Me and what I do.

Hi folks,
My name is Brian I am what's called an Independent Newspaper Distributor. The main newspaper I distribute at this time is the Bakersfield Californian (tBC). This means that just after midnight everyday of the week I show up at the printing plant ready to to pack bundles of newspapers into my little red car and transport them to Wasco California. I started doing this in June of 2004. As a distributor I am not an employee of the newspaper, rather I contract with them to deliver the paper to their paid subscribers in Wasco. I also have a contract that allows me to buy newspapers from them in bulk to sell in the Wasco area.

As glamorous as this may sound it is not without it's tedious elements. Leaving my house before midnight every single day means my body clock is never in sync with the rest of the world. No days off has a wearing effect of it's own. After I get to the plant the wait for bundles is somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes.

Once or twice a year I wait till after 4 A.M.. No one is really to blame for this. If you've never seen it in person the press is an amazing machine. Nearly a block long and almost 3 stories high with a zillion moving parts that have to all line up within hundredths of an inch. All the tiny dots of colored ink have to be in the right places for the pictures not to look like mush. Adding to the fun the paper as it comes off the giant rolls is kind of stretchy. After that each paper goes to what is called the mail room (a room almost as big as the press room full of big machines) to have ads inserted, and on some days a sticky note attached to the front page, before being made into bundles.

Often with one thing an another it is after 2 A.M. before I get to Wasco. tBC wants the papers all delivered safe and sound by 5 (or 6 on the weekends) and that is what happens most of the time.

Considering that there are hundreds of subscribers and that delivering to the rural farm houses alone has me covering over 50 miles the process is time consuming. It takes more than just me to get the job done before sunrise. After paying for the papers I sell, fuel, maintenance and other costs I don't have much left to pay for help. It seems most of the people I find that are alert, aware and can be focused for 2 or 3 hours at a time when most people are asleep, already have day jobs. Less than perfect helpers has lead to fury on the part of some subscribers and sleepless nights (well days actually) for me.

Since 2006 I have been very fortunate to have a family man named Damien who delivers to the residential (in town) addresses for me. He has a day job and is a very competent and dedicated family man. He delivers every paper Tuesday through Friday quickly and with almost no mistakes. Most weekends he has his nephew deliver your papers Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Again finding people willing to work in the early AM and do a good job is an ongoing struggle we are very lucky to have Josue.

When errors occur, as they will:

Calls from subscribers can be from over the top rage over a wet paper to a kind thank you from a wheelchair bound elder grateful that we put their paper on the porch.

Theft of newspapers is not as common a problem as it once was, but it still happens. Some people live in areas with one or more thoughtless neighbor. Some people don't realize that the longer that they wait after sunrise to collect their daily paper the more tempting it is for someone else to take. We check the message number for calls till 9 A.M. then we are off to day jobs. If you wait till after 9 A.M. to look for your paper and don't find it, it's likely that you let someone walk off with it. Never fear, call us even if it is after 9 A.M. and we'll bring you today's with tomorrow's paper.  If this happens more than once a month please work with us to find a better place to leave your paper.

With the residential subscribers taken care of it is my task to service the rural addresses and stock the 20 or so places in town where the paper is sold as single copies.

While not glamorous at all, no one part of my daily tasks is hard, Wasco is a very peaceful and quiet town. Watching the sunrise some mornings is a nice gift. Throwing objects from a moving vehicle and hitting the target is the secret fun part of the job.

Perhaps describing selling newspapers one at a time (aka Single Copy Sales) needs it's own blogpost.

Welcome to spring.

Most of our tasks in delivering your newspaper remain the same every day of the year. Since the Sunday paper is so large that it is printed in 3 parts we have to pick up bundles on Saturday mornings. Then do some hand inserting of sections in the early hours of Sunday. This is kind of the way it goes all the time.

The main snags that occur are the errors that develop in the delivery process it's self. These are often preventable with the help of our subscribers.

Please help us with:

A visible address.
You know where to look for it. You know so well you can see it in the dark without even looking. We unfortunately don't have this knowledge and require clear, easy to read at night, numbers you can see from a couple of houses away. Freshly painted curb numbers are great if they are in a place that cars don't usually park.

Sprinklers that finish before midnight.
Newspapers are printed on paper designed to dry quickly from normal morning dew. Since we bag our papers they can resist even more water. What makes for a real problem is flood or everyday watering. Please do your watering after you get your paper in the morning or if it has to be at night, so that it is done before midnight so the soil and your concrete has a chance to dry.

Retrieve your paper as soon as you can.
We still have a few places (even in the nicest parts of town) where if people see an unattended newspaper they just take it for their own. Every minute your newspaper sets outside after sunrise the risk of theft increases.

Patience Please.
Since November we have been trying to find a person or 2 to deliver the paper so that Damien and I can have a day off from time to time. The last 7 people we have tried did not work out. We can only choose from the people who apply. I often go into a tirade about how people don't know what it is to work these days. Focus on a task and only tell yourself that it's done when everything is right. Perhaps it's that thing they do in schools where all the kids are winners. They even have version of baseball with no scoring. Whatever the reason, most of the people, even if they seem alert and aware, have a mindset that if 2 out of three are correct then it's done. We have no way of knowing until we let them loose to deliver your paper. In the past it might take a day or two but things would start to click. That has not happened often in the last couple of years. All we can do is keep trying new people.

Please keep in mind that even the best new delivery carrier takes a week or two to learn all the million details of his route.

As soon as you know your paper is not in the expected spot let us know. Because I live in Bakersfield near the plant and Damien works a day job we can only re-deliver a missing paper if you call before 9 A.M.. Please call us anyway if it's after 9 A.M. so we can at least bring a replacement for today's paper with tomorrow's and so we will know .  You can also call the paper's number and we will get the message that you called with the next day's paper. Any message or the reason for your call is not usually clear by the time I get it.

The pleasure of ink on paper.

The best way to read.