Organise your vending route
Make a spreadsheet (names, products, addresses, notes about people)
Use a computer spreadsheet, like Microsoft Excel, to record details about your vending machines and locations and print this sheet out each time you go on a vending run.
Having these details on spreadsheet will assist you to plan out your vending run, know which products are in your machine, the name of the manager/staff members and any problems you have to fix.
For example, we get told of staff who are allergic to peanuts, so no M&M Peanuts or the best place to park is the loading docks on Fred Street.
Every time we service a vending run, we print off a new copy and keep past copies for reference.
The details you should have on your spreadsheet are;
1. Date of service 2. Sequence number (the order in which you’ll service the machine) 3. Business name 4. Business address 5. Business opening hours 6. Contact name 7. Contact number 8. Product(s) in the vending machine 9. Price of each product in the vending machine (if applicable) 10. Vending dial for each canister (if applicable) 11. Notes about the location (say your shop is on level 3 of the shopping centre) 12. A TO DO list (for things you need to fix /change while on location) 13. Sales or takings (often done after you count your notes / coins at home) |
This is an example of a vending spreadsheet (click on the excel spreadsheet below)
Nobody gets it right the first time...
Before you go on your first vending run, you might want to map out your vending route using a street directory to ensure you’ll spend less time on the road driving.
We photocopied each page of a street directory where we have a machine and put a red mark at the exact location (like in the map show below). Then it’s a case of joining the red dots keeping in mind one way streets, no left turns, parking locations etc.
When we started to build on our vending run then we just put a new red dot on the map to see how it fit in to our current run.
We didn’t get it right the first time. In fact the first three or four times we went on the vending run we found were very chaotic and stressful. But each time we would try to find better streets to use, better parking spots, a better order to service the machines etc.
After going out on the same run over and over again, you’ll know your vending run well and therefore shouldn’t take you as long.
