San Francisco, CA – May 19, 2016 –Cantaloupe Systems’ all-in-one Seed Cloud solution is helping vending operators across the country combat expensive and time-consuming driver turnover.
Many vending operations struggle to find good route drivers. After investing time and resources to hire and train those drivers, operators are seeing as high as 50% turnover within the first two years—incurring cost and frustration in having to constantly manage hiring and training. As of May 2015, vending operators employ nearly 19% of all U.S. route drivers.
If vending businesses run best with experienced drivers who can effectively handle customer service, machine servicing, as well as cash handling—why is driver retention an industry-wide problem?
One reason could be that a trustworthy driver who is great at customer service may struggle to quickly service a machine. An important part of helping route drivers be as happy and productive as possible is to simplify their jobs—through software. Cantaloupe Systems’ Seed Cloud streamlines machine servicing and cash handling through pre-kitting, dynamic scheduling, and real-time machine alerts.
“The goal is to get food and beverages to consumers, quickly and efficiently,” said Anant Agrawal, Cantaloupe Systems Co-Founder. “With Seed Cloud, operators have complete transparency to what sold, where it sold, how much it sold for, and when to re-stock it. They are empowered to make data-driven decisions that grow the business, letting drivers focus on restocking more machines per route by going to the right machines with the right products the first time.”
Cantaloupe clients are beating the industry trend. Since implementing Cantaloupe Systems’ Seed software, Refreshment Solutions has reduced driver turnover by a factor of six. Average driver compensation has increased 40% even as the company substantively reduced driver cost as percent of sales.
“The drivers fulfill the most significant function in our company,” said Marcus Whitener, Refreshment Solutions CEO. “Everything else in the organization is here to support the drivers—when we lose sight of that, we fail. We want to refine and simplify their role so that they can spend as much time as possible focused on providing the basic function of distribution.”
Pre-kitting is a pivotal driver retention opportunity. Instead of spending the day noting what’s missing from a machine, sifting through boxes to find product, loading bins, and heading back to restock—drivers just grab the pre-kitted bin for a machine, then restock. Seed Cloud delivers machine data that lets operators analyze product needs and send an order to the warehouse, where kits are pulled for the drivers.
Drivers are happier—and operators reduce labor costs, both through increased efficiency and decreased employee turnover. A Center for American Progress (CAP) study estimates that the cost to replace employees making less than $30,000 per annum is 16% of their annual salary.
“I would say we have kept about 90% of our drivers for at least 3-5 years,” said Craig Cordaro, CRH Catering Co. Micro Markets Manager. “At this point, most of our drivers are not in box trucks anymore—they’re in sprinter vans. They’re commission-based. We dropped their commission two percentage points when we started pre-kitting for them. Every driver out is making more money now, working in smaller vehicles that are easier to drive, and easier on their bodies to get in and out of. They spend less time in the back of the truck pulling the items and more time just filling the machines—which is money in their pockets when they’re commission-based.”
For more information about Seed Cloud, click here and tell us a little about your business—a Cantaloupe Specialist will let you know exactly how you can get started using the all-in-one Seed solution.
About Seed Cloud
Seed Cloud is the end-to-end vending retail solution from Cantaloupe Systems. It enables vending operators to take control of their business, to accept card and mobile payments, and to optimize operations to increase sales and dramatically lower operating costs. As a cloud-hosted, mobile-optimized solution, Seed Cloud is accessible from any computer or mobile device, anywhere in the world, without servers to buy or software to install and manage and is comprised of Seed Office™, Seed Cashless™, Seed Pro™, Seed Delivery, and Seed Markets.
About Cantaloupe Systems
Cantaloupe Systems is the refreshment industry’s premier provider of cloud-based, mobile solutions for vending, OCS, and micro markets. The Seed Cloud platform is an end-to-end solution for cashless and mobile payments, dynamic route scheduling, automated pre-kitting and merchandising, and inventory management…all accessible by any mobile device. With a combined 100+ years’ experience, Cantaloupe Systems’ expert consultation team can help operators modernize their refreshment services business resulting in increased revenue, greater route efficiencies and streamlined back office administration. Vending, OCS, and micro market operators around the world rely on Cantaloupe Systems’ innovative solutions to give them full control and visibility over their operations, their inventory, and their people so they can more proactively, predictably, and competitively run their business. Learn more at cantaloupesys.com.
