What makes the best drivers in Rent to Own

Ask any experienced rent-to-own operator what separates a thriving store from a struggling one, and eventually the conversation comes back to the same position — the delivery tech. In this episode, Pete Shau and Danny make the case that the rent-to-own delivery driver is one of the most undervalued, underestimated, and underinvested roles in the entire RTO industry, and that fixing how you hire, train, and empower your delivery team may be the fastest path to growing your rent-to-own store operations.

The delivery tech is the last face a customer sees. They're in the customer's home. They're the ones setting the tone for whether that customer makes their next payment, refers a neighbor, or never comes back. Pete and Danny break down exactly what traits to look for when hiring RTO delivery drivers — from physical capability and mechanical aptitude to customer service mindset, area knowledge, route optimization, and collections awareness — and why personality matters just as much as a clean driving record.

They share real stories from the field, including how a sharp-eyed Rent King driver in Winter Haven spotted a customer loading a U-Haul on a scheduled pickup day and prevented a potential skip — saving the store time, money, and merchandise. These are the moments that define what separates a great rent-to-own delivery technician from someone just moving furniture.

Pete and Danny also dig into how to structure the driver role for maximum impact — including building a lead driver position to improve team direction, offering driver spiffs tied to sales referrals and upsell opportunities, involving delivery techs in delivery scheduling decisions, and using route planning strategies that improve time management and increase the number of completed deliveries per day.

The episode also highlights Magic Rent to Own's recognition as one of Pennsylvania's best workplaces in 2022, making the point that great rent-to-own workplace culture extends all the way to the driver's seat — and that stores like Magic, led by Dan Fisher, are showing the rest of the RTO industry what it looks like to invest in every level of the team.

If your rent-to-own store is struggling with customer service scores, collection field visits, delivery efficiency, or inventory accountability, this episode will have you looking at your driver seat differently by the time it's over.

Transcript

Danny Lastra 0:08

And welcome to the RTO show with Danny and Pete, your host Danny.

Pete Shau 0:12

And I'm your host, Pete, and today we're talking about driving 101. What makes the best driver? And I think for sure that we both know the driver is probably the most important piece of that puzzle. There's the manager, there's a GM that plays that king spot. And then, you know, you probably have the assistant at the queen spot, you have a couple of sales, and you have a couple of account managers that are probably like rooks and knights. But the pawn, the almighty pawn, is actually a pretty powerful piece. And sometimes I believe that we are overlooking the obvious. We don't hire the way we should when it comes to driving positions, and it affects our stores tremendously. I mean, what do you think?

Danny Lastra 0:48

I think the driver position is an MVP for sure in some stores. When we think about it, the delivery techs are the last faces our customers see. That is their last interaction. So when we talk about customer service, when we talk about salesmanship, building rapport, we're always talking about what's happening in the store over the phone. But that driver that's delivering that product, that's servicing that product, they're the last interaction with that customer. And I feel sometimes we don't emphasize enough how important that position really is.

Pete Shau 1:22

It brings value to the table. You want to see a successful store, you want to see a successful team, I guarantee you they've got great drivers. No great team is gonna have a great team all the way up, and then hit and then when you hit the bottom, and when I say bottom, I just mean somebody at the entry level that's not good, you're not gonna see a successful team. There's no way. I recommend you going out to any store, any location, and taking a look at their team. And when you see a successful staff, you see some drivers that can not only be customer friendly, they know how to handle a couple of situations, they know how to go over. You know, we want to get away from the driver who knows the agreement, right? But they need to know the agreement. So the drivers who know the agreement, that know how to word it, to know the verbiage, know where to sign, know how to take care of the customer when they're there, knows how to handle the situations because sometimes they're the ones knocking on doors. Man, a driver is the absolute most chameleon position sometimes, and I think that we overlook it way too much. And I question that why? Why are we doing that? And what are some of the values that you look for when you're putting a driver in a position?

Danny Lastra 2:26

Well, one of the important factors that we need to ask is can you handle and drive a 26-foot box truck?

