The refill run, step by step
Standing in front of an open machine with a phone in one hand and a box of crisps in the other. Here's how the guided refill keeps that simple — tap through it yourself.
In short
- The guided refill walks a driver through one machine at a time, in the same order every time.
- It starts with what the machine is expected to need, and ends with a record of what actually went in.
- Each step can be switched on or off, so a quick top-up and a full service visit can both feel natural.
Refilling a vending machine sounds simple until you watch someone do it well. They know what to bring before they open the door. They count what's left before they start adding. They notice the coin tube is low and the door seal is loose. And when they leave, they know exactly what they put in.
Good drivers do all of that from experience. The guided refill in CleaVend puts the same routine on a phone, so a new driver does it the way your best driver would — and the office gets a clean record of every visit without anyone filling in a sheet.
Tap through a refill
Here's a simplified version of the steps on a driver's phone. Use the buttons, or tap a step on the list, to move through it.
One machine, seven steps
An illustration of the flow with example products. The real screens follow your own planogram and products.
Why the order matters
Prognosis first. Before the door opens, the driver already sees what this machine is expected to need. CleaVend works this out from the sales the machine reported since the last visit — not from a guess, and not from what it needed last month.
Then the pick list. The driver takes exactly that from the van. No second trip back to the vehicle because the box was short on water. No half-crate of crisps that rides around all day for nothing.
Then a quick count. Machines are real places. A product gets stuck, a customer gets two for the price of one, a colleague swapped a slot last week. Counting what's actually there corrects the estimate, and makes the next prognosis better.
Then restock, faults and battery. While the machine is open, the driver records what went in, clears any faults they've fixed — a low coin tube, a stuck spiral — and, on machines that have one, checks the backup battery.
And finally, done. One tap closes the visit. The office sees the filling history straight away: what went in, when, by whom, and what was found.
As short or as thorough as you need. Each step is its own permission. A quick top-up round might use only the pick list and restock. A monthly service visit might use all seven. You decide per role, so the phone only ever shows what that person needs.
What changes for the people involved
For drivers, the phone becomes a checklist rather than a form. They follow it, tap as they go, and move on to the next machine. New drivers get up to speed faster because the routine is built in.
For the office, every visit leaves a trail. When a site asks "were you here on Tuesday?", the answer is one search away, down to the slot.
For the machines, honestly, very little — except that they run out less often, because the next prognosis is built on a real count instead of a hopeful one.
The best refill is the one where the driver never has to think about what comes next.
If you'd like to see how the guided refill fits into a whole day on the road, read Plan tomorrow's tour in minutes and Load the van once, and load it right.