How big can any one route get?

[WillisNYC]

I have had several conversations with a large local vendor who has 17 route drivers from just one of his two locations here in New Jersey. He surprised me by saying that his drivers were doing an average of $9k per week. He was selling off some of his small locations (to me in this instance) so that he could get his route drivers up to $12k/week in sales. Now $9k/week is $468,000/year in gross revenue and $12k takes that number to $624,000. The owner said those numbers are achieved with massive locations all fairly close to each other.

I was a little overwhelmed since a year ago I had a discussion with another route owner who said that $250,000 to $300,000 in annual revenue was about the most that any one owner/operator could hope to achieve. (He has 17 years in the business, so I respect his opinion.) Of course, the big vendor's conversation caused me to rethink just what is possible in terms of revenue for a one man operation. Personally I have surpassed the numbers talked about by the smaller route owner (just barely) but am NOWHERE NEAR the huge numbers that this large vendor claims to be posting!

Any of you oldtimers on here have any experience with the kind of numbers this vendor is claiming are possible? I am currently trying to decide if I want to sell off some smaller and more out of the way locations so that I can concentrate on the larger locations and bring up my revenue that way, OR I can hire a full time driver and split my route in half. Both ideas have merit but maybe some oldtimers can bring up some points I have not considered.

[coinvestor]

I have had several conversations with a large local vendor who has 17 route drivers from just one of his two locations here in New Jersey. He surprised me by saying that his drivers were doing an average of $9k per week. He was selling off some of his small locations (to me in this instance) so that he could get his route drivers up to $12k/week in sales. Now $9k/week is $468,000/year in gross revenue and $12k takes that number to $624,000. The owner said those numbers are achieved with massive locations all fairly close to each other.

I was a little overwhelmed since a year ago I had a discussion with another route owner who said that $250,000 to $300,000 in annual revenue was about the most that any one owner/operator could hope to achieve. (He has 17 years in the business, so I respect his opinion.) Of course, the big vendor's conversation caused me to rethink just what is possible in terms of revenue for a one man operation. Personally I have surpassed the numbers talked about by the smaller route owner (just barely) but am NOWHERE NEAR the huge numbers that this large vendor claims to be posting!

Any of you oldtimers on here have any experience with the kind of numbers this vendor is claiming are possible? I am currently trying to decide if I want to sell off some smaller and more out of the way locations so that I can concentrate on the larger locations and bring up my revenue that way, OR I can hire a full time driver and split my route in half. Both ideas have merit but maybe some oldtimers can bring up some points I have not considered.

Willis, an "oldtimer" I am not, but I think that both are right. You are trying to compare apples and oranges. The first guy has drivers doing 468k a year. All these guys do is stock their truck, fill machines, and deliver full bags of money to the counting room. The second guy is saying 300k is the max for someone that is:

Buying product

Taking inventories

filling machines

selling new accounts

fixing machines

placing product orders

paying sales taxes

counting money

making bank runs

fixing trucks

Doing the books

Ordering/refurbing equipment

moving machines

I think there is a large spread between what a one man vending business and what a single route driver can do.

JD

[coinvestor]

I will add that I think 624k is probably a bit of a stretch even with remote monitoring and prekitting, but again I am not at a size to know this .

JD

[WillisNYC]

I will add that I think 624k is probably a bit of a stretch even with remote monitoring and prekitting, but again I am not at a size to know this .

JD

They are doing the remote monitoring and prekitting to make their guys as efficient as possible.

[WillisNYC]

Willis, an "oldtimer" I am not, but I think that both are right. You are trying to compare apples and oranges. The first guy has drivers doing 468k a year. All these guys do is stock their truck, fill machines, and deliver full bags of money to the counting room. The second guy is saying 300k is the max for someone that is:

Buying product

Taking inventories

filling machines

selling new accounts

fixing machines

placing product orders

paying sales taxes

counting money

making bank runs

fixing trucks

Doing the books

Ordering/refurbing equipment

moving machines

I think there is a large spread between what a one man vending business and what a single route driver can do.

JD

I think you are right JD, but I know a vendor (one man show with a full time rider to help) who is doing $450k/yr. Of course he is insane and has no life outside of vending, but he is doing pretty well! He is also spread out tremendously and could do even better if he sold off some of his stops that are too far away and too small. I am leaning towards concentrating my own route by doing the same with an eye on what the 'top end' is.

[mission vending]

I have had several conversations with a large local vendor who has 17 route drivers from just one of his two locations here in New Jersey. He surprised me by saying that his drivers were doing an average of $9k per week. He was selling off some of his small locations (to me in this instance) so that he could get his route drivers up to $12k/week in sales. Now $9k/week is $468,000/year in gross revenue and $12k takes that number to $624,000. The owner said those numbers are achieved with massive locations all fairly close to each other.