Pete Shau 2:37

Well, most trucks out there on the rental companies that are about 16, they can go up to that length. And I know that when we review candidates, probably one of the biggest things that I look at is not just knowledge, I mean, and of course it's physicality, but I'm also looking for that personality. And that personality's got to shine, that personality's gotta be different than the other personalities on my team. Those people have to be outgoing, they have to be lighthearted, they have to be hard workers. And, you know, truthfully, especially in a Florida setting, and I know some of you guys are cross-state or up north, we have heat about 10 months out of the year. Crazy amount of heat for somebody to deal with. But, you know, going up north, I mean, you have the cool fall, the cold winter, um, you have the wet spring. You know, there's a lot of different things that happen in different states. And man, you have to have somebody that's been able to overcome that. But the driver position is by far one of the most important to keep the wheels of the store turning. You take a look at what you have available and you start training that person. And don't train them to just be an account manager. Don't train them to just be a salesperson. Train them to be the best driver they can be, and your store will automatically succeed.

Danny Lastra 3:45

You know, one of the things we talked about, Pete, is giving the drivers a responsibility, like an inventory checklist. I remember I used to do this with at Temple Terrace when I ran the store, David Brown, hands down, the best delivery tech I've ever had. And he handles so much more for me than just servicing and delivering. He was on top. He would every Monday he was giving me a checklist. Like I have X amount of hoses, X amount of dryer cords, X amount of drain hoses, tools, etc. And he would give me a list, and then he would actually do a lot of his own ordering. He knew how to order, he knew where to go. Petra, Staples, RES. He would just get their approval to the computer, put everything in a car, and then before he would click that checkout button, he would go, Hey Danny, can you approve of this? And I'll be like, Yes, yes, no, no. Do we really need that? You know, it's stuff like that that makes me think of when I think of a delivery tech, that's what I think of. Somebody that's just on it. Like, it's not just about coming in, looking at the delivery book. Who am I, what furniture am I taking? What am I picking up? It's it's almost taking ownership of that position of the vehicle, doing the vehicle maintenance. Not necessarily maybe personally doing the vehicle maintenance, but at least notifying the manager, like, hey, this is what's going on with the vehicle. We need to get this done ASAP.

Pete Shau 4:54

How about having that driver that has that service mindset, right? That that knows how to kind of go in there and diagnose things a little bit, you know, maybe the stove that that has that burner that's just not coming on, and maybe that eye, you know, the eyelet is just not in all the way, or whatever the case may be, or a simple change out of a knob, or dryer's not drying, and instead of just, hey man, it's not drying, I need to take this out and do a swap out. And they they take you know the five minutes to kind of pull up right. Oh, you know, the dryer vent hose is a little clogged up or it's kinked and it's not got enough airflow, or whatever the case may be, that the you know, the dryer plug is not plugged in all the way. I mean, you know about that, right? So, and it's one of the it's one of those things that, you know, when you have a service, uh a service-inclined driver that they can go out there and kind of diagnose things easily. Sometimes I think we forget that that is a teachable asset. You know, when you bring somebody in and you're training them, one of the things you might want to do is sit down and say, hey, these are the basic things that you might run into, and this is how you problem solve them. Get rid of 50% of your services right off the bat. Instead of taking out the time and taking something out of somebody's house, giving them a loan or doing an exchange, that's a couple drives, that's a loan. Why don't we just save it in the first five, 10 minutes, make the customer happy, and then chain and empower that driver to really handle that situation? And the better that they get at it, of course, then they'll do it again and again and again. And uh you want you want to have a tenured driver. I mean, like you said, DB is the best driver that we've had. Why wouldn't we want more of them? Because I mean, they do help us out. There's no doubt about it. Also, mechanically capable, and when I say that, I don't mean that in a service mindset. A lot of what the drivers do is physical, right? So when you get a truck in and it's got tables and it's got, you know, coffee in and tables or it's got regular tables or it's got bunk beds, who's generally going to be putting it together? Hopefully not the guy who doesn't know the difference between a flat hand and a Phillips, right? So you want to make sure that these guys have the right tools to make it happen. But also because, you know, you can show them how to do it. I mean, it comes with instructions. But just me being mechanically inclined means most of the time, and I know that you've probably done it, I know I do it nowadays, when we put something together, we probably don't even look at the instructions anymore. Although we should, right? Because you can put the legs in the wrong spot and it screws in the wrong, you have like three screws left over and you're like, what the heck? But you know, most of the time you can kind of look at it from the best part and go, okay, I can kind of tell that this is a bolt screw and it goes, you know, to hold up a certain thing, or this is a regular wood screw that would kind of put the seats down or whatever. And when you have that guy who has that mechanically capable mindset, they're not putting together the bunk bed for like three, four hours, right? They're in there in like 30, 40 minutes with a helper and boom, it's done on the floor set up and ready to go. I mean, how how much how much would you really pay for that? Because I know uh having a great driver is really important, having them take care of that, unbelievably important.

