DEALER PAYROLL · RAM COMMERCIAL & HEAVY-DUTY TRUCK STORES

The gas bay flags. The diesel bay clocks in. WageTime runs both bays at once.

A Ram store is a work-truck store: flat-rate gas bays, an hourly Cummins diesel bay, and a fleet desk on flats because the gross is too thin for a retail percentage. WageTime was built for the work-truck store.

Built on infrastructure processing $35B+ in payroll & taxes · 2.8M+ employees paid

WageTime serves independently owned and operated dealerships. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Stellantis, FCA US LLC, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Mopar, Cummins, or any manufacturer. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

A work-truck store runs pay plans a single-brand shop never has to.

A Ram rooftop pays nothing like a retail SUV store. Each item below is either an afternoon of the office manager’s time at close or a quiet liability that compounds while nobody has the hours to check it.

TWO PAY ENGINES

The diesel bay is hourly. The gas bay is flat rate. Same roof.

Heavy-duty Cummins work doesn’t fit book time cleanly, so many stores pay the diesel bay hourly with overtime while the gas bays stay on flat-rate flag hours. One service department, two pay models, and generic payroll wants to run every tech on one.

THE LONG TAIL

A diesel powertrain warranty measured in years, not the gas 3/36

The 6.7L Cummins carries a powertrain warranty that runs for years past the gas basic coverage. So diesel warranty flag hours keep landing long after a gas truck would be customer-pay, and the warranty side of the flat-rate true-up never goes quiet on the diesel side.

RECALL WAVES

A fuel-pump recall dumps warranty hours on the two techs cleared to do it

The CP4 high-pressure-fuel-pump recall is a hardware job, not a flash, and it lands on the handful of diesel-capable techs. A campaign like that concentrates a wave of warranty flag hours on specific people, and the office has to route and pay it right.

THIN FLEET GROSS

Commercial units don’t pay like retail, so the percentage plan breaks

Fleet and commercial trucks carry thin gross, so the desk pays a flat per-unit or a mini, not 20-30% of front-end gross. The commercial plan and the retail plan settle in the same close (one on percentage, one on flats), and the spreadsheet keeps both by hand.

THE ALLOWANCE TRAP

An upfit or graphics allowance inflates gross if it lands in the commission base

A manufacturer On The Job upfit or graphics allowance passes through the deal, but it isn’t front-end retail gross. Drop it into the commissionable base by accident and every commercial salesperson is overpaid. Catch it by hand every month, or don’t.

SHIP-THRU LIMBO

The upfitter finishes the truck. Who’s paid for the prep and the drive-away?

ProMaster and chassis-cab units go out through upfitters and courtesy delivery. The prep, the commercial PDI, and the drive-away are real labor (flat fees, hourly, sometimes a 1099 driver) that lives outside the retail commission close and gets paid late, if it gets tracked at all.

The four screens below run on sample store data. The allowance handling rides inside the commercial-desk screen; the recall routing and the 1099 delivery classification get straight answers in the FAQ.
01 · TWO PAY ENGINES

How do you pay flat-rate gas technicians and hourly Cummins diesel technicians in the same shop?

The whole shop runs on one WageTime payroll: flat-rate flag hours for the gas and light-duty bays, and hourly, overtime-eligible pay for the heavy-duty Cummins diesel bay, side by side in one service department, without a second system.

  • Heavy-duty diesel work carries a skill premium, so many Ram stores clock the bay.
  • Cummins CMI and ASE certs each bind an effective-dated rate.
  • Overtime and regular-rate math applied correctly to each pay model.
  • Clock and flag hours import together; no double entry either way.
app.wagetime.com/service/pay-models

Service Pay Models · Service Dept

2 pay models · 1 run1 rate change queued
Gas and light-duty bays flag flat rate under the dealer overtime exemption · the heavy-duty Cummins diesel bay is hourly, overtime-eligible
2Pay models · 1 run
4Techs, one payroll
1Rate change queued
Tech · bayRateStatus
G. Alvarez #04 · gasFlat-rate flag · ASE A-series$34.00Current
T. Bishop #08 · dieselHourly + OT · Cummins CMI L1$38.50Current
R. Okonkwo #12 · dieselHourly + OT · CMI L1/T-series$41.00Current
D. Pratt #17 · gasASE A1-A5 · → $30.00 Aug 1$27.50Queued
4 techs · two pay models settle on one rundiesel overtime computed on the hourly base

Replaces the second payroll a store spins up just to pay the diesel bay hourly, and the retro fix when a Cummins cert posts and the rate doesn’t move.

