National Clothesline

‘Wow, all I can say is wow.” – Steve Martin from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 1988.

Throughout my travels this past year, I was amazed at what I continued to see and what I have been preaching for a long time: Do not pay your route driver straight commission. It has usually been proposed in theory, although I listen to those of differing opinion who would confer with me.

But, unfortunately, I saw several new clients this year who answered my ad which asked, “Have your routes plateaued or even decreased?”

I was surprised to have coached many who have been in the business long but were unable to pinpoint why their routes were going down. It became all too repetitive.

After examining all the data, one thing was consistent across the country — the straight commissioned route drivers were the major cause of the decrease.

If you don’t know me, hold on for a second. I am very protective of all route drivers. I am usually the one who convinces an operator not to fire a driver. But I still have to lean on my recommendation of staying away from commission in paying a route driver.

Don’t get me wrong, it works, and has worked for some, but time is proving my theory and I hope you don’t experience what I saw in 2007.

OK, so how can the one individual who built the route up end up decreasing your sales?

Well, there are several factors that have led to sales volume going down.

You know this guy, “nobody can replace me” is his favorite saying.

First of all, what I saw more than once is straight commissioned route drivers who are pretty much in control of most of the route operations. They are often the ones responsible for the growth, and they, in turn, end up taking care of their customers their way.

By over servicing them, Irvin feels that he is doing both the company and the client a favor.

I believe that this is a problem since it may end up coming down to having the route split into separate routes for growth purposes and the driver refusing to allow it.

Also, if or when the delivery person calls in sick, it may take two people to do the route and that isn’t good.

I have seen drivers delivering until 9 o’clock at night, believing they are helping the customer, but after surveying some, the customer isn’t always happy

Irvin also isn’t willing to “give up” his customers so that the routes can be split and enabled to grow with two drivers.

In turn, he believes that the customer will only use him and surely we all know that people love the service as much as the driver.

One more point is that the driver is also putting on more miles and is sometimes less efficient by servicing customers in his own way, making the route less profitable. He also thinks he is underpaid and overworked.

A second instance is a new commission driver who takes over and gets the route and is finished as quick as possible.

In his eyes, he gets paid on commission so the faster he gets done, the sooner he gets home.

Obviously, this situation has rung true for many of you. I have seen a straight commission driver run a $6,000 a week route into $3,500 a week in a matter of three months. Try retrieving those losses.

Carl would literally miss 10 to 15 customers a day and by the time the company caught it it was too late and the customer went to the more competent competitor.

Careless Carl is also harder on the vehicle and that costs you more.

Another thing Carl loves to do is cut time by putting more and more customers on will-call.

Will-Call Willie is his cousin who cuts time and sells it to you as saving money. I have a client who had 120 people on will-call. We compared 2006 to 2007 and the company was down 35 percent in sales volume.

We contacted every one of the customers and left bags that very week. Carl left and the customers came back. Go figure.

Larry is the one who wants the dough but doesn’t have the go. He is also Will-Call Willie’s cousin.

Usually he is the most likable of them all, but takes his time and convinces you there is no more room on the route to service more customers.

He has limited sales skills and considers a big marketing day hanging 10 door hangers.

Larry also can live off $400 a week and that is fine with him. It is often tough to motivate him and tough to fire him since he is also known as Likeable Larry.

These twins made some appearances as well this year. They do a pretty good job but just want a change and the new guys just don’t fill their shoes as well.

They are hard to keep unless you find another position for them.

Fed-Up Freddie and Burned-Out Bernie cost you by having to train new drivers over and over again and the customers end up seeing new faces and feel less confident in the company as a whole. These guys are those commissioned guys who also feel like they are worth more.

I am not saying that I guarantee that you will have your commission driver end up with one of these maladies. Usually drivers who get there do so because of a lack of management or direction.

But I would have to say that 40 percent of my clients were dealing with a drop in volume with one of the four variations of those maladies or a combination of sorts in which the customer was not being serviced in the best way, or maybe not at all.

I still believe that it works for some to pay drivers a straight commission. If you do, there must be key measurables in place and accountability so that you as the owner/manager are in control of your business and your customers.

The other alternative is to pay an hourly rate plus a commission with incentive to add to the route. I have seen this work more and it creates fewer problems long term.

Give the driver two to four percent of the route on top of the base pay.

This way the driver will actually drive slower through the neighborhood and that is a good thing.

You still have to manage them, but a self-sustained driver will cost you more in the long run.

Please let me know if you have one of these four drivers working for you. There are ways to correct problems and prevent you from dealing with issues later. Set up a standard now and I know your routes will grow.