Timesavers and other tips for servicing your route?

[brendamca]

I'd love to be able to afford remote monitoring, and get away with one walk-up instead of two per location, but since I'm just getting started, that's a long way off. Since I'll only be doing my business on the side, I need to be able to service as many locations in one day as I possibly can.

What low-tech or cheap-tech methods do you use for saving time on your route? Do you use an Excel spreadsheet on your phone or a netbook to track inventory and record your cash? Anything else that's simple but efficient and saves you oodles of time?

[NinnJinn]

All my machines are outside, so my vehicle is right there.

But so I am not moving product around to get to other product, I have a "red neck" method that I use. 

I have a home made chart on a clip board of each item I stock, sorta like an inventory sheet.  I mark how many of each item that I stocked.  When loading up the vehicle,  I go by what was sold the week before and throw in 2 of each item extra in.

If I have to short a machine a drink or two, I will note that on my list so I know to take a few more next time.

I don't have any snack machines so I'm not sure how well my method would work for the snacks.

[lurtsman]

That sounds like good advice ninn.

[HansenVending]

I use the two trip in method, seems to work fine for me. I use a printed out spreadsheet that I made. Each item is listed down the sheet then the 1st column is how many I stocked, 2nd is how many when I returned, 3rd is how many I sold. That repeates itself over to the edge of the page and is enough for stocking twice a week for a month. Then at the end of the month I add everything up and put those numbers into a spreadsheat that I have I on my computer and it gives me costs, gross, and net, for each item at each location and totals for each location and grand totals. I don't even want to think about how many hours I have into messing with that stupid set of spreadsheets to make it work the way I want it to lol. It was worth it tho, makes it easy to see what's selling better and what I'm making the most money off of.

So anyway I go in and take inventory of the machine then go out to my van and fill a tote up based on whats on my spreadsheet, go back in and fill up the machine, take inventory again, then leave with an empty tote.

[coinvestor]

Wow! I can't imagine keeping up with a spreadsheet like that. I just use a Sam's Club notepad on a clip board. I rip the corner off the page, scribble the location info and date then stuff it in the money bag. I use the rest of the page to make an item list.

I make sure that I set up my snack machines so that the trays are loaded by weight. The bottom tray is my pastries. The next tray up is chocolate, the next is lance crackers, the top ones are all bagged items. When I make my list of items to fill, I start one the top and work down. When I get to the truck I start loading my bins from the bottom of my list and work my way up. By doing it this way my bin is always loaded by weight so I never have a bin full of chips to find that now I need 12 honey buns. When I go to fill the snack machine the items are in the bin in order of there position in the machine from top to bottom.

I hope this makes sense.

[HansenVending]

Coinvestor, there isn't much to keep up with now that I have it set up, all I have to do is print one off, use it for the month, add up the sales for each item then put that total in the computer and it figures the rest for me, even does tax.

I do the same thing when loading my tote, start from the bottom of the list so drinks are on the bottom, bars and other pretty much non squishable stuff on top of that, then chips on top. Then I load the machine from top to bottom.

[NinnJinn]

Very good ideas!

[brendamca]

That's good to know. My husband is a spreadsheet maniac, so this will give him some good ideas. Women have scrapbooking, men have Excel... 

[brendamca]

One more question about your spreadsheet, if you don't mind. Do you track your inventory costs by averaging out the costs of each item over a year, or do you use some other method? (Can you tell I've got bookkeeping books all over my house?  )

[dogcow]

I'd love to be able to afford remote monitoring, and get away with one walk-up instead of two per location, but since I'm just getting started, that's a long way off. Since I'll only be doing my business on the side, I need to be able to service as many locations in one day as I possibly can.

What low-tech or cheap-tech methods do you use for saving time on your route? Do you use an Excel spreadsheet on your phone or a netbook to track inventory and record your cash? Anything else that's simple but efficient and saves you oodles of time?

few tips

1. i use red duct tape to mark my par levels on the inside of the soda machine for easy eyeballing/filling (thanks to poplady for the tip)

2. i use a spreadsheet on the phone (google docs) to track what i fill in the machines to keep track of the collections i keep the $ in deposit bags which are numbered for each location. if the location has multiple machines then i will use ziplock bags which are labeled inside the deposit bag.

3. for snacks, i have a large tool box which contains the small snack machine items ( crackers, m&ms, candy bars, oreos,etc..) i keep enough in there to refill every selection back to par level. it also contains rolls of coins for the mech, an out of order sign, tape, price labels, multihead screw driver, dbv cleaner pads and a pack of glass cleaner wipes. Then I have a large shallow bin that looks like this :

which contains enough chips, pastries and cookies to fill the machine back up to par.