Danny Lastra 7:34

Well, I've always been a person that values time over money. So when I think of that situation, yeah, I'm willing to pay because it's gonna save me time. You just said it. They're already mechanically a client or they know how to service an issue like a washing machine. We talk about this a lot. A lot of the times a washing machine, the motherboard just needs to be reset, and there's just an easy five-step process to reset it to run the test instead of calling an appliance center out there to do it for you and then having the loaner and all that stuff. And if you just teach and train your guys how to do that, it might take them an extra 15 minutes of that visit, but it'll save you two hours from the back and forth.

Pete Shau 8:10

It it is always a big difference when you have somebody who really knows what's going on. And another thing that I've always seen makes some of the best drivers is when you have somebody who knows the area. And some people are like, I know the area because I know I know that I have Google. I have I have maps, you know, Google Maps. No, that's not knowing the area. Knowing the area is knowing what time of the day you should probably be in a certain area or what time of the day it takes you longer to get to a certain area, what areas go one way and what areas go another, so it might be close, but it's still hard to get there. A time frame where you know, hey, I can get to this street and then this street and then this particular stop if I do it in this particular order. And if I can speak for almost all the rent-owned industry, we give a window of when we're gonna be there. And that window is to help, you know, allow us to be there on a time frame that we will make it. We don't want to say we'll be there exactly at 3.30 and we come late. You don't want to, you always want to underpromise and overperform. So you give him a window to make sure that we I I learned that from Teddy. Teddy always used to say that, but we always um want to make sure that we do what we say we're gonna do, right? And if you have a guy who knows the area, who knows how to, and let's say he doesn't, I mean you can put him in map quest and make different stops, but put it in a way where you're not going backwards and forwards and past the stops that you're gonna go to later and kind of just going all over the place, that really helps with your time management. And instead of getting maybe two or three deliveries done, you can probably get four or five deliveries done if you if you put them in the right order or in the right shape. Now, sometimes you can't get away from that because of scheduling, or somebody needs that refrigerator right now, or it's a stove and it's a it's an important issue. But when you have somebody who can look at a book and go, hey, if we can put this here, or if I can do this particular one first, it'll save so much more time for the other two deliveries. And man, that time management is priceless. I mean, you're all about time management. I know that's that's your deal.

Danny Lastra 9:57

No, no, you you hit the nail right on the head. I I talk about when I do deal with drivers, that's one of the things I actually do. I take them to the delivery book. Now they do know the area, that's that is a plus. Even if they don't, Google Maps is a big plus and is real easy to manage. So what I do is I train my drivers to go to the delivery book, go to every customer, go to their address, see how far it is from the store, where are the other deliveries at. And you know, it's okay. Sometimes you can call a customer and ask, like, hey, can I push you back two hours? Or another thing, uh a little controversial, whatever, a lot of people don't like this idea, but I know I've been doing this a lot of my stores, is I've been doing a 12 to 6 delivery schedule. So you do sales, you're scheduling pickups, whatever for the next day. We're telling a lot of customers it's just 12 to 6. That way in the morning we can schedule accordingly. So that way, I know it used to be the whole rental owner is like a two-hour window, and that was a benefit, but when you do that, I believe you are overpromising and under-delivering. You're gonna get a lot of complaints. Oh, you were late, you didn't make this window. Even if you give them a call, hey I'm running 30 minutes behind. Nobody wants to hear that. If you give them that underpromise of 12 to 6, and then I'm calling you at three, hey, I'm on my way, oh great, I'm not sitting here all day. But then we got you in a timely fashion and according to conduciveness to our business of our travel time, because you might be 30 minutes north and I have two deliveries that's 15 minutes south. Why would I do one 15 minutes south, go 30 minutes north to come back south? And let me just knock out the two 15 minutes south ones and then come do the 30-minute north one, if that makes any sense.

