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Sometime before Christmas, I ran into Rodney69 here on the TVF, and we chatted about his locating service. I was rather impressed with his story of how he ran his business, and told him that when I had a machine suitable for a locator, I'd give him a try. Flash forward to a couple weeks back, and I finally got a machine that was "suitable" for a locator. As my route is still made up with mostly rack and capsule gear, it took a bit to get a triple together for the trip. The machine selected- my trusty, modified Seaga TV3000. NW Mechs, a modded plate inside to keep the mechs from ever coming loose, and a reinforced back door. As much as I liked to think that Rodney would land me a good spot, I wanted to make sure that even if that spot was the roughest spot in town the unit would survive everything thrown at it. This Seaga has marched through many bars and laundromats, so I could think of no safer candidate for a new locator. To begin, Rodney does not charge up front. This isn't a huge deal for me- I've never had any qualms with paying locator fees up front in the past from other services, but I know this is a big deal for operators who may not be interested with paying for work before it's done. His website is neat and straightforward, and really easy to use. I had everything input and ordered (on my phone, no less) in a matter of minutes. Rodney does have a contract for the vendor to sign. It's the usual legal jargon in the event you don't place your machines, fail to pay, etc. The one thing I didn't expect was a requirement to halt all locating efforts in the zip code his team would be working in. Not a problem per se, but it kicked my timetable back a bit while I settled up my existing leads in the area before going ahead with him. If you're like me and you're working out accounts all over town all the time, just keep this in mind before you order. It took Rodney about a week from the time we began to the time I got the email saying I had a location. To my surprise, he landed the JCPenny, the last "big box" store on the west side of town. Manager knew I was coming, which charity I was benefiting, and had the space picked out for me. Perhaps this is just the manager, but the notion that I truly just came in and dropped off the machine without having to "re-sell" the loc as I have with some other locators in years past was really refreshing. In short, it was as painless as it can possibly get. You give Rodney and his team a zip code, and wait for the locations to roll in. You pay when they find locs, and they'll locate just about anything when it comes to your standard units- singles, doubles, triples, quads, and even snack boxes if that's your thing. I've tentatively given Rodney my recommendation in the past based on what others have said, now having used his service I can recommend it with confidence. I will update soon with how the location performs. In the event this one is a dud, I do have the 60-day warranty for a relocation- I'll keep you all posted!

Hi, first post here, I'm trying to see if there is anyone that provides direct competition to Canteen on a national level? Is there anyone here that contributes to a National Vending Management Company that competes against them to help the independent vendors? I read some of the forums and gather that there are regional management companies but is there any groups nationally?