How much do you pay?

[Broncho]

I know there are a lot of smaller independents on here that wear every hat in their company, but for those that do employ others what are you paying them? If you are on your own, what do you try to make profit wise in a day?

Heres what we pay for each position

Vending Drivers $12-15

Coffee Drivers $11-13

Warehouse $10(part time)

Warehouse $11 (full time)

Pot Washer $8-$9(part time)

Technician $10-15(10 is for unexperienced)

I am in Texas, so not every area is the same based on cost of living. We try to make a minimum of $500-700/day/truck after all expenses for the driver, product and truck. We have 4 hour down time(24hrs a day) and that takes a lot to keep up with and is not factored into the truck expenses, as well as managers and office personal. There are also ton of other factors, but based on our size and needs, that figure is ideal for us and anything more is great!

[ColoradoRon]

Wow, you sound like you have a very impressive operation. I have recently sold my company and have been looking at getting into vending. Would you mind chatting on the phone for a few minutes about getting started?

[Broncho]

Wow, you sound like you have a very impressive operation. I have recently sold my company and have been looking at getting into vending. Would you mind chatting on the phone for a few minutes about getting started?

You can hit me up on a PM and I will try to answer any questions you have through there, but this thread is for learning so I would prefer to answer here. The thing is we are not a huge company(e.i. 10-15 routes), in fact we are pretty mid size(5 routes). We are in that position were we are having a lot of growing pains, but we are on the verge of adding 1(possibly 2) more route(s) at the beginning of this next year and that should put us to were we want to be on a service tech and route personnel level. Right now we do not have a rotational driver for sick/vacation days, because of this I usually end up running route a lot. I also do every vending machine move which is only about once a week, but it can be hectic if its a large account or losing an account. Luckily this is the best time of year to grow for us, since vending sales are down because of winter we are able to start knocking on doors. I have a lot in the works right now and if everything goes as planned we should be adding 35 machines in February-March.

Mid-size vendors are in the same boat as the single independents to were we have to know everything. The only real difference between us and a smaller operation is that we have buying power and a very good reputation(35+ years) that has grown even more in the past few years with the addition of some of the largest accounts in our area.

[mission vending]

I know there are a lot of smaller independents on here that wear every hat in their company, but for those that do employ others what are you paying them? If you are on your own, what do you try to make profit wise in a day?

Heres what we pay for each position

Vending Drivers $12-15

Coffee Drivers $11-13

Warehouse $10(part time)

Warehouse $11 (full time)

Pot Washer $8-$9(part time)

Technician $10-15(10 is for unexperienced)

I am in Texas, so not every area is the same based on cost of living. We try to make a minimum of $500-700/day/truck after all expenses for the driver, product and truck. We have 4 hour down time(24hrs a day) and that takes a lot to keep up with and is not factored into the truck expenses, as well as managers and office personal. There are also ton of other factors, but based on our size and needs, that figure is ideal for us and anything more is great!

When I previously had full time employees, several years ago now, I had them on a base + bonus pay system. $10.00 hour base, bonus was based on productivity (revenue) and customer problems/complaints. Minimum expectation was 4,000 sales/week and a dollar a hour bonus for each 750 increase in sales. Its been almost 7 years since I've had a full time route guy. Had a full time guy until I sold a big part of my route earlier this year but his duties were more geared toward warehouse and loading the truck.

[Broncho]

When I previously had full time employees, several years ago now, I had them on a base + bonus pay system. $10.00 hour base, bonus was based on productivity (revenue) and customer problems/complaints. Minimum expectation was 4,000 sales/week and a dollar a hour bonus for each 750 increase in sales. Its been almost 7 years since I've had a full time route guy. Had a full time guy until I sold a big part of my route earlier this year but his duties were more geared toward warehouse and loading the truck.

I try to stay away from commissions for a number of reasons but mainly turnover is the key reason. I have noticed that on commission drivers tend to overstock machines to try and pull as much revenue as possible. I have also had issues with delivery drivers overstocking to gain revenue and has lost me an account in the past, and usually do this right before they quit. This is one of the reasons we started using remote monitoring for the vending drivers. Instead of relaying on them to make the right decision we let the software do all the work. It increases their productivity and makes their job progressively easier.