Pete Shau 11:33

Well, you know, I think when I'm gonna say this because I've I've noticed this recently. We have rent-to-home stores popping up everywhere. And it used to be that a store would only within work within, you know, like let's say five miles, and then, you know, that was always a typical thing. You know, you work within five miles of the store and then out outlying after that. And it depends on if you're in a rural location or if you're in a city location and stuff like that. But now I think as stores are growing and they're becoming more popular in this day and age, you service a larger area. And sometimes when you're servicing that larger area, it's really hard to come up with that pinpoint time of where you're gonna be there because the farther the distance, the more that can happen in between here and there, including gas stops, flat tires, accidents that happen on the road that we can't we have nothing to do with, or that something happens on the road where there's spills. And so you've got to create the windows that are gonna be sufficient for you. And you have to have a driver who can navigate those windows who can kind of tell you, hey, this is what's going on in this area, or hey, I heard this on the radio. We might want to avoid this area, it's gonna add another 15 minutes on to the two and a 15 minutes on the from, and that's gonna change things. And somebody who's being vigilant and looking forward to those situations and those and that appointment book that you have, your daily activity planner, and say, Yeah, this is gonna be a little bit more difficult. We might not want to stack this because I've got to take this out of the box. This is on the third floor, then I have to put it together, then I've got to put the handles on it, right? So, you know, if you put this in a two-hour window, that might be every bit of my two hours, as opposed to you put three things in this window and I can get them done. Yeah, this one's gonna take a while. So that forward-looking driver uh who can really kind of diagnose what it is uh that he's servicing, take a look at what it is he's delivering, take a look at what needs to be done on the delivery, man, those are invaluable. Also, having somebody who's you know, collections is a different type of not everybody likes to do it, not everybody does it well, but we do have those situations where collections are important. How great is it that you have a driver who's not afraid to go knock on a door?

Danny Lastra 13:28

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's definitely a benefit. And just the other week, I had a driver out in Winter Haven, Alex, he really helped the store and we saved a potential skip. So we had a customer that was scheduled for a pickup on a Monday, no big deal, right? But on Saturday, they were doing a delivery on the same street, and he noticed and he remembers the address. And if you talk to a lot of the drivers, it's so funny. When I talk to the drivers, they all say most of them say the same thing. They don't remember customer names, but they remember addresses. Give them an address, they'll be like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where I went. But you give them a name, I don't know who that is, but it's it's hilarious. But, anyways, so so so he was on the street delivering uh merchandise to a new customer, and he looked three doors down, recognizes the house, knows that it was the customer that is scheduled for Monday, and saw a U-Haul truck that they were packing up to leave. So he immediately calls the store, talks to the store manager, all said, Hey, Miss Jones, whatever, whatever. I see a U-Haul truck. Do you want me to go and interject? And he's like, Absolutely. He he went right across the street and retrieved our property right then and there. I'm not saying they were gonna skip, but you know, if you've been in this business, you know when you see a U-Haul truck, red flag.

Pete Shau 14:42

Red flag. Man, how amazing was that that he was able to catch that. That's actually awesome. And that that's another notch in the belt of a fantastic driver. And those things are invaluable. I mean, so when you have somebody who's also you wouldn't say always collection-minded, but collection savvy in that in a situation just like that. I mean, how great is that to stop a potential situation? And the worst thing that can happen is, hey man, we'll bring it back to the store and hold it for you, and then when you get to where you're going, we can confirm that you have a lease, we can verify that that's where you're going and what's going to be. Sure, we'll re deliver it. But if not, then we're gonna conclude the the our business here and then we'll we'll just keep going forward.

Danny Lastra 15:19

Another good thing is a good driver after doing a delivery, let's say it's a little bit of a tricky address because sometimes the maps don't always give you the best direction. You know that better than anybody, Pete, right? But so when they'll come back, I've seen great drivers do this. They'll tell the storm, hey, FYI, it's a tricky road. You gotta make a left at the hidden tree, and it's behind the third house. That's where they really live at. So the address is accurate, but it's kind of because you know, because again, they're doing the delivery, so it when it's time to go do a field visit, you how many times do you hear a commenter say, I can't find the house? Well, the house has to exist. We delivered it, but that's where that communication and the notation is so important.

