Rules of Thumb for Shopping Route

Every state has their laws but in Texas you got 24 hours at the stop. I’ve slept at one of before and with how often state troopers visit them, I felt safe.

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@tstewart3 wrote:

No police knock on the window for sleeping overnight at a rest stop? I have always been afraid to risk rest stops for anything but a quick break.

Its never happened to me at an official Texas DPS rest area...they even call them “safety rest areas” urging you to pull over. But by law you can only stay there for 24 hours. Thats far more time than I needed. Never had an issue. The one I bivouacked at most recently had a small herd of javelinas running around.
@mmsackett wrote:

... I suggest you get to know schedulers and project managers and be a dependable part of their plan.
This is the best and most important advice anyone could give to anyone who wants to be a route shopper.
@mmsackett wrote:

Every state has their laws but in Texas you got 24 hours at the stop. I’ve slept at one of before and with how often state troopers visit them, I felt safe.

Imagine my surprise to find out first hand that Florida has 3 three hour limit! That's not much sleep and I had really been depending on a longer nap.
So, you guys build routes that include food and gas shops - can I ask what other types of shops you find worthwhile for route building? thanks
Personally, for me, they need to be quick hits. About 1/2 hour or less on site, including input. And certainly no long narratives to suck up hours of time. At most, I might take a far off dealership on a Friday for a huge bonus and build a route around it. All the writing for the dealership would be done the next day, since the MSC will be closed and not monitoring my progress.
I use Circuit also and love it. I have done both the free and paid versions. Just depends on my volume at the time. I also Like that you can put how long the stop takes and it factors into the route. You can also put times that the shop is supposed be done Like an evening gas stop after 4 or between 9 and 6. This helps plant the route.



@whatwhatdb wrote:

@drdoggie00 wrote:

Since we're talking about routes - when building one where you may not be familiar with all the stops (like in a metropolitan area), what routing software do y'all use? Mapquest was my go-to, but I got fed up with it and switched to RouteXL.com.

I use the app Circuit, which optimizes the route, and lets you set up to 10 stops for free. If I need to do more than 10 stops, I just make a 2nd route that picks up where the first left off. As far as I know, there aren't any free optimization apps that let you add more than 10 stops on a route.

I would pay for a full version of an app that optimizes more than 10 stops, but all the ones I know of use a monthly subscription instead of a one time payment, which I am not interested in doing.
@BarefootBliss wrote:

So, you guys build routes that include food and gas shops - can I ask what other types of shops you find worthwhile for route building? thanks

Well from my limited experience in doing routes, I can tell you that you need to go at the end of the month to get bonused shops.

The food is relatively easy if you can do without variety. The red button drive-in/drive-through shops. Down here in Texas you get reimbursed enough to pay for your meal and the MSC pays the next week (usually). Quick report, 4 pictures, boom done. It is not unusual for me to snag a $40 or $50 shop (before reimbursement).

As for gasoline, that is harder (at least for me). I'm unaware of any shops that you can finagle to pay for the gasoline you're using. You may get a small % reimbursed but I'm unaware of any that match your outlay. I always have to eat my costs for gas.
Just finished booking out my next route and thought I'd share more of my MO/thought processes.

Originally the trip was supposed to be this past Thursday/Friday, but 3 Red/White/Blues with massive bonuses fell off the board instead of rolling over, severely affecting the potential gross for the trip.

Most of the shops for this one had due dates of the 12th or 13th, so that's when I booked them, knowing I could always visit and report ahead of time.

I was able to add some more Red/White/Blues to fill out the schedule and make the trip borderline worthwhile. While I violated my policy of not doing them for base pay, I made sure the ones I took at base were only 4-pumpers. The icing on the cake was a bonused checking account opening for $250 that showed up on the tail end of the route.

Gross pay before reimbursements will be about $750. Two hotel nights @ $159, and I'll be eating on my own dime for all meals except a Drive-in Stall burger lunch one day. Even if I splurge a bit on beers and eats, I'll net over $500.

More lucrative than driving rideshare over the same time period, and way more fun. I'm heading to Jackson, WY and the Victor valley in ID, one of my favorite regions on the planet. Schedule is set so I can hit this restaurant in Victor that serves a warm cabbage salad with pecans, gorgonzola and burnt ends that is off the charts.

I use My Maps in Google to chart out my route, while using a regular Google maps page to calculate drive times to make sure my schedule will work. Sure would be cool to calculate times within the MyMap, but Google doing something correctly is decidedly not very Google-like.

I print out the first page for each location's report for taking notes. I print out the My Map and clip it to the outside of my paperwork folder for visual reference and to keep a running list of completed stops. I keep a folder within that folder to hold conditional paperwork: awards certificates, refusal sheets, authorizations for when the clerk is not in uniform, etc. Cover pages for active shops are staged in chronological order on one side of the inner folder, with completed shops going on the other side. I have mini-stapler that stays in the car for keeping receipts organized with the cover pages.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
Cool said something I don't normally think of to suggest to other people..