I was a little overwhelmed since a year ago I had a discussion with another route owner who said that $250,000 to $300,000 in annual revenue was about the most that any one owner/operator could hope to achieve. (He has 17 years in the business, so I respect his opinion.) Of course, the big vendor's conversation caused me to rethink just what is possible in terms of revenue for a one man operation. Personally I have surpassed the numbers talked about by the smaller route owner (just barely) but am NOWHERE NEAR the huge numbers that this large vendor claims to be posting!

Any of you oldtimers on here have any experience with the kind of numbers this vendor is claiming are possible? I am currently trying to decide if I want to sell off some smaller and more out of the way locations so that I can concentrate on the larger locations and bring up my revenue that way, OR I can hire a full time driver and split my route in half. Both ideas have merit but maybe some oldtimers can bring up some points I have not considered.

Even without prekitting those numbers are possible. Here is the dif.

These route guys are ONLY doing route work. They have at least some help loading the truck if its not being loaded for them for inventory control purposes. They don`t do service calls, a service tech does, unless they happen to be there. They don`t count money and do deposits. They don`t take deliveries and warhouse work. They don`t manage inventory and on and on.

That`s where the dif between 300K and 450K comes from. You could do it yourself if you did not have all the distractions that come with being an owner operator.

[EddieMac]

That's the problem I have. I'm doing it all. I don't have time now to do sales calls because I'm doing mostly route work in addition to all the warehouse, inventory, office work, repair, refurbing, etc, etc, etc.

My 12 year son helps me, but until he can drive a car or our vending truck he can't make a "bottom line" difference ... yet .... but he'll be ready to go when he is old enough to drive.

[RJT]

Obviously the BIG factor here is the type of accounts you have. I knew a local company that had 75 accounts doing 4.5 million a year.

I have said their are stand alone accounts that do 100k and up a year, you just have to land them. If a guy was VERY picky and was willing to spend some time getting locations it would be possible to turn some fairly large revenue with few accounts. Most couldnt do this in the start because they dont have the knowledge or ability to land these type of accounts.

I did some consulting for a one man show that was doing 350k a year and he pretty much worked a 5 day 40/45 hr work week.

[djkeller3]

This is a great topic, guys; and I have thought about this over the years more than I care to say. As a 1-man operation, the most I care to do per week is about $9000. Any more than that, for me, is just too much given the other responsibilities we have as business owners that Coinvestor laid out.

Clearly, in order to make good money in this business, especially if you're going it alone, is to keep your debt and expenses to a bare minimum, particularly since the great revenue reduction that began in 2009.

Sent using Tapatalk from a screamin BAMF'd out T-Bolt

[Poplady1]

This is a great topic, guys; and I have thought about this over the years more than I care to say. As a 1-man operation, the most I care to do per week is about $9000. Any more than that, for me, is just too much given the other responsibilities we have as business owners that Coinvestor laid out.

Clearly, in order to make good money in this business, especially if you're going it alone, is to keep your debt and expenses to a bare minimum, particularly since the great revenue reduction that began in 2009.

Sent using Tapatalk from a screamin BAMF'd out T-Bolt

[/quote

After working with a lot of vendors from one guy/gal to many, these numbers sound possible but not something someone could sustain. Not sure that I have ever heard of anything near $9000 a week. A large account expects solid service with no excuse's. The operations manager normally will not put his/her job on the line bringing in a one person show. And it doesn't sound like a good recommendation for a one person vending owner to invest in a big account without back up. The change over day at these big places is nerve racking for everyone involved. Op's folks don't do that lightly.

It seems $250K to $300K is the high end for a one person route in my experience. And that would include a lot of holidays...

Poplady

[djkeller3]

Sorry, my bad! I meant $9,000 per month. Actually, make it $10,000 per month. $2500 per week is certainly sustainable and will keep one plenty busy, particularly with everything a single owner/operator is responsible for.

Sent using Tapatalk from a screamin BAMF'd out T-Bolt

[spdydre]

One of my movers was telling me about a vendor here that does around 10k a week solo but they work 15-16 hour days 6 days a week. I would think by that size it would be better just to hire someone and focus on growing or maybe additional investments

[andyinchville]

Hi guys,

I think the the max per week that one man can do depends on a number of factors (size of accounts, closeness of accounts etc...)...The route I run consists of over 100 stops but they are all small and require driving so the most $$ I can do in a week is about $2300 gross (that is a 60 hour week roughly).

On the flip side, there are Lance guys that rent space down from my storage unit that claim they do about 9K in sales per week (doing about the same number of hours...They get paid as a percent of the route so they end up making about the same as me in terms of take home $$....However, their sales volume are way beyond mine!

I think I could do significantly more volume than I currently do BUT I will have to get large accounts close to one another and have all tray type machines (I have quite a number of the old Toms pigtail machines that now require tabbing of product before putting into them machine).