[mission vending]

I try to stay away from commissions for a number of reasons but mainly turnover is the key reason. I have noticed that on commission drivers tend to overstock machines to try and pull as much revenue as possible. I have also had issues with delivery drivers overstocking to gain revenue and has lost me an account in the past, and usually do this right before they quit. This is one of the reasons we started using remote monitoring for the vending drivers. Instead of relaying on them to make the right decision we let the software do all the work. It increases their productivity and makes their job progressively easier.

I can see your point. When I was using this method it worked fairly well with the guys that I had but again this is a number of years ago now. One question though, I don't see how overstocking machines leads to more revenue unless you are letting them decide the service intervals?

I scheduled my guys stops for the day so there was no incentive to overstock and stretch intervals. I tried to schedule them enough work each day that based on historical averages would get them slightly above the daily minimum average to meet weekly goals. If they hustled and were finishing early then they could call me for additional stops if they wanted, which would come off the list of stops for the next day.

[Broncho]

I can see your point. When I was using this method it worked fairly well with the guys that I had but again this is a number of years ago now. One question though, I don't see how overstocking machines leads to more revenue unless you are letting them decide the service intervals?

I scheduled my guys stops for the day so there was no incentive to overstock and stretch intervals. I tried to schedule them enough work each day that based on historical averages would get them slightly above the daily minimum average to meet weekly goals. If they hustled and were finishing early then they could call me for additional stops if they wanted, which would come off the list of stops for the next day.

Well I mostly meant overstocking of rental machines that we do, but I did have one driver that would overstock so they didnt have to use as much the next time. This of course would lead to a chance of out of date products. We do a lot of beverage and coffee delivery and because of that I have stayed away from commissions as a whole. We are also in an area that is very up and down; its great for the driver when times are good, but they make very little the rest of the time.

[kiwi]

I know there are a lot of smaller independents on here that wear every hat in their company, but for those that do employ others what are you paying them? If you are on your own, what do you try to make profit wise in a day?

Heres what we pay for each position

Vending Drivers $12-15

Coffee Drivers $11-13

Warehouse $10(part time)

Warehouse $11 (full time)

Pot Washer $8-$9(part time)

Technician $10-15(10 is for unexperienced)

I am in Texas, so not every area is the same based on cost of living. We try to make a minimum of $500-700/day/truck after all expenses for the driver, product and truck. We have 4 hour down time(24hrs a day) and that takes a lot to keep up with and is not factored into the truck expenses, as well as managers and office personal. There are also ton of other factors, but based on our size and needs, that figure is ideal for us and anything more is great!

Companies are run slightly different over here whereas most of the bigger companies use contractors to fill there machines instead of having employee's. Their contractors supply there own vehicle's,gas,insurance,mobile phones ect.. and are payed either a commision on product turnover or a tray/box rate.

To give you an example:

A contractor with a run turning over $400,000-$500,000 a year would get a 14%-16% margin earning himself around 50-60k after expenses.

Coke pay there contractors a tray rate which is around $2.90 a tray which is not bad when they are putting 10-20 tray in each machine they visit.

I have worked for a coffee company previously that payed $15-$18/hr for a driver & $22-$25/hr for a technician but that has changed since I left as most are on salary now.

Contract technicians can make alot more here charging anywhere from $35-$55/hr to companies they work for & I have a friend who contracts to coke in oz that told me that he made $130,000 last year contracting to them.

There was one company here that were charging a call out fee of $60/hr with an additional $18 per 15mins that they were on site which I thought people were crazy to be paying.

I hope none of your tech's read this as they mite be asking you for a pay rise!

[Broncho]

Companies are run slightly different over here whereas most of the bigger companies use contractors to fill there machines instead of having employee's. Their contractors supply there own vehicle's,gas,insurance,mobile phones ect.. and are payed either a commision on product turnover or a tray/box rate.