In my Jeep, in the seat back pocket, I have 5 folders. Two of them are dedicated to a single gas station brand because those are the ones I do the most and the ones that pay best. The other 3 have 2 or more brands in each. LOA's, reward certificates, I think I finally ran out of thank you tags, leave behind forms. Every piece of paper I may need to do any gas station shop or audit, so that if I have the time, and there is a shop available while I'm on a route I don't have to make a special trip to a UPS store to get something printed. There are a minimum of 5 current LOA's and leave behind forms for each of the brands, in addition to what I will need for the route.
Oh, yes! I always keep paperwork folders for every gas brand I know of in the car. You never know when one will show up on the job board or get bonused acceptably. I also drive around with assembled packages for mailing, just in case.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2023 01:03AM by sestrahelena.
Most of my routes are daily routes, that are about an hour or so away. I have to make at least $300 to do it. I only do the gas stations, so they have to be bonused to at least $20 minimum and I will do $15. I try to wait until the bonuses are a little higher so I can have a $400-500/day but lately those don’t happen as much lately.
$1.50 per mile traveled bare minimum. Prefer to get $2 per mile. If I can get more than that I'm having a great day.
@sestrahelena wrote:

Oh, yes! I always keep paperwork folders for every gas brand I know of in the car. You never know when one will show up on the job board or get bonused acceptably. I also drive around with assembled packages for mailing, just in case.

I did that for a while. One time they told me they rejected my shop because of the “metadata” on the photo.

Something I’m curious about. I seem to have noticed on the instructions last time that they want you to file one shop before starting another. Do you find this to be a hard-and-fast rule?
Metro,

Gas stations don't require photos of the LOA in the reports so I don't understand what meta data they found unacceptable?

Submitting shops on site before going to the next one is still optional but they make it sound like you have to. Guidelines still say how many hours you have for submitting (8 or so). If a shopper is still at the first station, entering a report after 7.5 hours, they've got a bigger problem than passing the deadline. I have given up on onsite submission for all but the simplest of gas shops. It just takes too long with large quantities of photos. I have reverted to the old way of gathering all data in the field and then doing reports at home. Or a pre-picked library if it's a long road trip. There has been no negative feedback at all as long as they're done within the stated number of hours.
I think Metro was talking about the packages, but not sure how it would be an issue unless they were taking the photos weeks in advance. I also used to carry packages with me, and they came in handy quite frequently. But now with the lack of serious bonuses it has become more trouble than it is worth. I do still carry a folded box, just in case.
I remember those Post Office shops! I was doing a ton of those back in the day, maybe in 2010? Most of the ones I was doing were in BFE California. The only reason it was possible was that some were paying like $65 and I would grab 4, mix in some other shops and make a route. I would drive 3-4 hours north and do 5-7 shops. Enter as much as I could at Starbucks before they closed. Slept in my car, wake up, clean up. Do another 4-5 on the way home the next day. I think I was clearing $300 or so after gas/food.
@mystery2me wrote:

I think Metro was talking about the packages, but not sure how it would be an issue unless they were taking the photos weeks in advance. I also used to carry packages with me, and they came in handy quite frequently. But now with the lack of serious bonuses it has become more trouble than it is worth. I do still carry a folded box, just in case.

I was. The meat of the message read:

"The metadata on the image shows it was taken after the visit. Please upload a photo of the package taken before the visit and resubmit the shop within 12 hours.” I’m really curious how I was able to take a picture after the visit. Nine out of ten times, once you mail a package the postal service has it in their grubby little paws! LOL <yes--that was sarcasm>

I did take the photo in advance by serval days...I don’t think it was weeks. I”m really OCD about my shops. Its a bit detailed but what I do is make a folder on my desktop for each shop I do in a day. Like the USPS shops I have scheduled next week already have folders made. Anyway, Once I get the receipts from my trip out to the post office(s), then I paper clip the receipts to a 80lb weight paper scan them on my flatbed. I then crop the receipts and upload them into the appropriate folders. Once that is done, then the pictures from the shop are uploaded to the folder; I air drop them from my I-phone to my MAC. I do this for every shop pretty much. And on the day I got the dreaded “metadata” rejection, I had done another USPS shop the exact same way. It got approved. I was thinking the uploading would cause the picture to show up later than the time of the shop...but that was the case on the other USPS shop I did. So I don’t know what the heck happened. I don’t even know what “metadata” is. LOL.

As for the USPS bonuses and whatnot... Here is my theory...

I think the new shoppers don’t really trust some of the shops. And in truth, I sort of look at some of them sideways myself. But when the new shoppers see that the postal service is involved...I think they have more confidence than a Western Union shop based on reputation alone. So shops that used to linger for a while are now getting snapped up. North Texas had so many of them a few months back--this is where I saw the live chickens being shipped.
Metadata usually shows when the photo was taken, and when the most recent copy of the photo was made. The editor may have just not known what they were doing and looked at the wrong piece of information.
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