Trucking Payroll Software: 12 Compared

Most comparisons in this category start from a premise worth questioning: that trucking needs its own payroll software. The pay structures are unusual, certainly. Per-mile, per-load, percentage of line haul, accessorial pay, per diem, escrow. But every mainstream payroll platform supports custom pay rates, and entering 2,400 miles at $0.58 is not technically harder than entering 38 hours at $22.

What is genuinely hard is producing the 2,400 miles. That number comes from dispatch records, load confirmations, and mileage data, and no payroll platform has visibility into any of it. This is why the comparison below covers two different kinds of product that get shelved together in search results, and why most carriers of any size end up paying for both.

There is also a set of rules specific to motor carriers that neither category advertises clearly: a federal statute that makes multi-state driver withholding simpler than standard multi-state payroll, an overtime exemption that quietly fails in any week involving a light vehicle, and a per diem structure that can work against the driver even while saving both sides tax. This guide covers all of it as of July 2026, plus what 12 platforms cost at 5, 10, and 20 drivers.

Two problems that search results treat as one

Search for trucking payroll software and you get two categories of product interleaved, usually without anyone explaining that they do different jobs.

The practical consequence is that a carrier asking which one to buy is usually asking the wrong question. The common working arrangement is a transportation management system that assembles settlements from dispatch and load data, feeding a payroll provider that handles withholding, deposits, and filings. Some products span both, at a price. Very small operations do the settlement work in a spreadsheet and use general payroll for the rest, which is a legitimate setup rather than a compromise.

How drivers actually get paid

Five structures cover most of the industry, and a single carrier often runs several at once depending on lane, driver, and equipment.

Layered on top are deductions and additions that have no equivalent in office payroll: fuel advances drawn against the settlement, escrow held on leased operators for maintenance or damage, equipment and insurance deductions, and per diem paid as a non-taxable reimbursement rather than wages.

None of that is beyond a general payroll platform to process once the figures exist. All of it is beyond a general payroll platform to calculate, because the inputs live in dispatch.

The multi-state rule that makes driver payroll simpler

This is the single most useful thing on this page for a carrier with drivers living in different states, and it runs opposite to the standard multi-state payroll rule.

In ordinary multi-state payroll, an employee is generally taxed where the work is performed, which for a driver crossing eight states in a week would be unworkable. Federal law resolves it. Under 49 USC section 14503, commonly called the Amtrak Act after the 1990 legislation that expanded it, compensation paid by a motor carrier to an employee who performs regularly assigned duties in two or more states is not subject to the income tax of any state other than the employee's state of residence.

The exemption is not unlimited. It applies to employees who perform regularly assigned duties in two or more states and whose work affects commercial motor vehicle safety. A driver who runs entirely within one state, or an office employee, is taxed under ordinary rules. Our guide to multi-state payroll processing covers the standard rules that apply to everyone else on your payroll.

Per diem, and why drivers do not always want it

Per diem is a reimbursement for meals and incidental expenses while away from home overnight, paid instead of tracking receipts. Because it is a reimbursement rather than wages, it is not subject to income tax or payroll tax on either side.

The 80 percent figure is worth understanding correctly, because it applies to the deduction rather than to a company driver's reimbursement. For an owner-operator deducting meal expenses on their own return, the special rate for workers subject to Department of Transportation hours-of-service rules is 80 percent rather than the 50 percent that applies to most other business travelers. For a company driver receiving per diem from a carrier under an accountable plan, the reimbursement is simply not wages.

Documentation is the other half. The driver still needs to substantiate time, date, and place for each day claimed, which for most fleets means electronic logging device records serve double duty as per diem substantiation.

The overtime exemption and the week it stops working

Most carriers know drivers are exempt from federal overtime. Fewer know how the exemption breaks.

Section 13(b)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act exempts from federal overtime any employee whose hours the Secretary of Transportation has authority to regulate. In practice that covers drivers, driver helpers, loaders, and mechanics whose work affects the safety of operation of commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce. The rationale is jurisdictional: the Department of Transportation sets hours of service for these workers, so the Department of Labor's overtime rules step back.

Two further points. The exemption is federal, and several states require overtime for drivers regardless of the federal position, so a carrier operating in those states cannot rely on 13(b)(1) alone. And the exemption covers safety-affecting work, not everyone on the payroll: dispatchers, office staff, and employees who load without responsibility for proper loading are generally not covered and are owed overtime under ordinary rules. Our guide to exempt versus non-exempt classification covers the underlying framework.

Company drivers, owner-operators, and the classification risk

A carrier running both W-2 company drivers and 1099 owner-operators is running two payroll processes with different obligations.

The risk sits in the boundary. Classification follows the IRS common-law test on behavioral control, financial control, and the nature of the relationship, and it is not established by the lease agreement. A leased operator who hauls only your freight, on dispatch you assign, in your trailer, on your schedule, with a truck financed through you, is a difficult case to defend as an independent contractor no matter what the paperwork says.

Trucking is an area of active enforcement on this point, and reclassification brings back payroll taxes, penalties, and generally state wage claims covering several years. Our guides to employee versus contractor classification and misclassification consequences cover the test and the exposure in detail.

