Your charging cap protects your budget. What’s left is knowing what happens the day it’s reached.
On an electrified fleet, the question is no longer “how do we charge”, but “who pays for what”. And above all: what happens when the monthly cap is reached? For a long time, the answer was binary: badge blocked. Effective for your budget, far less so for the driver who finds out at the moment of plugging in that their charge is no longer covered.
There is a way, though, to keep your budget under control without cutting off your drivers’ access.
Block or reimburse: two reflexes, two limits
Setting a cap is a good reflex. But it leaves one question open: what happens the day it’s reached?
Until now, you had two options, neither fully satisfying:
- Block the badge: you keep your budget under control, with no exceptions to settle case by case.
- Reimburse through expense claims: the friction shifts to admin, with the risk of disputes, especially when a charge straddles business and personal use.
Payment relay offers you a third way.
The rule that explains everything
Payment relay doesn’t mean making drivers pay for their personal charges. It takes over from the company budget once the cap is reached.
In practice:
- You set a monthly budget.
- The driver activates the relay from their account: they add a personal bank card and give explicit consent, revocable at any time.
- As long as the budget isn’t reached, every charge stays fully covered by your company.
- Once the cap is crossed, the badge keeps working. Charges after that are billed directly to the driver’s personal card.
The relay never replaces your budget: it extends it. Without a defined cap, there’s nothing to relay.
One charge, one payer
A single charging session is never split between your company and the driver: it’s covered entirely by one or the other. The charge in progress when the cap is reached is covered by your company all the way through. A clear rule that prevents disputes: the driver never pays for a charge they believed was covered when they plugged in.
In the app, every charge carries a clear label: “Covered” or “At your expense”. The driver knows straight away who pays, without waiting until the end of the month to find out. On your side, there’s nothing to settle after the fact.
Business and personal data: strict separation
Business versus personal use isn’t just a matter of comfort: charging data is detailed (time, location, amount) and counts as personal data under GDPR.
On visibility, the separation is strict: you see the budget, the alert threshold, and the charges covered by your company. You never see the driver’s payment method, or any detail of their personal charges. Invoices for relayed charges are sent to the driver’s personal email address.
What changes for you and your drivers
You keep a budget that holds to the euro, with no exceptions to settle case by case. Overspending is no longer a blind spot: it’s framed from the start. Your reporting stays reliable: it only contains what your company actually spent.
Your drivers, for their part, no longer face a blocked badge mid-mission. They get a clear rule on every charge, and the assurance that their private life stays private.
Three misconceptions to correct
“Relay makes the driver pay for all their charges.” False. As long as the budget isn’t used up, everything stays with your company.
“You can turn on the relay without setting a budget.” False. The budget is the prerequisite, not an option.
“I’ve turned on the relay, so my driver is covered.” Not automatically. The driver must have added their own card and given consent. Without that step, their badge behaves as before.
A lever, not a policy on its own
Payment relay answers one precise question: what happens beyond the cap. It doesn’t exempt you from building a solid charging policy, or from handling the other situations in the field, each of which needs its own rule. It’s one cog in the system, not the whole system.
To build a complete charging policy, the EV Charging Playbook 2026 covers the 4 levers to prevent budget leaks, profile-based charging policy, and the most common field exceptions (travel abroad, shared vehicles, when an employee leaves). Download the Playbook
