is a Vendor Vacation Services company serving the East Tennessee area. We are a small, family owned, company comprised of a husband and wife striving to provide much needed service to local independent distributors. So far, we have garnered experience working with distributors for several different bread and snack companies, including: Flower's Bakery, Bimbo Bakeries, and McKee Foods. Expanding ou
r experience to even more companies is a priority! Backstory:
We originally began Upton Distribution Inc. to begin independent ownership ourselves. This began with a Flower's Bakery route in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. This was a great experience, but a large beast to overcome with our lack of experience just starting in the vendor community. We moved on from Flower's Bakery to operating a McKee Food's delivery route for an independent owner. This route provided us with different experiences for over a year, allowing us to navigate different situations that can happen on a route, and build our network of local vendors. While operating the McKee Food's route, we noticed one major similarity between most of the vendors we came to know: much needed time off. Throughout the year we listened to different distributors with different companies share their stress of needing real quality time off, especially after being ravaged during the heavy grocery shopping brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. This prompted us to quickly reconsider our business plans and take a different direction. How we work:
Distributors schedule with us on a week-by-week basis. For the first vacation, we will do one-time-training at some point before the vacation. During training, it is only necessary to schedule for delivery days (see services section for costs of training). If delivery schedules repeat during the week, the operator can choose to only train until all stores are visited once (ex. if Tuesday and Thursday are the same schedule, we only train on Tuesday). This is a cost saving option for the operator, since the charge is per day; however, some operators choose to schedule training for the entire week to have an easier pre-vacation week for themselves. During training we will also discuss different aspects of route operation with the distributor, such as: bestselling items, personal merchandising preferences, and schedules. Training also gives us the opportunity to meet the receivers on the route and have them be familiar with us the week of vacation. Notes are kept for each route so we can make sure to keep it smooth running while the operator is on vacation. During the delivery week, we work as a team to deliver to each stop in a timely manner, and merchandise back stock and new stock as needed as well as performing all other tasks the operator would otherwise be unable to do while on vacation. The cost of this service is typically 10% of net product per-day, or week for some snack routes, (please see the services & F.A.Q section for more in-depth cost of vacations per week). Payment is expected on next-week settlement day for the owner. F.A.Q
What will it cost to run my route? Cost is 10% of total load cost each day with a minimum of $1,000 total for the week. This means if 10% of load comes out to be less than $1,000 for the total week, then the cost is $1,000. Example: If total net for the week, after promotions, is $15,000, then the cost for the week is $1,500. If total net, after promotions, is $5,000, then the cost is $1,000. Is my own equipment required during the vacation? We are currently in progress of having our own delivery truck serviced and safely operable, so for now it is required that we utilize the distributor's equipment. What if I have merchandisers or pull-up people already hired for my route? Will they get time off too? Merchandisers and pull-up employees that are separate from route delivery operation will only be covered upon special request of circumstances. An additional charge of up to 5% of load may be requested dependent on requirements for request. What if I only need a few days off? We may consider operating for periods of time shorter than one week for special circumstances. Price for this service is still 10% of load on a day-by-day basis. Payment is still expected on the next-week settlement day. Example: If we deliver $2,400 on Monday and $2,500 on Tuesday, then the cost will be $490. What if I don't want time off at all, but I have a huge promotion to deliver for and could just use extra help for the day? This is an additional service that we have considered providing, at least for the time being, on a day-by-day as needed basis; at least until our calendar gets too full to continue to accommodate this service. We would be happy to give additional support on big promotion days that may be stressful for the owner to complete alone, or may risk them not making door times or spending more hours than necessary on the route. This cost for this service is $100 per-day, expected end-of-day of service.
