My first employee

[SebaVending]

I'm in the process of hiring someone to help out with my route because my other jobs are taking up a lot of my time.  I was wondering if any of you experienced members have any suggestions.  I have never worked for another vending company, so having someone service my locations is giving me considerable anxiety.  How do other companies integrate/train new employees?  Is there something i should be watching out for?  how should my stock room be set up?  Should i stock up the truck for him, so that all he has to do is go out on the route and see what is missing from each machine?  Should I pre-kit boxes with exactly what is needed at each location?  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated as this is a new endeavor for me.

 

Thanks in advance.

[AZVendor]

You need to answer those questions before hiring anyone. The first thing you should do is put accountability controls in place. That means reading the meters of every machine when it's ever opened. Any machine that's opened must be collected and the meter read. Control your cash accountability along with the coin change carried to refill the coin mech. Every machine serviced needs detailed records of what was added, by selection, what was stale and how full every column or spiral is when finished. If you don't do all of this then you're leaving yourself open to theft. You can't trust even a family member.

[moondog]

I'm in the process of hiring someone to help out with my route because my other jobs are taking up a lot of my time.  I was wondering if any of you experienced members have any suggestions.  I have never worked for another vending company, so having someone service my locations is giving me considerable anxiety.  How do other companies integrate/train new employees?  Is there something i should be watching out for?  how should my stock room be set up?  Should i stock up the truck for him, so that all he has to do is go out on the route and see what is missing from each machine?  Should I pre-kit boxes with exactly what is needed at each location?  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated as this is a new endeavor for me.

 

Thanks in advance.

With only one employee, the first thing that I would do is get set up with a payroll service.  They handle all of the government reporting a well as Workmens Comp and TDI and their fee is usually offset in the difference they pay for the insurance versus what you'll pay.  If you've never had employees before, you have no idea how much reporting is involved and with the payroll service you just cut one check every pay period and you're done.

[Walta]

The problem is its almost imposable to properly supervise one employee in less time than you can do the work yourself.

 

Between the government paper work, taxes, workman’s comp, liability insurance, theft and training, employees get expensive fast.

 

Don’t skimp in the insurance.

 

Walt

[Feral Vending Mechanic]

You need to answer those questions before hiring anyone. The first thing you should do is put accountability controls in place. That means reading the meters of every machine when it's ever opened. Any machine that's opened must be collected and the meter read. Control your cash accountability along with the coin change carried to refill the coin mech. Every machine serviced needs detailed records of what was added, by selection, what was stale and how full every column or spiral is when finished. If you don't do all of this then you're leaving yourself open to theft. You can't trust even a family member.

 

Yep. All of this. Accountability is vital.

Also, payroll service. 

[AngryChris]

The problem is its almost imposable to properly supervise one employee in less time than you can do the work yourself.

Between the government paper work, taxes, workman’s comp, liability insurance, theft and training, employees get expensive fast.

Don’t skimp in the insurance.

Walt

The hardest thing for me to consider is how well they will actually do the job. We've all seen where job postings say they want someone who can "pay attention to detail" even on the simplest of jobs... But you REALLY need that trait with vending. Noticing problems with machines, rotating product, restocking properly, taking notes from customer feedback, noticing problems with the vehicles, etc... I think it is important to find someone who clearly likes things to be in proper order and will notify you when something is wrong. If they do a bad job, even the most honest employees can run your business into the ground.

The next important thing is reliability. Will they show up on time? That can be the difference between getting the route down completely or having to backtrack later in the week and PAY your driver for their mistake of showing up late.

A good attitude is useful but a lot of customers don't care when the job is done properly. Some employees with poor attitudes can really rub people the wrong way though.

Liability is another factor. If your auto insurance won't cover them, they aren't hireable. If they WILL cover them for a very high premium, consider the risks. Also, if they have been convicted of felonies, it's too much of a liability.

Having never hired someone, I can only give advice based on why I saw employees get fired. Keep in mind that theft can happen at any time and an experienced vendor knows how to steal without getting caught unless you setup traps to catch them. Most new vendors won't know how to get around it though. To steal should mean immediate termination but honestly.. How much is an outstanding employee worth who has been perfect aside from a small $20 theft? What if they are having financial issues and desperately needed $20? A great employee could possibly get a pass if they fess up but it's important to consider the amount of damage an honest yet mediocre employee can do to your business vs. the benefits of having an excellent employee that gives themselves an occasional raise.

[Feral Vending Mechanic]

I *am* an employee. I'm a technician for one of the bigs, and have been working the vending industry most of my adult life. I don't steal from my employer. ( I am paid quite well, thank you very much. ) I've seen some pretty crazy things, though, over the years. 