Pete Shau 16:00

Just in case anybody needs to understand what he's talking about, I have me and Apple have a love-hate relationship, and I have to use it. And uh when I use Apple Maps, I get lost on a very normal basis. I really wish I could say I didn't. So uh yeah, it says go one way and I go completely another direction. It's probably mostly my fault and user error, but me, me and my Apple phone, we don't work out that way. But it is true when you get that driver who understands what's going on and they know that something's tricking, they can come back and kind of give you that information or put it in the system as a you know a tip. Hey, this is you know, 9, 12, and a half. What does half mean? Well, if you go behind the first building on the left, there's a shack in the back, or you know, behind that or next to that or whatever, or it's the apartment on the left, even though it says uh, you know, apartment one, it's actually apartment B or whatever the case is, and it gives you a better understanding. Those things, as you go along, and you'll find, man, it makes your day easier, things run smoother, a lot faster. You you become dependent on how stable a driver can make your store. And that's why the basics of driving is find somebody who can really do the job, but do it well. Be willing to put knowledge and time into that person, not just this is how you pick up, this is how you move, this is how you drop off. You know, make sure you take the tag off when you're delivering it. I want you to, you know, take off with it my little tag holder. Make sure I get the, you know, the tags or when you're moving out of the showroom, make sure that you keep the tags with the product. Yeah, that's the basic stuff, right? And we're talking about the basic stuff, but there's a lot more basics that go along with it. And if you're talking about having a great driver, you got to have somebody who's willing to step up to the plate. Another thing that we want to look for is somebody, first off, you have the right to have the right dress code, right? Because they're out there, they're getting hot, they're doing a lot of stuff. Make sure that they can wear whatever correlates to your company, but wear something that's movable, breathable, and easy for them to get their job done because they're really stressed, you know, they're really putting a lot of stress on their body to get things done. Make it a little easier for them. Make sure that you have water all the time at the store. Don't let that ever, ever run out. You know, make sure that they stay professionally dressed, they stay, you know, in a in a mindset that they understand that regardless of what the customer's going through, that they are number one. And another thing that we we like to do here at Ranking is we have a driver spiff. They go out there and they sell tires, because of course, tires is probably the biggest thing that we've added to the system. And now they're the ones out there taking a look at what the cut in the customer's home, right? And they have the ability to say, hey, you know what, I noticed that they're mostly empty, or they need a bed, or they need a new TV, or they need, you know, the house is a little bit dark, but they could probably use some lighting and they come back and they give the sales references to the sales manager. Hey, this customer could possibly use this or possibly use that. Well, we give spiffs for that, right? So they might not have to be able to do the sale because they got to come out back and do something. But if you let the salesperson know, hey, this person could use a new bed or a new TV or a new, you know, wash and dryer or a dryer to match the washing machine, or they knew they need a set of tires. Make sure you take care of them. We got the $5 spiffs, and it and all it takes is one sale. If they get a sale, they get the spiff. If they get you know more items on that sale, maybe they get a little bit bigger spiff. But those are the guys that are out there in the community looking at exactly what's going on in a customer's home. And this is the best time to train them and let them know, hey, this is how we grow our customer base. Not just the fact that we're growing customers, but the items in their home. I mean, we have up to a certain limit in most rent-owned companies. Why not fulfill that limit as long as they can afford it?

Danny Lastra 19:22

Another thing that I used to value that DB, I'm gonna mention him again, he used to do a lot. And I and I know other people. David Brown, you are you are stuck on David today, baby. But other drivers, my brand and drivers, they're they're awesome. They do this very well. So you talked about the defensive side of like I just mentioned Alex and Winterhaven, how he he saved us a potential skip and saw a schedule pickup, move in a couple days earlier. And that's great. You want someone that's not afraid to knock on doors, that's willing to go have those interactions with the customers of the collection field visits, but at the same time, that same individual, you want them to think offensively too. How can we grow the store? And I love it when a driver comes back and says, Hey, I just either A had a great marketing idea. What if we did this? Or two, hey, I just found a perfect neighborhood. We should really fly this neighborhood because man, our customers are definitely living there, and they're on the road the most. And as much as we love to say our managers get out on the road and visit their own areas and know their areas, but every area is constantly growing, and the drivers have the best potentiality to come back with that information. Hey, a new subdivision is building up, hey, a new apartment complex is coming up. Hey, I just delivered Pete, and I think we can get like 10 more customers out of his neighborhood, whatever the case may be. And yeah, I think the spiff is important to motivate them and entice them to want to get involved with the sales aspect, especially when you go into a customer's home and you try to upsell them, and that that helps out a lot to be honest. Again, it goes back to that they're the last interaction that the customer is going to experience. So make it a pleasant one and make it a purposeful one.

