At Parks Coffee, we have over 200 fleet vehicles hitting the pavement every morning. Over 200 route men and technicians, in eight branches within five states, going out into the community. Delivering, stocking, rotating, servicing, and inventorying your break room to help you stay ready to face the day.
So how do we manage it all? How do we keep our trucks on track, our deliveries on time, and — most importantly — our customers happy?
To start, each Parks Coffee route salesman attends a week-long training conference twice a year. For new employees, this is an introductory to the protocol — for experienced employees, it’s a refresher and a reminder of the best practices we require. Training details how to perform their daily job functions to the best of their ability, and how to get there, safely.
Upon completion of this week-long classroom training summit, the new Parks Coffee route salesman now takes part in a four-week course utilizing in-field training with their supervisor. This section of training reinforces route delivery and product skills, as well as driving safety, truck maintenance, and trailer organization. The route salesman is assigned a fleet vehicle, equipped with a GPS device, which tracks and logs vehicle speed and location. This device also monitors hard driving, turning and handling to maximize safety and fuel efficiency. Likewise, each driver is assigned a key fob, required for each journey, so there is no gap in the picture of their driving behavior.
Fleet vehicle maintenance is an important component in this process, as with proper maintenance and service, vehicles run cleaner, with less downtime, so our customers can depend on us to be there on time, every time.
Completing the course of accountability, our leadership team regularly monitors the multiple data points transmitted — with near real-time accuracy — reviewing the progress and stability of each fleet vehicle operator. Parks Coffee, and the members of our community, have high standards for our employees, and we hold them to these expectations.