[chopsie]

why not franchise it like ian lancaster?

[michael papworth]

And what's going to happen to your current employees?

[Moderator David@stives]

Franchising isnt for me, not enough profits to earnings ratio

Current employees just wouldnt be replaced as they leave

[daz1977]

so what would be ur plan, sub out contracts or areas

[Moderator David@stives]

daz

early days, just airing my thoughts on a Sunday evening, preparing this weeks work and the vans for tomorrow

[daz1977]

like you said, you might be better off just subbying out, getting contracts, and just slowly wind ur wc side down as and when the lads leave,  some times the stress isnt worth the money

[STEVE-UK]

Do you send your guys to residential custys, i could see that being a bit of a headache,

do your guys take the vans home?

[Moderator David@stives]

Yes the guys do about 20% residential,

the vans stay on my street annoying the neighbours, should send them off with the staff, but they dont want to take them home

[STEVE-UK]

so your guys pull up at your at the end of the day and you refill the vans with water and fuel & repair any equipment then do a work sheet for the next day and book in jobs?

[Richard Holt]

Hi Dave

I'm still available for work in Hants

Rich

[Moderator David@stives]

Hi Rich, still waiting for the nod on the work

[Clive McDonald]

so your guys pull up at your at the end of the day and you refill the vans with water and fuel & repair any equipment then do a work sheet for the next day and book in jobs?

Yes, i assume the answer is yes, but a bit more detail would be good. I wonder about this.

Presumably each van must be jockeyed as transfer hose only comes in thirty metre lengths. Mine just gets from my shed at the back to van at the front.

How many clipboards and how many work lists.Who decides the order?

[Moderator David@stives]

Steve, Slump


end of day, guys come back, hand in worksheets and dockets, half of them left in the van, half unsigned, money never adds up, jobs which arent done are unexplained, have to spend 1 hour running around finding out whats gone wrong etc, finally get everything together and mark off worksheets, money still doesnt add up, some days £50 over ? some days £3.17 under, total mystery sometimes.

Now the interesting bit, guys drive to garage to fill up vans from 3000l holding tanks  if they remember, I go out to check everything ok, drive to petrol station if any vans are empty, rearrange poles for next day, put dockets and appropiate worksheets for the next day in the right vans, this is after I have had a good look at the work and have decided which is the best route. certain drivers can only drive certain vans (insurance purposes) some cant drive, so just sorting this bit is hair pulling time.

All above is the simplified version, this is without any broken equipment i am told about at 10.30 in the evening.

Need to know anymore just ask

[ronnie paton]

i would say it could be organised better, i have simalar problems and this would be my solution.

Get a unit yes a cost but you have said you get about 60 % gross profit i think, this would give you a home life and a business life helping you to switch off.

Now the work sheets if done are done on say WCP so almost do them selves, i try to keep everyday the same so the rounds are already in order so no need to do routes. i would have Teams that stay the same and drive the same van so no need to arrange drives what.

with the money its as simple has this you give them float they sign they then take on the responsibity to make sure money is correct work sheets are filled in correctly slip are postd ect ect if not done they are warned.

this is part of there job description and must be done correctly(i have the non driver dong this from job to job)

repairs can be done by the staff generally your not there to wipe there ass, and finally geta fuel card and let them fill up them selves.

i employ to make life easier once that stops its time for new employees.

If that fails get a contarcts manager to do all that for you and also be hands on and help get more work im sure profit leaves you enough to dothis and making your life easier is which is more important than a littl extra profit??

staff wil always push and test you though!

[dean123]

sack the lot and sub it out

all that hassle is doing you no good


mess there wages up on purpose and watch how much grief you get

[WISEOWL]

To me it just seems like you are having a moan at your staff! 

If what you say is true then it is totally unacceptable in any trade that employees can conduct themselves so casually.

[Moderator David@stives]

WiseOwl

It is not the staffs fault they are trying 100%, sometimes they cant help it, even after a rollocking and the fear of the sack, some are good at somethings and bad at others, some are good all rounders but people are people.

not having a moan, just got asked to elaborate, the end of day tasks

Ronnie

I am with you all the way, the theory is fantastic.

We do have fuel cards etc, but life is never that smooth,

the reality is another matter.

All in all the staff are good, just the same old problems everyday.

Routes, You will realize as you grow the route planning gets more complicated, we do over 500 stores a month as well as about 1000 other jobs, all varying times and frequencies. some twice weekly some weekly, fortnightly , monthly, four weekly, 6 weekly, 8 weekly, 2 monthly, quarterly, 6 monthly, yearly, no 2 days or 2 routes ar ever the same.


To maximise profits each day is planned meticulously the evening before, I could leave it to the software, but if i can make an extra £20 by swapping rounds around i will.

You are right about being better organised though.

One thing i have learnt in business, is to concentrate on the bigger picture and ignore the trivial, I suppose the day to day items are the trivial.

In simple terms, My time is better spent chasing bigger contracts than sorting the trivial.

Solution -- Slow down sort the trivial, put in measures to control the trivial, then resume where I was.

I like it here, it helps me think, cheers guys for the input

[ronnie paton]

think about it being a good problem to have..............but seriously why not get a contracts manager whos sole life is to make your life easier.

you can then go out and get the bigger contracts.

I will say ts easy to give advice but haveall the problems you have but on a smaller scale.

[Moderator David@stives]

Ronnie

Was only talking tonight about giving one of my lads that role.

already got a full time office admin lady.

[jonnyald]

Sounds as tho the men are working flat out  and  sounds as if you should work out a fixed round route  so nobody gets ran ragged,including you