Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Truth About Vending Route Commission Systems

In reality, commission systems are most suitable for situations where the employee has a lot of control over the rate of production. Of course, it depends on his ability to work harder, smarter, longer and faster.

However, these are less effective in industries where the employee doesn’t have total control over the rate of production. A vending route environment would be one of those industries. For example, a route person who is aid on a commission basis knows that he will earn more if he collects more money on his route.

At Planet Antares Inc, a route driver will learn how to fill and clean vending machines as quickly as possible. He must also reduce the amount of time spent at each location, with the hope that he will have more time to service machines and collect cash each day.

Till now, a commission system appears to be a win-win situation for the Planet Antares operation and the route person. In this way, the employee can earn more commission and the company can earn more profits.

Recently, a survey revealed that most operators pay drivers some type of incentive. There are very few companies that pay drivers a fixed salary. Some of the vendors pay only commission and other pay a combination of commission and salary.

However, there are several issues related to commission systems as well. As the route driver would want to service more Planet Antares vending machines, he may:
1. Drive too fast
2. Perform less than 100 percent of the machine sanitaiton requirements
3. Ignore simple mechanical procedures
4. Fail to take the time to coin test a machine after filling it

Any or all of these factors can create more serious problems than the problem the commission system was originally designed to solve.

On its own, a commission system will not teach you how to schedule a route. The trick is to service the Planet Antares vending machines only after the machine has made enough sales to profitably justify the cost of service.

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