I look forward to the day when my route can do 3K gross per week!

Andrew

[danielirubin]

Hi guys,

I think the the max per week that one man can do depends on a number of factors (size of accounts, closeness of accounts etc...)...The route I run consists of over 100 stops but they are all small and require driving so the most $ I can do in a week is about $2300 gross (that is a 60 hour week roughly).

On the flip side, there are Lance guys that rent space down from my storage unit that claim they do about 9K in sales per week (doing about the same number of hours...They get paid as a percent of the route so they end up making about the same as me in terms of take home $....However, their sales volume are way beyond mine!

I think I could do significantly more volume than I currently do BUT I will have to get large accounts close to one another and have all tray type machines (I have quite a number of the old Toms pigtail machines that now require tabbing of product before putting into them machine).

I look forward to the day when my route can do 3K gross per week!

Andrew

100 stops and 2300 a week gross? you must have some hole in the wall locations average pull from a machines is 23 dollars?! seems a little low based on everybody else's numbers. I don't know if I qualify to give advice but id say sell of your crappy locations and bolster your best locations

[The Mage]

100 stops and 2300 a week gross? you must have some hole in the wall locations average pull from a machines is 23 dollars?! seems a little low based on everybody else's numbers. I don't know if I qualify to give advice but id say sell of your crappy locations and bolster your best locations

The difference between the numbers might be full line compared to bulk. Full line your pulling out dollars while bulk your pulling out quarters. Although the profit margin on bulk is much higher.

But I would agree that with this number of stops, more efficiency may be in order. Spreading out service times, and eliminating the less profitable locations may be in order.

Oh yeah, if you want to know how big a vendor can get, look up Roger Folz.

[andyinchville]

HI,

Yes, I'll have to admit most of my stops are relatively low $$ stops...We are in a fairly small town so we don't have a lot of huge plants or really big places w/ lots of employees etc...We do have a few stops that pull about $50 or so per week but that is in the minority (a few stops we pull less than $10 at a service time but at least they are on the way to other stops).

We don't necessarily service all the stops every week....we do have a good number of 2 week stops but the overall of the 108 stops (I took the time to count them) is about the $2300 on a good week (gross figure)...it may get better when cooler weather comes in since I think people eat more when it's cold rather than sweltering how.

We don't have a lot of vendors locally (about 3 or 4 I can think of) BUT I do know of at least 2 trucks that come from out of town (as far as 50 or 60 miles away!) to service some stops locally (car dealerships and I'd really like to follow them someday to see where they go)....I plan on soliciting them since they are probably decent stops....and close by!

Looking on the bright side...we are relatively immune from the "big boys" taking our stops....There's no way they would go after stops that small! HA

Andrew

[AngryChris]

When I worked for another company, my route had steadily grown into 4 large accounts with a half of a day of smaller routes as well.

With 3 schools doing a combined $4500/week, 1 large office doing $1500/week, and a small bi-weekly serviced route doing $1000/week, I was averaging $7,000/week during the school time.

After my employers gained a mega-account which averages $2000/day during the busy time of the year (serviced at least twice a day, 19 machines total), I was grossing anywhere between $11,000 and $13,000/week at 65-70 hours.

Keep in mind, I am not a slow-poke and I try to give the best service I can but I just want you all to know that these huge numbers are certainly possible but I was STRICTLY doing the route work + loading my truck (I had to load the truck myself because my day started at 5:30am before business hours and ended around 7:30pm after business hours).

Would I EVER want to gross that much again? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!! Having to stock 70 cases of bottles and about 20 cases of cans EVERY DAY by myself was OVERKILL!!! My employers seemed to complain about my overtime too, how rude.

P.S. I often had to reload to go back out due to not having enough storage space on the truck to put everything.

I think $6,000/week as the sole owner/operator sounds good to me, unless I had some large accounts to add to it.

[JoeT]

I love this thread! Thx for the info guys, it gives me added motivation!

[Vending How Chris]

1321289675[/url]' post='101457']

I love this thread! Thx for the info guys, it gives me added motivation!

My company with 3 drivers including the owner operator all working 50+ hours a week grosses about 19,000 a week on 200+ locations. So techinically, there are 3 routes that do on average 6,000/week in gross each.

I have to say however that about one third of those are in billing. By that I mean invoices from subsidized snacks and sodas and office coffee service. I know you are in a small town, but if its possible either one or both of these would be a great addition to your bottom line. With office coffee service we've take a car dealership that does about $500-600 a week and made it gross $900-1000 a week. Just providing cups alone is like 100 bucks a pop. Figure in various kinds of coffee at $20 to $80 per case and it all adds up rather quickly. OCS also has the added benefit of only increasing the time at your account by around 20% for almost double the value.

I'm not saying its OCS or bust, just pointing one of the ways in which you can increase the value of an individual account.