One place I worked, we had a new driver who was a little odd. As soon as he got past his ride along training, he started wearing these giant coats to work. In the middle of the summer. Now, this was in Seattle, so summer weather is a little chilly, but not giant coat wearing weather. One customer called us, and said that he was showing up, stuffing his pockets full of money, and leaving. Turned out, for the entire week, he was doing just that. Stealing half of the money out of the machines, turning in the other half, not filling the machines, and just pilling more and more product on his truck. ( To make it look like he was filling machines, I guess? ) We fired him right away, but damage was done.

 

A company that I worked at for a long time went through a phase I like to call the "one cheeto" phase. Previously, company policy had been to go ahead and eat a couple of snacks, drink a soda or two while you were working. No big deal. They suddenly got it into their head that employees would no longer be allowed to eat or drink *anything*. Drivers were bringing back boxes and boxes of stales ( because they had a set plan-o-gram, and couldn't deviate from it, and we had a pile of crappy Best Vendor retail accounts, like Office Max's with ten employees ) They said, "If you eat one cheeto, you're stealing from the company." They did spot checks in the cabs of drivers trucks, looking for empty packages. It was humiliating and demoralizing. Some of us got in trouble for eating the "grab bag" that Vistar sent with the weekly order. We were told that those items should have been thrown away, or if any of them were items that we carried, put into our vending machines and sold.

Another company had a compete Laissez Faire attitude towards their business. Route drivers didn't ever take inventory, they didn't get meters from their machines, they didn't even have to write down what they took out of the warehouse to put on their trucks. They didn't write down what they put into the machines. It was crazy, man. The company had just gone under ( wonder why? ) and sold to one of the bigs. ( Shortly before Christmas ) One of their long time employees mentioned in the break room how he was about to go out and collect his Christmas bonus out of some of the machines. ( A number of us "new guys" from the big company put a stop to that. )  I can't believe that someone would let their business get that chaotic and uncontrolled. 

 

Somewhere between those two extremes is the right way to run a business.    

 

[Anacapa Vending]

Why not pay someone cash to pre-kit your truck for you a couple days a week. A shop guy filling up tubs of snacks and drinks is much cheaper and a lot less liability then a route driver...

[allen watson]

Can I jumper a meter in on an old single price Vendo or Dixie-Narco?

[musser]

I agree with Anacapa, if at all possible have your first employee to shop work. Put them in an environment with the least temptation. I they work out you can slowly be more trusting. It probably won't work out for you for awhile and you may go through a couple if people because you are new to this. Always have an application process that includes a back ground check. You can't believe anyone. ( btw rule 1 of any business is you can't believe anyone)

[AZVendor]

Can I jumper a meter in on an old single price Vendo or Dixie-Narco?

First check if you have a 2 pin plug near the relay or coin mech socket for a meter to plug in. If not then a meter can be tapped into a couple of wires off the relay. I'd have to look at a wire diagram to tell you which two wires to use.

[moondog]

Can I jumper a meter in on an old single price Vendo or Dixie-Narco?

You're not supposed to be stealing from yourself Allen     

I agree with Anacapa, if at all possible have your first employee to shop work. Put them in an environment with the least temptation. I they work out you can slowly be more trusting. It probably won't work out for you for awhile and you may go through a couple if people because you are new to this. Always have an application process that includes a back ground check. You can't believe anyone. ( btw rule 1 of any business is you can't believe anyone)

Yep, that's pretty much the way Mission ran his operation - ran the route himself up until the day he sold out.

[Walta]

The best thief was the route manager he had equipment install on locations only sum of the accounts did not get assigned to a route for collection. By the time anyone figured it out he had a full route of locations the delivery guys had forgotten all about.

 

The guy that stopped by Sams buy his own product fill the machines with half his and have yours and keep have the money.

 

 I like the shop man Idea. At the end of the day you park a dirty empty truck take the money with you.  Show up in the morning to clean loaded truck full of gas.

 

After he has earned your trust only then put him on a route.

 

 

Walta

[allen watson]

First check if you have a 2 pin plug near the relay or coin mech socket for a meter to plug in. If not then a meter can be tapped into a couple of wires off the relay. I'd have to look at a wire diagram to tell you which two wires to use.

I'll just copy one that has a meter. I'm thinking someday  I'll have an employee so I might as well start with the meters. I hate book work and tedious note keeping.

[SebaVending]

There's a lot of good stuff here guys.  Clearly I have a lot to think about but at least now I have a good starting point.