02 · THE DIESEL WARRANTY TAIL

Does the longer diesel powertrain and recall warranty change how our techs get paid?

The diesel warranty tail changes pay for years: WageTime imports warranty and customer-pay flag hours split by repair order and trues every flat-rate tech up to the wage floor each period. Tell us your DMS on the demo and we’ll confirm the exact flow.

  • Warranty vs customer-pay split carries through per repair order, per tech.
  • Any shortfall is written as a documented true-up before the check goes out.
  • Recall flag hours route to the diesel-cert techs cleared for the work.
  • The 6.7L Cummins: a five-year, 100,000-mile powertrain term, ten-year on recent model years.
  • Warranty book times run tighter, pulling effective rates toward the wage floor more often.
app.wagetime.com/service/warranty-mix

Warranty vs Customer-Pay Mix · Jun 16-30

diesel warranty tailCP4 recall imported
The 6.7L Cummins powertrain is covered years past the gas basic term · the CP4 fuel-pump recall imports as warranty flag operations
$214.60True-up to floor
1Tech below floor
T. Bishop #08powertrain + CP4$38.50 hourly
41.0 wty · 12.5 cust-pay flag hrsReady
R. Okonkwo #12diag + recall$41.00 hourly
34.2 wty · 18.0 cust-pay flag hrsReady
G. Alvarez #04gas bays$31.10 eff.
9.4 wty · 58.6 cust-pay flag hrsReady
D. Pratt #17below floor$13.90 eff.
22.8 wty · 21.0 cust-pay flag hrsTrue-up $214.60
Diesel warranty share stays high for years · 1 flat-rate tech trued up to the floorposts to the Jul 3 run

Replaces the assumption that a diesel truck stops generating warranty flag hours at 36 months, and the by-hand true-up nobody runs until a claim shows up.

03 · THE COMMERCIAL DESK

How do you pay commercial and fleet salespeople when the gross is too thin for a percentage plan?

WageTime runs the commercial pay plan and the retail pay plan in the same close: the fleet desk settles on flats and minis while the floor settles on percentage, with no second system and no side sheet.

  • A pass-through upfit or graphics allowance stays out of commissionable gross.
  • Draw offsets, volume tiers, and threshold flags apply to both plans.
  • Final-paycheck recovery is blocked where state law prohibits it.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/commercial-close

Commercial Close · June

2 pay plans · 1 closeallowance excluded from gross
Commercial units pay a flat per-unit or mini on thin gross · an On The Job upfit/graphics allowance is a manufacturer pass-through, kept out of the commissionable base
$1,000Allowance excluded
2Pay plans · 1 close
Dana W. · 11 units$2,200.00
Commercial · base + $200/unit flatReady
Marco L. · 7 units$1,400.00
Commercial desk · $200/unit flatReady
Ivy R. · 12 units$4,120.00
Retail · 25% of front-end grossReady
Priya N. · 3 unitsmini applied$750.00
Commercial · $250 mini, thin grossReady
Retail percentage and commercial flats settle together$1,000 upfit allowance on 2 deals kept out of gross

Replaces the second spreadsheet the commercial manager keeps, and the overpaid check when an upfit allowance slips into the commissionable gross.

04 · UPFIT, SHIP-THRU & DELIVERY

How should ship-thru upfit prep and courtesy-delivery driving be paid?

Upfit prep, commercial PDI, and drive-away driving get their own pay bucket: WageTime books each as a flat fee or hourly, W-2 or 1099, settled on the same run and kept out of the retail commission math.

