March 23, 2012. Samuel Valero
How Much Time Does Servicing Require?
If your route is well planned and laid out with all the locations closely situated then you should be able to service about 3 to 4 location an hour. Most of this time is actually drive time as a basic servicing only takes about 5 minutes. A basic servicing includes money collection and wiping down the machines. Obviously if you need to do repairs or product changes then this will drive up your servicing time, but most of the time you’ll only be doing a basic servicing.
How Often Does A Route Need To Be Serviced?
When you get your first machines on location, it’s pretty normal to want to run out and check on them all the time, but once you get more established and start running more machines, you really need to become more concerned with time management.
Just like most other people, in the beginning I was checking on my machines about every 2 to 3 week, but now I only service every 6 weeks. It took me a little bit of time to get comfortable with this sort of hand off approach, but a 6 week servicing schedule works for me. Initially it may be hard to go 6 weeks without servicing, but trust me, you’re vending machines will be fine. After all, vending is meant to be a time efficient business.
Personally I think a 6-8 week schedule is fine for most locations. I’ve seen some venders that seem to service even less than that, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Based on my experience, most candies are fine on a 6 week schedule, but start to deteriorate after 6 weeks. Mike & Ikes, peanuts, Skittles and Hot Tamales are fine for 6 weeks, their ideal freshness level is probably 4 weeks, but at 6 weeks the deterioration isn’t substantial. Gumballs and Reeses Pieces last longer and are perfectly fine at 6 weeks and beyond.
Updated March 23, 2012. Published February 8, 2012. Samuel Valero
