Site visit/service rota

[Vendition Ltd]

How often do you all visit your sites with towers in?

I am an experienced operator but am finding it tough to constantly think of 200 plus sites, sometimes it takes control and cannot switch off apart from thinking about what sites need servicing when!

Obviously we all have the bread and butter sites which always call you when they need a refill so on these sites I can relax and not worry too much about. Also there are the good sites which sell LOADS of stock so you just put them in your diary for a weekly or fortnightly visit so things are simple to manage so far. but its really the average sites I am finding it hard to manage which is the majority of the round tbh.

I have just bought Microsoft outlook, i input all the sites I visit each day and ask outlook to automatically put the sites back in my diary 4 weeks from the day I serviced - I know tubz vending recommend servicing your machines every 4 weeks but I finding 4 weeks flies around the corner and you are back at the site before you know it. A lot of the time I find the machines not desperately need filling (30 - 50 sales) so my time is not being utilised to the max. I like to service machine when they have at least £55 in the cash box if I want to earn decent money at the end of the day.

So just wondered what your plan is? Maybe I should change to rota to visit sites every 6 weeks?

Cheers

Ross

[sadler2886]

average sites I leave 6 weeks and slow sites say £20 a month or less I leave 8 weeks.

regards
rich

[part-time-operator]

i think this is the price you pay for having a bigger round...it seems to me this is as much art as science.

Best selling lines go fastest so if you are willing to service some sites more often you sometimes see a higher monthly average sales but you are picking up less money per site. On the other hand some sites seem to slowly sell the first 40 units and then when people see that its being used there is a mad rush. then again some sites seem to never sell more than 40 no matter how long they are left for.

e.g. pick up £45 every 10 days, monthly sales £135
vs. pick up £55 every 2 weeks. monthly sales £110

if you switch your rota to that on 20 sites you can get an extra £500p/m but you will have to work more

On your best sites you are probably losing sales by waiting until £55 in the cashbox, on your worst sites you can probably leave them longer which will actually increase their sales and save you time. this is just my experience.

[Rossi fan]

Ross,
I do all mine on a 4 week rota, unless I get call outs before that time. My advice is split your sites up into rounds. I presume you use site identification cards, so you know when they were last visited. Have a rota where you know when your rounds are next due and if you go out early, to a call out, mark the card. Also a calendar may help you organise.

Cheers,

Paul

[Vendition Ltd]

I agree Mike but it makes things very complicated by having all sites on a different visit cycle. I'm losing a lot of sites lately (not due to my service but due to closures etc etc) and I was thinking maybe its just a lot mor thorough to visit sites every 4 weeks no matter what, maybe this is better practise.

Even though I will be working more and collecting less money maybe this is what is needed if you want to survive in this game

Ross

[Vendition Ltd]

Hi Paul,

Do you not find it a lot of sites only having £20 in the cash box after only 4 weeks?

I have just bought outlook and I am getting it to prompt me when 4 weeks pass from each site visit

Do you think you could stretch it to 5 weeks Paul?

Cheers

Ross

[Rossi fan]

Hi Paul,

Do you not find it a lot of sites only having £20 in the cash box after only 4 weeks?

I have just bought outlook and I am getting it to prompt me when 4 weeks pass from each site visit

Do you think you could stretch it to 5 weeks Paul?

Cheers

Ross

Hi Ross,

Yes there are some with small amounts of sales. If it is a slow predictable site and it has 20 out and pretty even sales, I may leave it until next month. If one popular product is low and all others are selling, I will top it up whilst I am there.
Visiting each site on a rota has its merits, because you can fix problems and often sites don't ring you if there is a jam. ( especially if they are charity ones). It also lets them see your face.

I prefer 4 weekly, but you could do 5, if you double up on the sites that sell well in 4. After the May B/H, I started getting call outs after 2 weeks, so I did the lot. Now I now they are all topped up until next time. If I had not done that I would have lost sales. I don't agree with just doing your busy sites, unless they are on your doorstep, as you will use more fuel overall.

Cheers,

Paul

[part-time-operator]

Paul it's true you use more fuel but its a trade off between profits and time. if you can only get to 20-25 sites in a day you dont want to waste time on the ones which only have £20 in. the other aspect is that a fixed rota like yours also saves time because you can just work through set rounds.

[Style]

Bloody hell, 25 visits a day £55 average, that's £1925 a day, £9625 turn over on a 5 day week. I must be doing something wrong!

[PGBrew]

Hi Ross,

Ditch outlook for planning your round. Buy 5 folders and divide your two hundred sites into five rounds, 40 sites per folder/round. Buy 200 plastic sleves and place site details in them. Mark each sheet with amount taken & date last serviced and replace at the back of the folder. This way the site to be serviced is always on top, busier sites will of course jump the queue. On your busiest sites put second machines in. It's nt just maximising sales, time management is just as important. I like to average £100 per site and aim to do 15 sites per day.

Pete