How Orbit Freight pays drivers in 14 countries

Orbit Freight runs a network of independent drivers across Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Every week, more than 2,300 drivers in 14 countries need to be paid accurately, on time and in their local currency. Until last year, that process took a team of four people most of every Friday.

The old way

Orbit’s finance team exported completed jobs from their dispatch system, calculated earnings in a spreadsheet, then uploaded payment files to three different banks. Each bank had its own format, its own cut-off times and its own exchange rate, which was rarely a good one.

• Drivers in some markets waited up to five days for their money.

• International wire fees ate into already thin margins.

• Failed payments were discovered days later, usually when a driver called support.

• Reconciling payouts against the ledger took another two days at month end.

What changed

Orbit connected their dispatch system to Saro Payouts through the API. When a job is marked complete, the driver’s earnings are queued automatically. Every Friday at noon, a single batch pays every driver in their local currency, through local rails wherever they exist.

Local rails, real exchange rates

Instead of sending international wires, Saro pays drivers through domestic networks such as SEPA in Europe, PIX in Brazil and InstaPay in the Philippines. Currency is converted at the mid-market rate with a small, transparent fee, so drivers receive more and Orbit pays less.

Validation before money moves

Bank details are checked when a driver joins, not when a payment fails. If an account number is invalid or a name doesn’t match, the driver is asked to fix it in the app before their first payout.

The results

• 98% of payouts now arrive within minutes of the Friday run.

• $410,000 saved in the first year on FX margins and wire fees.

• Friday payroll went from four people for a day to one person for twenty minutes.

• Month-end reconciliation is automatic because every payout is already matched to a job.

“Our drivers used to ask when they’d be paid. Now they ask why the money arrived so fast. That’s a much better conversation to have.”

Orbit’s next step is weekly earnings statements generated directly from Saro data, so drivers can see every job, fee and conversion in one place.

What they’d tell other marketplaces

Orbit’s head of finance says the biggest win wasn’t speed, it was trust. Drivers who are paid reliably stay longer, and retention in markets with instant payouts rose noticeably within two quarters.

• Validate bank details at onboarding, not at payout.

• Pay on local rails wherever possible, and show the exchange rate up front.

• Connect payouts to the system that knows what work was done, so reconciliation is automatic.