Independent Contractor Routing Business (Vending/delivery/restock)

[AWDtrash]

Does anyone on here have any experience with the routing business? Whether it'll be vending machines, gas station restocking, or home delivery and owning your own trucks and hiring drivers. It seems like an interesting hustle. There are some local independent contractors selling FEDEX routes on craigslist that got me looking into this.

 

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[ebms]

Bump. Did some google searches, this is a pretty interesting topic

 

[Boo Blizzi]

I used to own about 20 vending machines from NY to Philly (out by the airport).

I bought them from a kid that was going off to college and didnt have time to service them for a song and a dance. But my advice is to make sure you get named brand machines made in America. (if that's where you're from)

Here's why...

Everything was going great and the machines out by the airport were killing it ($700-$1200 every 2-3 days), but I didn't realize I had cheap machines until the first one broke down and I needed to call tech support to get it fixed.

Then the validator in another stopped working when someone inserted the new $5 dollar bill. (I still dont know why the new bill messed up the sensor, but my guess is because the machines where crap)

Then I had rats chew up the wire and crawl in through a hole in the back of another machine and take bites out of all the honey buns and Doritos.

Then in 2008, the economy went bad and the steel company out by the airport closed down (that was the majority of my profit) so it wasnt worth riding down to Philly anymore.

I serviced the machines less frequently, until finally the tech support company went out of business and I sold my remaining machines to a sucker gentleman that oddly enough looked like Santa Claus. (he had a white beard and wore bright red and green shirts)

I saw him a few weeks ago and he said he swapped out all the guts of the machines and put in american validators (bill/coin acceptor) and product ejectors (the spirals with little plastic triangles on the ends)