It is a little tricky to manage carrying both of these i could basically refill the whole snack machine up to par on one trip and its worked out quite well.

When I get back to the car, i load up the tool box and bin for the next location. I only keep enough items in the car to fill both location back to par and i keep them separated out in large ziplock bags for easy loading.

I do make multiple trips per machine however some of my machines are located in locked areas so in these instances I will use a small handtruck to bring all the sodas and snacks in to refill both machines up to par. This is actually slower, I find, because you must load and unload the handtruck which takes time.

After a while you will learn what sells fast and what doesn't in terms of soda and just bring them with you on your first trip to the machine ( hint--always bring a case of mtn dew) and then just go back for any surprises.

[brendamca]

Have you thought about using one of those small fold-up carts from Costco? I use mine for all sorts of jobs -- they hold up to 150 lbs. If you're only dealing with two boxes, it might be just the thing. A couple of bungee cords, and you're good to go. They're only $30 or so, and they fold flat.

[dogcow]

Have you thought about using one of those small fold-up carts from Costco? I use mine for all sorts of jobs -- they hold up to 150 lbs. If you're only dealing with two boxes, it might be just the thing. A couple of bungee cords, and you're good to go. They're only $30 or so, and they fold flat.

thats what i was referring to by "small handtruck " which i use to move soda around sometimes.

I don't bother with it for the snacks because its a very short walk to the machine and they are not heavy just akwardly shaped.

[brendamca]

Oh, OK. I was envisioning on of those big beasts for refrigerators and such.

[dogcow]

Oh, OK. I was envisioning on of those big beasts for refrigerators and such.

if you are interested in sample spreadsheets PM me i can send you some samples of what I use ( mine automatically balance my inventory as well)

or i can do a custom one for you for a small fee.

[coinvestor]

While there is no such thing as too much information, there is such thing as spending too much time keeping up with it. I'm not knocking what you are doing, I just know that I have my super dooper self calculating spreadsheet that I spent many hours creating and keeping up with when I was getting started almost 6 years ago. I still use the thing, but I only use 2 columns for each location (the date, and amount collected). I know that you can never be sure what you will need in the future, but try and make sure whatever you are using is scalable.

Just my thoughts!

JD

[brendamca]

I feel that way about my kids' chore charts. We have check boxes, where they mark it and I check it off after I've inspected their work (supposed to prevent them from checking off work they didn't do), but I haven't been keeping up with it. At least they have a list of what they're supposed to do each day, so they can't play dumb.

[mission vending]

Wow! I can't imagine keeping up with a spreadsheet like that. I just use a Sam's Club notepad on a clip board. I rip the corner off the page, scribble the location info and date then stuff it in the money bag. I use the rest of the page to make an item list.

I make sure that I set up my snack machines so that the trays are loaded by weight. The bottom tray is my pastries. The next tray up is chocolate, the next is lance crackers, the top ones are all bagged items. When I make my list of items to fill, I start one the top and work down. When I get to the truck I start loading my bins from the bottom of my list and work my way up. By doing it this way my bin is always loaded by weight so I never have a bin full of chips to find that now I need 12 honey buns. When I go to fill the snack machine the items are in the bin in order of there position in the machine from top to bottom.

I hope this makes sense.

I've used the same method for years. It also helpd with loading the machine faster because you only have to pull out a shelf for loading once.

I don't keep my cash and coin separate, I use meter readings for accountability

[HansenVending]

One more question about your spreadsheet, if you don't mind. Do you track your inventory costs by averaging out the costs of each item over a year, or do you use some other method? (Can you tell I've got bookkeeping books all over my house?  )

The first of the spreadsheets is my item list, I put the cost and sell price of each item in there and the other spreadsheets pull it from there to figure everything. I use this to figure commission and to see what sells good and what doesn't. I keep the actual costs of everything separate (basically just add up my receipts).

Keep in mind that I have only been doing this for a few months, have absolutely no bookkeeping experience, and taught myself to use spreadsheets. So I'm pretty much just winging it lol, but I think I'm doing alright.

I think you are talking about the magna cart thing from Costco, I got one from the guy I bought my route from and it was pretty much wore out so I got the bigger version that is more like a cart and still folds flat. I got it at a business Costco for I think $100, my local regular costcos don't have them. Anyway I like it way better.