12 trucking payroll platforms compared

The table below mixes both categories deliberately, because search results do and because carriers evaluate them side by side. The columns that separate them are tax filing on one side and settlements plus fuel tax on the other.

Gusto

The strongest general payroll choice for a small fleet running W-2 drivers and contractors together. Custom pay rates handle per-mile and per-load structures, contractor payments and 1099 filing are included rather than an add-on, and onboarding and document collection are the best among payroll-first platforms, which matters in an industry that hires continuously. Simple runs $49 per month plus $6 per employee.

The constraint is multi-state. Simple covers a single state, and because drivers are taxed where they live, a fleet with drivers in three states needs Plus at $80 plus $12 per employee. In this industry that is a common rather than exceptional situation.

OnPay

Functionally close to Gusto with one structural advantage that matters unusually much here: one flat plan at $49 per month plus $6 per employee, with tax filing in all 50 states at no surcharge. Given that driver withholding follows residence rather than the company address, a fleet recruiting across state lines pays nothing extra for that with OnPay and pays materially more with several competitors.

Roll by ADP

Payroll through a chat interface, designed for a phone. At $39 per month plus $5 per employee with a promotional free period, it is the natural fit for an owner-operator paying themselves or a two to five truck operation where the person running payroll is also driving or dispatching.

It markets directly to transportation and supports mile, load, and per diem pay items. What it lacks is depth: no meaningful HR module, limited reporting, and nothing resembling settlement or fuel tax functionality.

Patriot Software

The cheapest legitimate full-service payroll at $37 per month plus $5 per employee, with federal, state, and local filing included and unlimited runs. For a single-state fleet of W-2 drivers with settlements handled elsewhere, it does the job at the lowest price on this list.

Additional states cost $12 per month each, which is a meaningful penalty in an industry where drivers commonly live in several states.

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll

Core is $50 per month plus $6.50 per employee. The argument is the same as in every industry: if the carrier's books are already in QuickBooks Online, payroll entries reach the general ledger without an export. A large share of small carriers do run QuickBooks, which is why it appears on every trucking comparison despite having no transportation-specific features.

Paychex Flex

Service rather than software, with named representatives at higher tiers and a large compliance team. Flex Essentials is published at $39 per month plus $5 per employee for businesses under 20 people, which covers a great many carriers, and everything above is quote-only.

ADP RUN

The deepest tax compliance engine in the category, which for a carrier translates into multi-state registration and filing handled as routine rather than as a project. That matters more here than in most industries precisely because driver residence drives the filing footprint. ADP does not publish RUN pricing.

Paylocity

A human capital management platform with a published transportation and logistics practice, aimed at fleets that have outgrown basic payroll and want performance, learning, and engagement tooling alongside it. Pricing is quote-based and implementation is a project rather than a signup.

TruckLogics

A transportation management system aimed at owner-operators and very small carriers, with dispatch, settlements, expense tracking, and fuel tax reporting at an entry price far below the mid-market TMS products. For a one to five truck operation that wants load-level records rather than a spreadsheet, it is the cheapest realistic entry point.

It is a TMS rather than a payroll provider, so tax filing generally sits with a separate payroll product or an accountant.

Truckbase

A modern transportation management system aimed at fleets of roughly ten trucks and up, starting from around $290 per month on annual billing. Dispatch, load management, driver settlements, and integrations with major electronic logging device providers are the core, with document handling and automated data capture layered on.

Axon Software

The closest thing on this list to a single system covering both halves. Axon combines dispatch, accounting, driver settlements, payroll, and fuel tax reporting in one real-time platform, which for a carrier tired of reconciling three systems is the entire argument. It is priced by quote and is a genuine implementation rather than a signup.

Tailwind TMS

A cloud transportation management system priced per user at $99 per month, covering dispatch, accounting, and settlements for both carrier and brokerage operations. The per-user model suits a small carrier with a couple of office staff and does not penalise truck count, which is a different shape from most of this category.

What payroll actually costs at 5, 10, and 20 drivers

Fleet sizes in this industry skew small, so the table below models 5, 10, and 20 drivers rather than the usual 10, 25, and 50. Only the payroll platforms with published pricing appear, since a TMS is a separate line.

Two observations. At these headcounts the base fee still dominates, which is the opposite of the pattern at 50 or more employees: Patriot's $37 base keeps it cheapest across the whole range, and the spread between the cheapest and most expensive option at 20 drivers is about $43 a month.

The larger variable is not in the table. A fleet with drivers residing in four states pays four state filing footprints, and the providers charging $12 per additional state per month add roughly $576 a year that the flat-rate providers do not. In an industry where the state footprint follows driver residence rather than business location, that column moves more money than the base fee does.

Verdict by fleet type

Rather than a single winner, here is the routing. Several of these point away from trucking-specific software entirely.

The paperwork that has to exist before the first dispatch

Every industry has onboarding paperwork. Trucking has an audit file with a regulatory retention schedule, and it is the reason driver onboarding is its own software category rather than a feature of payroll.