Pete Shau 20:59

When you talk about having a great driver, you have to have a great culture and a great workplace. And when we mention that, you know, it's it's funny because APRO just recently put out that Magic Rent to Own was named amongst one of Pennsylvania's best workplaces in 2022 by the Central Penn Business Journal. And you can see that on CPBJ.com, or you can go to the APRO's website at www.rtohq.org and see what a great job that Dan Fisher and his guys are doing to create a great work culture for his people over there at Magic Rentals. And they won they got it in the class for medium employee category from 100 to 250 employees. And Magic has about 120 employees, and they love working there. And part of that culture just extends to everybody. And of course, most stores have at least two to three drivers. So there's they're gonna make up a bigger part of a store workforce. Create a great culture for them to work at, create a great um training regimen to get them to be on your staff and your team to be the right way. Let me tell you, you're gonna take off. And you know, hats off to uh Magic Reynolds and Dan and his team for just being able to put out uh a great workplace for these guys and just showing us and the rest of the RTO industry how to get it done. I mean that's that's pretty awesome right there. What we want to do is remind you. We recommend that you kind of take these steps. You can do it however, but we recommend make sure that you when you hire somebody, you hire somebody with a personality. Okay, you take somebody who's willing to take control and take ownership of their vehicle and their tools and what they do, right? Try to get somebody with a service mindset, how to repair, or show them how to repair. Give them easy tips and tricks on how to make things work and get things going again. Save yourself, save the store some time and money. Somebody who's mechanically capable, who knows how to put things together and has the right mindset and the right idea to get things done and a quick pace. I know that if I build this this way, it'll work a little faster. If I use this type of tool, or somebody who's willing to tell you, hey, if if I got this power drill versus this screwdriver, I can probably put this together in 15 minutes instead of an hour, right? Someone who knows the area, someone who's willing to not not challenge, but more be open. Like if I did this delivery first, it would probably make it better because this delivery in this area and this time frame is in rush hour time and rush hour traffic. If I can get probably two or three of these done and then switch it, can we call? Can we make a can we make an audible? You know, somebody who has a customer service mindset that they understand that somebody might want it there and then move the couch to there and then move the you know the TV over there. And when they do it and they do it with a smile, like you said, they're the last person in a customer's home. That's the person that we want handling serious customer service business because they'll be the reasons that they come back. They'll be the reason why somebody makes an on-time payment. They'll be the reason also that somebody doesn't, right? If they forget the emotes, if they forget the wiring, or if they don't connect it correctly, or if they didn't put it the right way. And every time that you get a credit call, one of the first things is they forgot this. They didn't do that. And so those are very important. Make sure that they're professional, but make sure they're professional within reason. They're delivery guys, so they need to be able to dress that way. You don't want your guys out there in shirt and slacks. Uh you want them to be able to be a little bit comfortable and still represent the company. Make sure that they're, you know, in some cases, uh, you might have account managers that can knock on doors, but some you might not. Make sure that they have that collections mindset where they can knock on a door and be personal with people and straightforward people, because those are the ones that probably they probably saw last, right? So when they're knocking on their door, it's probably a different conversation than somebody who you haven't met, which you should have, but somebody you haven't met, like an account manager calling you and saying, Hey, we need to discuss your account. Well, I don't really know you. But Bob, who has been in the home, or David Brown, who has been in the home and talk to somebody, yeah, uh let's have a regular conversation. And you know, somebody who understands the area, somebody who understands the people, somebody who understands the traffic, those are probably the best traits that you're looking for as far as a driving position. Don't be afraid to train your drivers and not just to move up, right? Not just to make collection calls or sales or become something better than what they are because you think that's better. Driving is an essential part of your business, and training drivers to be great drivers is how you have a successful store.