  • 1099 drive-away drivers run alongside W-2 staff, each classified correctly.
  • Finished payroll posts to QuickBooks mapped by department.
  • Off-cycle runs cost nothing extra, so a delivery fee doesn’t wait.
app.wagetime.com/payroll/prep-and-delivery

Commercial Prep & Delivery · Jun 16-30

off retail commission2 classified 1099
Ship-thru upfit prep, commercial PDI, and courtesy-delivery drive-away are their own pay bucket: flat fees or hourly, outside the retail commission close
$570.00Flat fees · 6.0 hrs
4People on the run
2Classified 1099
Person · classPay typeAmount
J. Rivas · W-2ProMaster upfit coord + PDIHourly6.0 hrs
K. Two Bears · W-2Chassis-cab ship-thru finishFlat prep fee$120.00
L. Byrd · 1099Courtesy delivery · 2 unitsFlat fee$300.00
P. Osei · 1099Courtesy delivery · 1 unitFlat fee$150.00
4 people Ready · prep & delivery paid on the same runoff the retail commission plan

Replaces the accessory-manager’s side sheet of who prepped and who drove, and the delivery fee that gets paid a month late because it wasn’t a sale.

PRICING

Simple payroll pricing. No surprises.

Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.

  • Full-service payroll, unlimited runs
  • Federal, state & local tax filing
  • Year-end W-2s & 1099s
  • Direct deposit, checks & pay cards
  • Contractor payments & filings
  • Off-cycle runs & bonuses, no extra fee
  • Employee paystubs & W-2 access
  • QuickBooks integration
$10/mo per person paid
+ $50/mo per company

Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.

Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month

HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.

See a demo
THE INFRASTRUCTURE BEHIND WAGETIME
$35B+
in payroll & taxes paid
2.8M+
employees paid
4.3M+
W-2s & 1099s filed
100%
of tax filings automated

Ram & commercial-truck dealer payroll FAQ

How do we pay flat-rate gas technicians and hourly Cummins diesel technicians in the same shop?

Both on one payroll. WageTime runs flat-rate flag hours for the gas and light-duty bays and hourly, overtime-eligible pay for the heavy-duty Cummins diesel bay, applying the right overtime and regular-rate math to each. Rates bind to certifications with effective dates, so a Cummins CMI-cert-tied diesel rate sits alongside the shop’s standard ASE rates without a second system.

Does the longer diesel powertrain warranty and the recall work change how techs get paid?

Yes. The 6.7L Cummins powertrain is covered years past the gas basic warranty, so diesel warranty flag hours keep landing and the warranty-vs-customer-pay split stays warranty-heavy far longer. WageTime imports that split per repair order, trues flat-rate techs up to the wage floor each period, and routes recall flag hours (the CP4 fuel-pump campaign included) to the diesel-cert techs cleared for the work.

How do we pay commercial and fleet salespeople when the gross is too thin for a percentage plan?

WageTime runs a commercial pay plan beside the retail one in the same close. Fleet units settle on a flat per-unit or a guaranteed mini, often on a base salary plus per-unit amount, while the floor settles on percentage of front-end gross: computed on their own terms and paid together, with unit minis, volume tiers, and draw offsets applied to both.

How is a Ram On The Job upfit or graphics allowance handled in commissionable gross?

A manufacturer upfit or graphics allowance stays out of the commissionable base. It passes through a commercial deal (often up to $1,000) but isn’t front-end retail gross, so it isn’t part of the base WageTime computes the percentage on. The allowance still shows on the deal; it just doesn’t inflate the salesperson’s gross-based pay.

How should ship-thru upfit prep and courtesy-delivery driving be paid, and what about 1099 drivers?

Ship-thru prep and drive-away pay as their own bucket, apart from retail commission. Upfit coordination and commercial PDI can pay hourly, finish-out and drive-away can pay a flat fee, and a courtesy-delivery driver can be a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor on the same pay day, each classified correctly. Everything settles on one run, and off-cycle runs cost nothing extra.

What does WageTime cost, and what does switching a Ram or CDJR commercial store involve?

Pricing is $50 per company per month plus $10 for each person paid that month: no long-term contract, cancel anytime. Payroll runs are unlimited, so an off-cycle delivery-fee or final check costs nothing extra, and each rooftop files under its own EIN, deposits included. Switching is full-service and paid: a specialist configures your entities, pay plans, and people; after go-live, support is real people, around the clock.

Bring your worst work-truck pay period.

A warranty-heavy fortnight of Cummins diesel flag hours, the commercial desk’s flats and minis, the upfit allowances, and the drive-away fees off the side sheet. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo store. Bring the diesel timecards and the fleet deals, and you’ll know inside the meeting whether it carries your comp plans.

Book a 20-minute demo