To give you an example:

A contractor with a run turning over $400,000-$500,000 a year would get a 14%-16% margin earning himself around 50-60k after expenses.

Coke pay there contractors a tray rate which is around $2.90 a tray which is not bad when they are putting 10-20 tray in each machine they visit.

I have worked for a coffee company previously that payed $15-$18/hr for a driver & $22-$25/hr for a technician but that has changed since I left as most are on salary now.

Contract technicians can make alot more here charging anywhere from $35-$55/hr to companies they work for & I have a friend who contracts to coke in oz that told me that he made $130,000 last year contracting to them.

There was one company here that were charging a call out fee of $60/hr with an additional $18 per 15mins that they were on site which I thought people were crazy to be paying.

I hope none of your tech's read this as they mite be asking you for a pay rise!

What kind of cost of living are you dealing with? At our rates you can live pretty comfortably because its such a low cost of living. I also pay 2 weeks vacation for all full time employees after a year + 8 payed holidays a year. So they get 18 days a year free(18D*10hr*$12=$2160/year) I also do pretty good Christmas bonuses($300-$500 for full time guys after a year).

[kiwi]

What kind of cost of living are you dealing with? At our rates you can live pretty comfortably because its such a low cost of living. I also pay 2 weeks vacation for all full time employees after a year + 8 payed holidays a year. So they get 18 days a year free(18D*10hr*$12=$2160/year) I also do pretty good Christmas bonuses($300-$500 for full time guys after a year).

I don't know how our cost of living is compared to in the USA as I have never really looked into it but prices are a lot higher when it comes to products in vending machines.

Our standard price for a 355ml can of coke here is $1.50 but can sell for up to $2.00 in some locations & a 600ml bottle sells anywhere from $3.50-$4.00..

I was only joking about your tech's wanting to leave as I am sure you look after them very well!

[Broncho]

I don't know how our cost of living is compared to in the USA as I have never really looked into it but prices are a lot higher when it comes to products in vending machines.

Our standard price for a 355ml can of coke here is $1.50 but can sell for up to $2.00 in some locations & a 600ml bottle sells anywhere from $3.50-$4.00..

I was only joking about your tech's wanting to leave as I am sure you look after them very well!

Vending prices are a good measure for cost of living! Those prices are very high compared to ours for a comparable size. We actually are planning raises across the board because this year has been very good for us, but we are also considering just doing sizable bonuses instead. We also provide pickups for our service techs to travel to and from work and the occasional personal use, in fact as long as they arnt taking their truck to the bars we are OK with it.

20oz(600ml) $1.25 (Coca Cola is going to $1.50)

12oz(355ml) $0.75

[kiwi]

Vending prices are a good measure for cost of living! Those prices are very high compared to ours for a comparable size. We actually are planning raises across the board because this year has been very good for us, but we are also considering just doing sizable bonuses instead. We also provide pickups for our service techs to travel to and from work and the occasional personal use, in fact as long as they arnt taking their truck to the bars we are OK with it.

20oz(600ml) $1.25 (Coca Cola is going to $1.50)

12oz(355ml) $0.75

That is alot cheaper.. what is your cost wholesale & do you buy it direct off Coke? We don't buy direct off coke as there price is only slightly cheaper than what we sell it for.

We have to buy thru supermarket chains where we pay around 60-75c but sometimes them do specials around .50c but not very often.

[Broncho]

That is alot cheaper.. what is your cost wholesale & do you buy it direct off Coke? We don't buy direct off coke as there price is only slightly cheaper than what we sell it for.

We have to buy thru supermarket chains where we pay around 60-75c but sometimes them do specials around .50c but not very often.

Direct from Coca Cola and Pepsi. We are around $0.35 per can and about $0.75 per bottle. I dont actually do much purchasing so this is not exact, but I know about where we stand. While doing a bid recently, we were looking at making $0.25-35/item on drinks because of a high commission.

[kiwi]

Direct from Coca Cola and Pepsi. We are around $0.35 per can and about $0.75 per bottle. I dont actually do much purchasing so this is not exact, but I know about where we stand. While doing a bid recently, we were looking at making $0.25-35/item on drinks because of a high commission.

