New, Fuel Efficient Van Poses Limitations

So after a year of pondering the dilemma of increasing fuel costs, we have decided at last to trade in our larger Econoline Van for a more fuel efficient Transit Van. The new van is easier to drive, and with only 4 cylinders; is more fuel efficient. The downside is that we have little margin for error during our CSA deliveries. The van went out for its first delivery this morning, and Louie; head farm guy here....remarked that we only have room for a week's worth of returning empty boxes. Here's the problem: Many of our subscribers save up their boxes and return them all at once, and there's no way we now have the latitude to accommodate that practice. So, please, if you are having a problem remembering to return your box, don't take it home to begin with. Bring bags to transfer your produce into, and leave the empty behind from the start. Let us know if you have an accumulation to deal with, and we'll have to do weekly figuring and allocate days for each accumulation to clean up past practices.

Also, while I'm on the boring topic of boxes and such...a strange thing is happening to some of our returned boxes...subscribers' kids(?) are drawing on the boxes and then leaving it for us to recycle for use. We don't want those ruined boxes back. Many years ago we had a program of checking off each named box and billing for missing boxes. At some point we didn't have any missing boxes anymore, and stopped the nuisance of keeping track. Now we have the problem of ruined boxes, and sometimes as much as a third of our subscribers not returning boxes on any given week. Not only is it a huge unaccounted for expense to build new boxes unnecessarily  for your CSA farm, wasting boxes is a significant, unfortunate addition to our landfills. So, please...return your box or don't take it to begin so that it can be wisely reused.