Danny Lastra 25:08

You know, I have an unpopular opinion as well that a lot of managers have disagreed with me, but I personally, when I ran a store, I actually did this and I had I advise my managers to do this as well. Include your delivery text in the decision making if you're gonna add on a delivery. It doesn't mean they had the final say so, but it does give them one a fulfillment of empowerment and involvement and teamwork. So customer comes in, you already have a scheduled delivery for the day, customer comes in today, brand new customer, wants a living room set, whatever the case may be. Can you squeeze them in today? You're the manager, you can sure dictate and say we're going to deliver it to you today, but you have to remember that delivery tech is going to be the last experience. Do you want a disgruntled employee delivering this couch to them? You can beat your chest and say, Well, they're going to do it regardless. Okay. However, what I've learned is if you go to that delivery tech and say, hey, any chance you think do you think we can squeeze Pete in today between four and six? It's just a couch, it's 15 minutes up the road. And if you start involving them with those decision making, you'll you'll see if you have the right delivery tech, they'll be more positive about it. Yeah, yeah, we can get them taken care of. We can, yeah, absolutely. Or you can get that honest feedback. Listen, Danny, I the two deliveries before, it's a house full of stuff, and I gotta build everything. I just don't want to overcommit. And if I can, I can, but if I can't, you know, I don't want them to be disappointed and you'd be disappointed. All right, you know what? That's great. Let's make a decision together. And then also, like, obviously, we're in the fourth quarter season. So what I used to always do is have a meeting with my drivers at the beginning of the quarter and let them know hey, just so you know, it's selling season. I'm just forewarning you now, there's gonna be a lot of add-on deliveries, there's gonna be a lot of extra schedule deliveries. I just need you to be, we're gonna get through these next two months. I appreciate you guys, love you guys, et cetera, et cetera. And that way they kind of forever know because a lot of times these guys they do get in their head, like, okay, you know, I'm working from 10 to 7, and in their mind they they come in, they see the delivery book. Oh, it's gonna be an easy day, only four deliveries. I should be out on time. They're texting the missus, they're texting their kids, whatever, and then you add on three deliveries, but let them know beforehand, like, hey, just be aware, like for the next two months, it's gonna be busy. You're gonna have to be extremely flexible. Like, there's gonna be some add-ons.

Pete Shau 27:20

I I also want to encourage everybody to have a lead driver position. Sometimes what we don't do is we give drivers the ability to think for themselves and do for themselves, but we don't create a lead driver position. That's almost like having a store with no one technically leading it, but everybody working, right? You always need to have somebody to give a little bit of a better direction. And I encourage certain stores to create, if you don't have a lead driver position to create one, the guy who's been there a little bit longer, the guy who knows a little bit more, a guy who knows how you handle business and how things function on a day-to-day basis with your business, create a lead driver position. Not only can he help train in the ways of how you do things, but it also gives two guys a better direction. Sometimes you give two guys uh a task and they're both trying to go about it the best way they know how. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you have that lead driver position, you can empower somebody to make quick decisions that you don't have to oversee and then get things done a lot faster. Yeah, no, listen, Jimmy, I understand that you want to do that, but if we do it this way, trust me, it's faster, it's easier, we get the service out of the way, we can handle this drop-off, and then we can do this return with an empty truck. Oh, okay, that makes a lot more sense. When you get that lead driver position, empower somebody to make those decisions, and I'm telling you, it will really generate a lot of success and a lot of ease for the manager. You're talking about a great environment for everybody. And I couldn't imagine a better way to do it. You know, I also wanted to remind everybody that when you're doing marketing and you're going out there and you're trying to take care of your customers, you always want to do it with the right mindset and with the right company, right? And what we use is unlimited marketing solutions. And unlimited marketing solutions is a social media marketing company that can market directly to your specific customer base and provide solid and trackable results. Unlimited Marketing Solutions are also extremely flexible to meet your unique needs and budget, and are currently running a promotion for a 10% discount off of your first six months of marketing when you mention the code RTO Show. That's R T O S H O W. When you call them at 352-553-3245. You can also email them at unlimited marketing solutions LLC at gmail.com. I also want to uh talk a little bit about Larry Sutton. April kind of covered Larry Sutton. I met Larry Sutton, awesome guy. And if there's anybody who has a lot of people out there in fleet, that would be Larry. And let me tell you, he just had the five five things you need to be a highly effective manager in turbulent times. Convey purpose, provide a roadmap, be transparent, people over profits, and have a great open door policy. Man, that is it, that is somebody I'm telling you. The last time I sat down with Larry, it was an amazing conversation. And uh, I hope to see him out and about in the world again, man, just in case you're listening, Larry. We love you to death. But that's what I got to cover on driver 101. I think the basics are right here in front of you, laid out to have a great successful store. And it starts with a good GM and a great set of drivers.

Danny Lastra 30:11

If you haven't already, please subscribe to our channel. We're on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts. Make sure you hit that plus button so you don't miss an episode. We do post every Monday. Hope you enjoyed this episode of delivery tech and how to be the best delivery tech. With that being said, this is the RTO show with Danny and Pete.