Those prices are really good especially since you are ordering direct. I thought most people in the USA buy thru sams. I would prefer to buy direct off coke but for some reason they just don't do any deals here. I think it because they see us as competition to there vending business.

Pepsi are better to deal with as the don't do there own vending machines they will wholesale @ .69c/can direct to you but pepsi doesn't really sell that well here.

There are people that sell american coke over here but we haven't tried it yet as we have herd a few complaint from people not liking the different taste & the suppliers are unreliable as they sometimes run out of stock.

[kiwi]

What percentage commissions do you pay & do you factor commission into sale price?

We have a non commission price & usually factor commission on top that. Most places here prefer the cheaper non commission price than having their employee's pay more.

[Broncho]

What percentage commissions do you pay & do you factor commission into sale price?

We have a non commission price & usually factor commission on top that. Most places here prefer the cheaper non commission price than having their employee's pay more.

Most accounts are on no commissions but the ones that are very from 5-20%. The price is usually the same and commission is based on the size of the account. Some accounts get better pricing if they are a really good account. I had one a few years ago, shut down now, that we had $0.90 bottles but we took in about 35 cases a day between 4 drink machines and had 2 merchant 6's that were over 50% empty daily.

Those prices are really good especially since you are ordering direct. I thought most people in the USA buy thru sams. I would prefer to buy direct off coke but for some reason they just don't do any deals here. I think it because they see us as competition to there vending business.

Pepsi are better to deal with as the don't do there own vending machines they will wholesale @ .69c/can direct to you but pepsi doesn't really sell that well here.

There are people that sell american coke over here but we haven't tried it yet as we have herd a few complaint from people not liking the different taste & the suppliers are unreliable as they sometimes run out of stock.

WE cant buy through sams because they dont carry 20oz. Also we typically order over 800 cases at a time from Coke and over 300 from Pepsi. It is not worth the work or effort for that many cases.

[kiwi]

Most accounts are on no commissions but the ones that are very from 5-20%. The price is usually the same and commission is based on the size of the account. Some accounts get better pricing if they are a really good account. I had one a few years ago, shut down now, that we had $0.90 bottles but we took in about 35 cases a day between 4 drink machines and had 2 merchant 6's that were over 50% empty daily.

WE cant buy through sams because they dont carry 20oz. Also we typically order over 800 cases at a time from Coke and over 300 from Pepsi. It is not worth the work or effort for that many cases.

I can see why your pricing is so good! That is an insane amount of cases to be going thru!! Makes my 70-80 case orders look tiny!!!

If I get as big as you one day I think even coke here would come to the party on price.

I still can't belive how much you go thru.. thats more than I go thru in a whole year! lol

[Broncho]

I can see why your pricing is so good! That is an insane amount of cases to be going thru!! Makes my 70-80 case orders look tiny!!!

If I get as big as you one day I think even coke here would come to the party on price.

I still can't belive how much you go thru.. thats more than I go thru in a whole year! lol

Keep in mind that I do beverage delivery as well and we make about 20% as much profit as we would on vending. I have accounts that order 45-60 cases a week of drinks and juice. If you count ozarka water, soft drinks and juice; we probably go through about 1100-1200 cases a week in the winter and closer to 1500 in the summer. The funny thing is our largest account is only snack/frozen and we do over $130,000/ year there and if we win the beverage bid I expect to add another $250,000/year to that account. This account has about 12 more drink machines then snacks because they dont have room in all areas for both.

[kiwi]

Keep in mind that I do beverage delivery as well and we make about 20% as much profit as we would on vending. I have accounts that order 45-60 cases a week of drinks and juice. If you count ozarka water, soft drinks and juice; we probably go through about 1100-1200 cases a week in the winter and closer to 1500 in the summer. The funny thing is our largest account is only snack/frozen and we do over $130,000/ year there and if we win the beverage bid I expect to add another $250,000/year to that account. This account has about 12 more drink machines then snacks because they dont have room in all areas for both.

