Calculator: how much does manual administration cost your transport company each year?
Retyping orders, entering weighbridge tickets, chasing PODs: these are small tasks that recur on every trip and together swallow a large share of office time. With the calculator below, you can use your own figures to work out what this manual work costs per year and how many hours are freed up if you automate part of it.
Employees × hours per week spent on manual work × working weeks × hourly rate. That is what manual administration costs you each year.
Enter your own figures below. You choose the share you can automate yourself; we don't fill in a savings percentage for you.
Manual administration costs more than the hours you pay for, but those hours are where it starts
Errors, late invoices and claims you can't prove also cost money. But those costs differ so much from company to company that a calculator can't estimate them reliably. That is why this calculator only works with what you know for certain: how many people, how many hours and what an hour costs.
Count only the hours spent on repetitive manual work, not the time planners spend on planning itself or on customer contact. A good way to find that number: have each planner and administrative employee track one ordinary week and note how much time goes into the three types of steps below. That is more accurate than an estimate after the fact.
Three examples of steps that count
- Retyping orders
An order that arrives by email or through a client's portal and is entered manually into the TMS, then entered again into the on-board computer.
- Entering documents
Weighbridge tickets, CMRs and pallet slips that arrive as a photo or scan, with the weight, order number and recipient retyped by hand.
- Checks and follow-up calls
Comparing subcontractor invoices against the trip list, checking drivers' hours against the on-board computer, and phoning drivers about a missing POD or signature.
The hourly rate is the amount an hour of this employee costs your company, so the payroll cost including employer charges, not the gross salary. Your accountant or payroll administration will have that figure.
The calculator only works with your input, and you choose the share you can automate yourself
We don't fill in a savings percentage for you. The slider starts at a neutral value that is labelled as an assumption; adjust it to what you consider realistic for your own steps.
Enter your own figures. The result is a calculation based on your input, not an estimate from us.
Annual cost of manual work
Potential annual saving at the chosen share
Hours freed up
Calculation: employees × hours per week × working weeks × hourly rate. The saving and the hours freed up are that total multiplied by the share you chose yourself.
The result is an upper limit on what automation should cost, not a promise of what it will deliver
The amount under "potential saving" is the most you can earn back if the share of steps you chose actually disappears. An investment that is consistently above that is hard to justify on administration alone; an investment well below it pays for itself through the hours saved.
There are three things you can do with the figure. First, break it down by step. If entering documents accounts for half the hours, document recognition for CMRs and weighbridge tickets is the first candidate; if the time goes on chasing PODs by phone, look at a driver app with proof of delivery. Second, use it as internal justification for management, with the measurement week as an appendix. Third, repeat the measurement six months after implementation, using the same definitions, so you can see whether the hours per trip have really dropped.
What exactly lies behind those hours is covered in why transport administration takes so much time. If your company is growing and the office is growing with it, read transport company is growing, but the administration grows with it on the order in which to intervene. And if you operate internationally, eFTI 2027 gives you a second reason to start processing documents digitally now.
the figures you need: people, hours per week, hourly rate and working weeks.
our assumptions in the result: every value comes from your own input or is labelled as an assumption.
results: annual costs, potential savings and hours freed up.
Frequently asked questions
The questions transport companies ask us most often about this.
Why is the slider set to 50% by default?
Because a slider has to start somewhere and 50% is the middle. It is a neutral assumption, not a measurement and not advice. What share is achievable for you depends on which steps take up the hours and which of those software can replace. Choose the value you can justify yourself.
Should I include planners' hours as well?
Only the part they spend on manual administration, such as retyping orders into the on-board computer or answering status queries. The planning decisions themselves don't count; they don't disappear through automation and don't belong in this calculation.
Why doesn't the calculator include the cost of errors or late invoices?
Because these differ too much from company to company to estimate reliably. A claim you can't dispute because the POD is missing can cost more than a year of administration, but may only happen once a year. It's better to add up such costs separately, using your own examples.
What happens to the figures I enter?
Nothing. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is stored or sent. If you refresh the page, the fields are empty.
Can I use the result to assess a quote?
Yes, as an upper limit. Set the one-off investment and annual costs of a solution against the potential annual savings and see how many years it takes for the savings to recoup the investment. Bear in mind that hours freed up only save money if they are actually put to different use or not filled with new tasks.
How do I get a reliable number of hours per week?
Have each employee keep a list for one ordinary week, using the three categories from this article: retyping, entering documents, checks and chasing by phone. Add it up at the end of the week. It takes a few minutes a day and gives you a figure you can explain to management.
Further reading
Why does transport administration take so much time?
Seven causes, from double data entry to manual checks, each with a solution.
Read more GrowthHaulage company grows, administration grows with it
Why the pressure on the office grows in step with the business, and the order in which you break that pattern.
Read more RegulationeFTI 2027: why digitise now?
What the regulation requires from 9 July 2027 and what waiting until then costs.
Read moreWant to set the result against a concrete solution?
Send us the result and the steps that take up the hours. We'll offer no-obligation advice on which step to automate first and what that would take.