[moondog]

I'll just copy one that has a meter. I'm thinking someday  I'll have an employee so I might as well start with the meters. I hate book work and tedious note keeping.

Fat chance finding an employee in your neighborhood - all that work might interfere with their siesta time.

[RobertInPhilly]

Once you reach a certain (only you know) point having an employee is the best thing you can do, even if it costs you a little more than you get back in productivity. Your time and sanity are a assets that can't be replaced. BUT you do need to be aware of what they are doing, if not human nature will take over.

[allen watson]

Fat chance finding an employee in your neighborhood - all that work might interfere with their siesta time.

Hahaha. Yep, I'm going to have to import one.

[EdsVending]

I recently had an employee helping out and had a few issues.

1. Products were not being rotated, so when I would go on service calls I noticed several expired items.

2. Machines weren't always kept clean.

3. Commissions that were to be paid to contact were not always paid on time or not at all causing great tension.

4. Possible theft of money or inventory.

Reflecting back, I realized I did not have the proper checks and balances in place. First, I never stressed that product should be rotated And machines kept clean always! Next, I should've mailed out all commissions because if the contact wasn't around when the driver was there he would not feel comfortable leaving the money. Lastly, I should've done counts on the machines and had inventory sheets, which would help deter theft.

It's really tough. Good luck.

[Russ]

Though I've been out of the vending business many years, and I never had an employee of my own, I also worked as an assistant district manager and route supervisor at a vending operation with 300 machines / 8000 employees at a large IBM manufacturing site in the North so I have seen all the things the other posters have warned about. I have had great routepersons, and others who were so bad it was mind-boggling. Like taking the boxes of product out to the vending machines and setting it inside, not actually FILLING the machine so it had something to sell.

 

Forgive me but I just have to share one of my very worst experiences: my boss and I interviewed a guy named Ron for an on-site route position at that IBM plant where we had four routepersons working out of one large stockroom. He interviewed well and we hired him. Our normal training routine was: day 1, the new guy would tag along while someone showed him the route and explained what they did. Days 2-4 the new guy would start doing more and more until day 5 he did the whole route with the supervisor just watching. These routes had snack, cup soda, cold food, coffee, and  cig machines.

 

Okay, so Ron went out on the route for training. After a whole week he was still doing almost nothing, let alone taking over the route. The afternoon of day 7 or 8 we had another person call off and we needed someone to finish filling the snack machines on one route. There were five snack machines, all in connected buildings;  they had been ordered and packed, and the boxes were on a cart ready to go. All the new guy had to do was go to the machines and put in the product. I said to him 'Ron, these five snacks are all packed, all you have to do is go to them and fill them with the product. Do you think you can do that?'

 

Ron slowly walked away from me, over to a milk cooler in the storeroom. He put his hands on the lid of the cooler, looked down and heaved a heavy sigh as though I had asked him to take over the controls of an airliner. He slowly shook his head. He could not do this. Aggravated, I sent another route guy out with him to fill those five machines.

 

When they got back, and Ron had gone home, the other route guy said that when they headed out to fill the snacks, Ron had said 'I could see him asking me to do that if I'd been here a month.' (!) A month? He expected to spend a month learning how to poke candy bars into coils?

 

The next morning when Ron came in I fired him. He said 'All I get is nine days?' I said 'Ron, you couldn't even put product in snack machines yesterday by yourself. By the end of your first week you should have been able to do your entire route all alone. This just isn't the job for you, I'm sorry, but you're done.' Ron wandered around the stockroom for a few minutes among the other route guys, as I wondered 'what the heck is he still doing here?' and after another couple minutes he said 'Well, I guess there's no sense hanging around HERE anymore,' (I guess not, you've been fired you idiot!) and he left.

 

Things go the other way also. One guy I hired, Mark, was an excellent routeman. When he left the vending business to work in the telecom trades, eventually he got me a job at his company and I also left vending. That was 25 years ago; now he's a maintenance supervisor at an atomic power plant and I'm a systems analyst, and he's still one of my best friends. We both relocated 900+ miles from where we started out, helped each other move, and he and his wife spent the day visiting with me and my wife a couple of weeks ago. You certainly see it all in the vending business.

[EatMoreJunk]

I'm content to stay JUST small enough that I can handle everything by myself (netting approx $35k/year working 22-26 hours/week on the vending).  I have 3 young kids, when they get old enough they will become employees to some degree, especially during the summer.  My 7 year old daughter already understands the labor part of the business pretty well and is a good help refilling coin mechs and pre-kitting my totes at different locations.... and it's quality time together  :-)  Great cash business for kids to observe and grow up with a good understanding of how we "make money" and what goes into a work day.