So what your saying is.. that not only do you order 100 x the amount of cases that I do but soon you will have 1 account that is doing more than ALL my accounts put together! lol (I am only joking)

I wish you luck with landing the bid but I sure you don't need luck! Its so good to have someone in your position that has been so successful sharing there ideas & experiences as I know it gives me the motivation to be successful too.

I am glad you came on board with TVF

[Broncho]

So what your saying is.. that not only do you order 100 x the amount of cases that I do but soon you will have 1 account that is doing more than ALL my accounts put together! lol (I am only joking)

I wish you luck with landing the bid but I sure you don't need luck! Its so good to have someone in your position that has been so successful sharing there ideas & experiences as I know it gives me the motivation to be successful too.

I am glad you came on board with TVF

Thanks! WE have been working on getting this account for almost 4 years now. it is the largest in our area and we have really big plans for it. THe equipment alone is going to set us back for at least a year, but we are signing a 4 year contract if we get it. I have a very good relationship with the account because Im there often and we do everything possible to keep them happy.

[kiwi]

Thanks! WE have been working on getting this account for almost 4 years now. it is the largest in our area and we have really big plans for it. THe equipment alone is going to set us back for at least a year, but we are signing a 4 year contract if we get it. I have a very good relationship with the account because Im there often and we do everything possible to keep them happy.

Must be an exciting time for you & your business. I can feel the excitement coming thru your post. 4 years seems like a hell of a long time but it definitely will be worth it in the end $$$

What type of machines have they got in their at the moment & what are you looking at replacing them with?

Royals I hope!!

[Broncho]

There is roughly 27 machines total. A bottler has the account right now and are using Vendos and Royals for stack vendors and Dixie 5800's for the 3 glass fronts. We are planning on using all royals for stack vendors and glass fronts. We are also planing on adding 4 touch screen machines to certain areas.

The bottler cant seem to keep anything working ever. We have 19 machines there now and we have no issues that arnt handled quickly and we have very few. WE also keep the machines full and they do not, we fill it 4-5 times a week and they only do it twice. The only thing that has kept us from setting them up before now is that there was a 5 year contract involved.

[mission vending]

There is roughly 27 machines total. A bottler has the account right now and are using Vendos and Royals for stack vendors and Dixie 5800's for the 3 glass fronts. We are planning on using all royals for stack vendors and glass fronts. We are also planing on adding 4 touch screen machines to certain areas.

The bottler cant seem to keep anything working ever. We have 19 machines there now and we have no issues that arnt handled quickly and we have very few. WE also keep the machines full and they do not, we fill it 4-5 times a week and they only do it twice. The only thing that has kept us from setting them up before now is that there was a 5 year contract involved.

Sounds like a great situation for you. Had a friend of mine really that took a HUGE account from a bottler a little over a year ago and they were telling me Coke tried to buy their way back in on the anniversary date. Offered 50K cash and 20% commission and it was still not good enough for the location to seriously consider taking them back.

[Broncho]

Sounds like a great situation for you. Had a friend of mine really that took a HUGE account from a bottler a little over a year ago and they were telling me Coke tried to buy their way back in on the anniversary date. Offered 50K cash and 20% commission and it was still not good enough for the location to seriously consider taking them back.

Im looking forward to this actually, Coca Cola has a bunch of kids as sales people now. They are uninformed and not willing to learn and because of this they burn bridges. In my experience they will make someone mad enough to file them away as a no bid vendor.

[mission vending]

Im looking forward to this actually, Coca Cola has a bunch of kids as sales people now. They are uninformed and not willing to learn and because of this they burn bridges. In my experience they will make someone mad enough to file them away as a no bid vendor.

Around here Coke is pretty competent on the sales side and it's hard to beat them straight up because of the commission structures they offer, especially on the larger accounts. They are struggling on the service side, all the bottlers are, as many drivers are quitting and going to work in the Eagle Ford Shale play just South of the San Antonio metro area. It seems at least once a month my deliveries get delayed by a day or two because they don't have enough drivers to get their deliveries out on time. The best chance to get them out of a location is on the renewal when the customer is frustrated with their dealings with them and the commissions don't matter as much.