What do I do if a driver doesn't want per diem?
So you have decided to pay your drivers per diem for all the reason listed here. You roll out per diem to your drivers in the best way possible, showing them the advantages to them by paying per diem. You even show them two checks, one with per diem and one without per diem but your truck driver heard form a buddy that it is bad and does not want per diem in his or her paycheck. What do you do?
If it were my truck driver, I would talk to them about it and find out what their concerns are about per diem. Assuming that the concerns are factual and not opinion, you can try to show them your side of the story and why per diem is better for them financially. If they come around to your line of thinking on the issue, you are good to go. But if they do not, I wouldn’t press the issue instead I would just not pay per diem to that driver.
It’s never worth losing a quality truck driver by forcing them to get paid per diem.
Instead, what I would do is thank the driver for coming in and sharing their concerns and tell them that while we want what is best for you, ultimately it is their decision and that we respect them enough to honor their request to opt out of per diem. The truck driver should feel heard and respected as a result of the conversation.
As for the administrative side, you should have a way to opt them out through your payroll process, by either indicating the opt out in employee profile or choosing to pay zero days each pay period to the driver. It would be wise when talking to the truck driver to tell them to check their paystub to make sure they are opted out of per diem as waiting until the end of the year would create many more problems.
Written By Mike Ritzema
With over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, management, business planning, financial analysis, software engineering, operations, and decision analysis, Mike has the breadth and depth of experience needed to quickly understand entrepreneurs’ businesses and craft the most suitable solutions.
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