Transport & Logistics

Ferryspeed: Clocking a Mobile Workforce Between the Mainland and the Channel Islands

Channel Islands freight specialist runs Synergy Time & Attendance across four depots, with drivers clocking on through the Synergy App.

Customer: Ferryspeed

4

Depots on one platform

2

Islands served

Ferryspeed is the leading freight and logistics operator between the UK mainland and the Channel Islands, collecting goods across the country and delivering door to door in Jersey and Guernsey. The business runs depots in Portsmouth, Derby, Jersey and Guernsey, and its workforce is a mix of warehouse and office staff and drivers who spend most of their day on the road or on the ferry.

The Challenge

Ferryspeed's people do not all walk past the same clock. Depot staff in Portsmouth and the islands start and finish at a fixed location, but drivers begin their day wherever the first collection is and may cross the Channel in the middle of a shift. Timesheets were coming back from four locations in different formats and the payroll team was reconciling driver hours by hand against ferry timings and delivery records.

“The depots were fine. The problem was drivers. A driver who starts in Derby, drops at Portsmouth and ends the day in St Helier is on the clock the whole time, and we had no clean way of capturing that.”

Faye Burton, Head of People, Ferryspeed

The Solution

Synel deployed Synergy Time & Attendance across all four depots, with IP65 rugged external terminals for site-based staff and the Synergy App for drivers. Drivers clock on and off from their phone at the start and end of the day and at each break, with the time stamped and location-verified, so hours are captured accurately whether the driver is in a UK depot, on the ferry or on the islands.

All four locations report into one Synergy platform. Rules for overtime, breaks and Working Time Regulations are applied consistently across the mainland and the islands, and approved hours are exported to payroll without re-keying.

Support

Depot terminals were installed by Synel's own engineers on the mainland and in the islands, and the driver rollout of the Synergy App was handled remotely with Ferryspeed's people team. Rule changes and new depots are configured by Synel without a site visit.

Success

Ferryspeed has one attendance record for the whole business, driver hours are captured at source rather than reconstructed afterwards, and the payroll team no longer spends the start of each week chasing timesheets across the Channel.

"Everything is in one place now. A driver's day is recorded as it happens and the depots and the islands are on exactly the same rules. It has taken a lot of noise out of payroll."

Faye Burton

Head of People, Ferryspeed

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