Alongside the ordinary Form I-9, Form W-4, and any state withholding certificate, a motor carrier must build and maintain a Driver Qualification File for each driver.

The distinguishing feature of that list is that most items expire. A medical certificate lapses, a license renews, an annual review comes due, a Clearinghouse query has to be repeated. This is not a form you collect once and file. It is a set of records with dates attached that someone has to watch, and the consequence of missing one surfaces during a compliance review rather than at hire.

Before you choose

FirstHR does not process payroll, file payroll taxes, build driver settlements, or handle fuel tax reporting. Every platform above does something we do not, and if paying drivers correctly is the problem in front of you, one of them is the answer. Pick from the comparison.

This section exists because of the section above it. A carrier solves payroll, solves settlements, and still has an office manager tracking medical certificate expirations in a spreadsheet, chasing previous employer inquiries for a driver who started two weeks ago, and unable to find the training record for someone who left in the spring.

That is the layer we handle: onboarding workflows a new hire completes before arriving, e-signature on I-9s, offer letters, and policy acknowledgments, employee records that stay retrievable after someone leaves, document management, and training with completion tracking. It runs at a flat $98 to $198 per month for 5 to 50 employee US teams regardless of headcount, which is worth noting in an industry where headcount moves constantly and per-employee pricing moves with it. It sits alongside whichever payroll platform and transportation management system you choose rather than replacing either. Our guide to the truck driver onboarding process covers what that sequence looks like in practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between trucking payroll software and a TMS?

Payroll platforms calculate gross to net, withhold and deposit taxes, and file returns. A transportation management system builds driver settlements from dispatch and load data and handles fuel tax reporting. Most TMS products do not file payroll taxes and most payroll platforms have no concept of a load, so carriers typically run both.

Can regular payroll software handle per-mile pay?

Yes. Per-mile and per-load pay are custom pay rates, and every mainstream payroll platform supports them. What general payroll cannot do is derive the mileage from dispatch records or reconcile it against a load. That work happens in a TMS or a spreadsheet before payroll sees a figure.

Which state do I withhold for when drivers cross state lines?

The driver's state of residence only. Under 49 USC section 14503, compensation paid by a motor carrier to an employee performing regularly assigned duties in two or more states is not subject to any other state's income tax. Setting withholding to the company's headquarters state is a common error.

How does per diem work for company drivers?

A carrier reimburses meals and incidental expenses at the IRS transportation industry rate, $80 per day within the continental US and $86 outside it, without receipts, and the reimbursement is not wages. The driver must be away overnight. Anything paid above the rate becomes taxable wages.

Are truck drivers exempt from overtime?

Usually, under section 13(b)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, because the Department of Transportation regulates their hours. The exemption fails in any workweek involving a vehicle rated at 10,000 pounds or less, assessed week by week, and several states require overtime regardless of the federal exemption.

How do I pay owner-operators versus company drivers?

Company drivers are W-2 employees with withholding, employer payroll taxes, and unemployment. Owner-operators are typically 1099 contractors paid gross with a Form 1099-NEC at $600 or more. Classification follows the IRS common-law test rather than the lease agreement, and trucking is an active enforcement area.

What is a driver settlement and why does payroll not produce one?

A settlement shows what a driver earned on specific loads and what was deducted, including accessorial pay, fuel advances, and escrow. Payroll software cannot produce it because it has no visibility into loads. Settlements come from a TMS or a spreadsheet, and the net figure flows into payroll.

Does trucking payroll software handle IFTA?

Payroll platforms do not, and fuel tax is not a payroll tax. The International Fuel Tax Agreement redistributes fuel tax among jurisdictions based on miles driven in each and is filed quarterly by the carrier. It appears in these comparisons because the same mileage data feeds both fuel tax reporting and per-mile pay.

How much does trucking payroll software cost?

At 10 drivers, published July 2026 rates run about $87 for Patriot Full Service, $89 for Roll by ADP and Paychex Essentials, $109 for OnPay and Gusto Simple, and $115 for QuickBooks Core. At 20 drivers those plans land between roughly $137 and $180. A transportation management system runs alongside and is often the larger cost.

What is the best payroll software for a small trucking company?

OnPay when drivers live in several states, since every state is included at no surcharge. Gusto for mixed W-2 and contractor fleets wanting strong onboarding. Roll by ADP for owner-operators. Patriot when price is the binding constraint. Axon if you want settlements and payroll in one system and will pay for it.

What paperwork does a new driver need before the first payroll run?

Beyond Form I-9, Form W-4, and any state certificate, a motor carrier must maintain a Driver Qualification File including the application, license copy, medical examiner certificate, motor vehicle record, previous employer safety inquiries, and drug and alcohol testing records including a Clearinghouse query. Most of those items expire and must be re-collected.

Why is driver turnover a payroll software problem?

It makes onboarding continuous rather than occasional. Each hire needs tax forms, a qualification file, and a Clearinghouse query before the first dispatch, and retention obligations continue after departure. Payroll processes the pay; what consumes office time is everything that must be complete and retrievable beforehand.