Operations
Route
Term from the vending glossary
Planned sequence of visits by a service technician to multiple vending machine locations. Optimized routes reduce travel costs and ensure machines do not run out of stock. VMS systems calculate routes dynamically based on reported fill-level data.
A route is the sequence in which a service technician visits their assigned machines. It is the central cost driver in the vending business because travel time and labour time are incurred regardless of how much is sold at each machine.
Fixed routes follow a calendar schedule and thus inevitably arrive either too early or too late. Demand-driven planning uses reported fill levels and skips machines that are still well-stocked—reducing the number of stops but requiring both reliable data and drivers who trust the system. In practice, the transition often fails on the second condition rather than the first.