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.
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