Case Study: Global Payroll

Client Description

One of the largest onboard concessionaires in the cruise industry that employs 2,500 staff members on over 130 ships across the globe.

Challenge

There are many challenges facing the maritime industry when it comes to payroll management. First and foremost is the requirement that under the Seaman's Wage Act of 1872 all maritime employees must receive their wages in cash. Additional challenges include far-flung employees across the globe, the risks and logistics of cash access for employee payments and the challenges employees face in order to manage their funds that come in cash. Our client's specific challenge was in payroll distribution. The maritime laws and their payroll platform forced them to deliver large cash shipments to ports around the world and FedEx® paper commission statements to every vessel on a bi-weekly basis. The manager would then need to obtain cash from the ship purser and manually distribute the cash to each employee. This process was costly, time consuming and created safety concerns due to the large amount of cash being carried by the managers and employees on board and in port.

Solution

Prepaid Solutions worked with the client to create a custom payroll solution that completely mitigated the challenges and concerns of the legacy payroll process. Prepaid Solutions created a technology platform which included a Visa Maritime Payroll card based solution that met the strict requirements of the Seaman's Wage Act of 1872 while providing direct deposit of all employee payroll onto their personal cards. The solution included the ability of the employee to convert their US Dollar based deposits into any one of 36 global currencies with the ability to wire those currencies to any bank in the world while never leaving the safety and security of their ship. Additional features include sending foreign drafts in multiple currencies to any company, friend or family member – all from the convenience of the computer.

Result

The client no longer has to provide their employees with cash nor FedEx paper commission statements to each vessel creating a significant cost savings. There is a great deal of cost and time-savings recognized now that the manager no longer needs to obtain cash from the purser and distribute the cash manually to each employee on board. The employees don't have to worry about carrying large amounts of cash on board or in port and can better manage their funds.

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