Proper vending machine maintenance is hugely important for a wide range of different reasons. For starters, vending machines are designed to be largely automated – as a result, a worker isn’t necessarily going to be around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to fix issues as they arise. More than that, however, preventative maintenance is also necessary to help make sure that people don’t get ill from the items that they’ve purchased under the assumption of trust and proper vending machine maintenance. Case in point: a student at a university in the United States recently discovered a three year old item in a vending machine on his campus.
Gabby Pearson, a freshman at MTSU, was attempting to purchase a drink in one of the school’s many buildings in between classes. Luckily, she happened to check the expiration date before consumption. Though she was buying the drink in February of 2015, it had actually expired on June 17, 2012. As she took a closer look inside the bottle, she also discovered white mold.
In the case of the three year old soda on MTSU’s campus, the issue was one that was unfortunately preventable. All route representatives should be rotating and checking the contents of these machines at all times to help avoid these types of situations in the future. There are also a number of other preventative maintenance steps that should be taken to help keep these solutions running as efficiently as possible at all times.
An inventory of all parts should be kept, for example, to help make sure that technicians can repair any problem that arises with a vending machine without returning to their shop. Maintenance records should also be carefully kept to help clue people in on common and reoccurring issues, maintenance schedules and more. Vending machine officials should also practice regular communication so that everyone on a particular route is always up to date on when the contents of a machine were last refreshed, when the machine was last serviced and more moving forward.
Vending machine maintenance isn’t only important to help keep things running as smoothly as possible – it’s also a way to help make sure that people aren’t getting sick from the items that they’re buying. By keeping just a few key things in mind and following a few best practices, you can help keep your vending machines safe for anyone who puts their trust in them on a daily basis.
