Nearly All Truckers Want Instant Payouts to Cover On-the-Road Expenses

The wheels of commerce in the trucking and transportation industry are increasingly turning on the speed of payments, a shift driven by operational needs and drivers themselves.

The “Money Mobility Tracker” for June/July, produced in collaboration with Ingo Payments, revealed an acceleration in the adoption of instant payments within the trucking and transportation sector.

While companies acknowledged the necessity for swift disbursements for essential operational expenses like fuel, the report found that “urgency gaps” persisted when it came to compensating drivers. Failure to meet truckers’ demand for instant payments poses a direct threat to competitiveness and operational continuity for transportation firms.

The analysis highlighted that instant payments are transforming expectations across the industry, impacting how businesses manage expenses for vendors and suppliers, and how they attract and retain talent. Businesses in this sector are increasingly using instant payments for nonrecurring vendor and supplier transactions, with nearly half doing so in the past year, an increase from the previous year.

Despite the progress, senders often underestimate the near-universal preference for instant payments among drivers, for whom this payment method is often a deciding factor when choosing an employer.

Key findings from the report highlighted several trends:

• Driver Demand: Ninety-three percent of truckers would choose instant payments if given the option, a figure that exceeded payers’ estimations that only 50% would do so and was higher than the average consumer’s preference of 79%. This demand was tied to practical factors, such as avoiding bank visits and needing immediate access to money.
• Urgency Gap in Payouts: While 97% of companies in the logistics transport trucking industry agreed that ad hoc payments to fuel providers must be made urgently, 44% of senders showed the same urgency when paying drivers. This disconnect poses a risk to driver satisfaction and retention in a highly competitive sector.
• Industry Adoption for Vendors: Forty-eight percent of transportation businesses used instant payments for ad hoc vendor and supplier transactions in the past year, a rise from 28% in 2024, indicating a trend toward accelerating the use of instant payments for critical operational expenses.

Beyond these statistics, the report explored the underlying reasons for truckers’ preference for instant payouts, including avoiding physical bank visits (cited by 59%) and the importance of immediate access to cash (cited by 58%). It also found that 37% of truck drivers would be willing to pay a fee for instant earnings disbursements, a figure 25% higher than the consumer average, driven by the need for quick access to funds for operational expenses like fuel.

Instant payments are no longer merely a convenience but a competitive necessity for trucking and transportation companies, requiring investment in modernized systems and transparent payment options to keep freight and finances in motion. Ensuring timely payments to suppliers and fostering trust across the supply chain are also benefits, mitigating productivity bottlenecks and enhancing long-term planning and scalability.

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