Transportation ERP Consultant, UK

How a UK haulage job turns into revenue

Work reaches a UK haulier in several ways: regular contract flows for a manufacturer or retailer, ad hoc loads from existing customers, loads taken from freight exchanges, and collections and deliveries allocated by a pallet network. The traffic office plans vehicles and drivers around those, often in a transport management system, and the job sheet records what happened: collection, delivery, waiting time, extra drops, and who actually carried the load.

Revenue problems usually come from the gap between the job sheet and the invoice. Waiting time is noted but not charged. A fuel surcharge mechanism exists in the contract but nobody updates it. A load subcontracted to another haulier is invoiced at the full rate, while the subcontractor's cost arrives weeks later and lands in general overheads. I walk through a recent week of jobs with the traffic office and accounts to see exactly where these breaks occur.

From that walkthrough comes a set of requirements: job and charge codes, the evidence needed for each surcharge, when a job is ready to invoice, and how the transport system passes completed jobs to the ledger. It is a different exercise from ERP for UK forwarders and customs agents, who mostly buy haulage rather than run it. The general fleet model sits on my transportation industry page.

Own fleet, subcontractors and pallet networks

Most UK hauliers run a mixed model. Their own vehicles cover regular work, and surplus or awkward loads go to subcontractors at an agreed rate. Some also take subcontracted work from larger operators. If the accounts cannot separate these, the business cannot answer a basic question: is the fleet earning its keep, or is the margin coming from loads it never carried?

I design the job record so each load shows who carried it: an own vehicle and driver, a subcontractor, or a network partner. Subcontractor costs are matched to jobs at the rate agreed when the load was placed, and differences are flagged rather than absorbed. Where you self-bill subcontractors, the agreements and process have to satisfy HMRC's conditions; I make the system capable of it and leave the conditions to your accountant.

Pallet network work needs its own view. Members typically pay hub and membership charges and earn revenue for collections and deliveries in their area, often settled through the network's own statements. Mapping those statements to individual consignments, or at least to depot and day, shows whether network volume is filling vehicles profitably or just keeping them busy.

Drivers' hours, tachographs and pay

UK goods vehicle drivers work under drivers' hours rules, recorded by tachographs and analyzed in specialist software. That analysis system stays the record for compliance, and the ERP should not try to replace it. What the business does need is for the same hours to feed pay and costing correctly, without anyone retyping them from printouts.

Driver pay in haulage has more moving parts than a standard payroll. There are basic hours and overtime, night-out allowances when drivers sleep in the cab or away from base, bonuses tied to defect reporting or fuel efficiency, and agreed deductions. Agency drivers add another cost stream, invoiced per shift by an agency rather than paid through payroll.

I design a flow where time and allowance data are approved by the transport manager, then passed to payroll as inputs and to job costing as driver cost. Agency invoices are matched to shifts and jobs. Driver records hold license categories, qualification expiry and medical review dates, so the traffic office sees who can be planned on which vehicle. Current drivers' hours and pay obligations should be confirmed with your compliance and payroll advisors; my focus is that the data is entered once and reconciles.

Maintenance inspections, operator licensing and vehicle cost

Holding an operator license brings commitments about how vehicles are maintained: safety inspections at stated intervals, defect reporting by drivers, records kept and available for review, and annual testing. Many operators keep these in a fleet maintenance system or with a contracted workshop. The ERP does not need to own the inspection sheet, but it should know what each vehicle costs to keep compliant and on the road.

I design a vehicle file that links three things. First, the compliance calendar: inspection due dates, annual test, tachograph calibration, insurance and vehicle tax renewals, with alerts to named people. Second, cost: workshop invoices, tires, parts, contract maintenance charges, lease or finance payments and depreciation, all posted to the vehicle. Third, use: mileage from telematics or the transport system, so cost per mile per vehicle can be reported and compared across the fleet.

City and road charges are another cost stream for some fleets, from congestion and clean air zone charges to river crossing tolls. Where these are billable to customers, they should be captured against the job; where they are not, they belong to the vehicle or route, so pricing reflects them next time the contract is quoted.

VAT, European loads and choosing a UK system

VAT on haulage is mostly straightforward for domestic work, but international legs, loads to and from Europe and recharges such as crossings or customs-related fees can be treated differently. I list each charge type and ask your accountant to confirm its treatment, then configure the ledger so the code carries it. Records and returns also need to work with Making Tax Digital, which narrows the choice of accounting software or connectors.

For operators running to Europe, ferry or tunnel bookings, driver subsistence abroad and fuel bought in euros add cost lines to each trip. These should be captured against the trip with the original currency kept, so the profitability of continental work can be judged honestly.

Common starting points are an accounting package such as Sage or Xero beside a haulage transport system, plus spreadsheets for vehicle costs. Selection is scripted around your work: a subcontracted load, a pallet network week, a European round trip and a vehicle's annual cost. I support it through independent vendor selection, remotely, with workshops booked at times that suit the traffic office. For the wider British picture, read ERP consulting in the UK or visit the UK hub.