the shifts have been calculated. The columns have all been grouped in the selection menu under the column group 'travel (commuter) data'.

This can be done as follows:

1. Start the FieldLog module;
2. Select a report to which you would like to add FieldPay columns;
3. Go to the 'manage views' menu and choose 'select columns';
4. Click on the group 'traveltime (Fpay)' and activate the columns you desire
5. Click on [update] if the settings are ok.

The following columns are available:

Please note! 
Column end outward journey does not have to be equal to start working time. The difference could be the short stops that have been set not to be included as travel time.

Reduce travel time with work time

If you also make use of the automated working hours calculation of Fielddesk, you can choose to offset the travel time to be compensated with time not worked enough ('Automatic calculation worktime and overtime').

Setting this option can be found in the 'FieldPay' module under the 'Worktime' menu.

1. Click on the option 'Settings worktime';
2. Indicate at 'Compensate insufficient working time with traveltime' whether you would like to offset the travel time with time not worked enough.

The amount of time not worked enough is displayed in the column ‘underutilisation’. 

In FieldLog you can add to the FieldPay reports the column ‘Travel time (net)’ (column group ‘Travel time (FPay)’). If the column ‘underutilisation’ has been filled in the column ‘Travel time’ will be decreased by that number of minutes. This results in the column Travel compensation ‘(net)’.