Allow me to start by taking a moment to welcome all the Tri-City Herald customers who have accepted my invitation to drop by this blog. By way of introduction, my name is Andy and I'm a 34 year old accountant from Kennewick who aspires to be a published author, a life coach and a nationally-recognized public speaker. I also aspire to create financial freedom for my family through the direct selling of telecommunications services as I work with the only company of its kind that is endorsed by Donald Trump.
I maintain this blog primarily to entertain people and inform them of an occasional event in my life. I also have a second blog called The Millionaire Marathon where I seek to teach, inspire and motivate people to really go for the things they want in life (even though I occasionally do the same on this blog as well).
I am married to a wonderful woman who is a Future Director in Mary Kay and is working hard to become a Mary Kay Director by January 1, 2009. Together, we have three growing boys of the ages 10, 5 and our youngest just turned 3 on Halloween.
I have done newspaper routes off and on (more off than on) since I was 10 years old. In my younger years I was Carrier of the Year two years straight when I was 14 and 15 and I am fairly certain I would have won the award three years in a row if I hadn't quit the routes to work at KFC. My wife laughs when people from routes I had 20 years ago recognize me in the grocery store and tell me that, even to this day, I was the best newspaper carrier they ever had.
I started delivering newspapers again at the start of this year to work through a period of financial difficulty and to pay off some debts. We have long since cleared that period but I elected to stay on as a substitute carrier as I enjoy having the extra cash to put towards our family goal of becoming completely debt-free, to splurge on the occasional family adventure, and for the exercise I get as I work.
I am currently servicing approximately 435 customers over seven different routes, but those numbers tend to change nearly every week. I try and start the first route between 2-3 a.m. and I keep a good hard pace to get it all done by 5:30 a.m. to allow me time to play some basketball with my friends before work every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and to hit the Court Club for an hour of weightlifting on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. There are some days when the long days and short nights catch up with me and I need a little extra rest. On those days, I settle for just getting up with enough time to get the newspapers out by the deadline.
I have invited Tri-City Herald customers to read this post to give them an understanding of the delivery issues that are affecting them as paying customers. They fall under three major categories:
1. Failure to Deliver Quality Carriers
The reason I am currently delivering your newspaper instead of a regular carrier is because of a combination of factors:
Size - Most of the routes I deliver cover large areas with sizeable gaps between customers. This makes for long delivery times compared to routes where the customers are closer together and the routes smaller in area. An example of this is that I had two routes earlier this year located side by side where I could deliver to 100 customers in only 20 minutes time where more recently I covered one route that covers twice the area of those two routes and it takes me 25 minutes to deliver to only 45 customers.
Difficulty - A lot of the routes that I get assigned to are hard on the body and the vehicle. I was recently delivering a number of routes in the south hills of the Canyon Lakes area which meant lots of running up and down steep driveways and stairways and across large lawns. Terrain isn't the only difficulty though. Every route faces the difficulty of Sunday delivery. You have seen the size of your Sunday paper combined with the additional ads. Multiply that size and weight by anywhere from 30-80 and imagine one person trying to carry that and deliver on foot. It can't be done without making multiple, time-consuming trips or by having someone drive you. And many parents these days are either unwilling or unable to drive their kids around on Sundays - especially considering the gas prices over the past year.
Low Pay - I was delivering one route for several months this past summer as they could not seem to find anyone willing to stick with it for such a small amount of money. This is why I take on so many routes and keep such a fast pace while delivering. Although I drive my car to deliver, some of you have seen me in the early hours jumping out of the car and racing from house to house, throwing papers as I go (my apologies if I have woken you with a poorly thrown newspaper). That isn't so much to keep me slim and trim as it is me trying to maintain an average of at least $20 an hour to make the delivery worth my time.
Changing Attitudes - It used to be that newspaper routes were delivered primarily by kids and young teenagers, but that is not the case any more. It is partly because it is hard to find reliable kids that are willing to work hard and consistently. I was just reading the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch where, in one of the chapters, he talks about how studies have shown that there is a growing sense of entitlement among today's youth. As a result, many are unwilling to do these routes either because it is hard work or they feel the work is beneath them. I agree with the lesson that Randy learned from his father who taught him that manual labor is beneath no one. That is one reason why I don't mind doing the paper routes even though I have a college degree. I think it sets a great example of hard work for my children.
I still think a paper route is a great way for kids to learn responsibility and to be dependable.
2. Corporate Failure to Support Substitutes
Due to the difficulties of finding good, quality carriers that last for a long time, we substitutes are a necessary evil that the District Managers are extremely grateful for. Unfortunately, that gratitude does not extend upward into the higher corporate levels.
District Managers have openly admitted that the overall corporate attitude is that, in spite of our assistance and support with the difficulties of high turnover of carriers, a substitute should be done away with as soon as possible. They fail to recognize the value of good substitutes in that they minimize customer loss by maintaining, and oftentimes improving upon, customer service and delivery until a permanent carrier can be found to fill the route again. They just want us gone altogether.
Until that happens, it would appear that the corporate executives wish to make our work and getting paid for our work as difficult as possible. They have instituted the use of constantly changing contracts, attempted to shift company costs to the substitutes, and refused to make payments for certain services we provide that we were being paid for in the past. It has made my life and that of the District Managers who employ my services very difficult. There was even a point this past summer where I was owed over $1,500 for work I had done and the Herald was refusing to pay due to the fact that they changed contract requirements after I had performed the work.
Fortunately, I have learned when I need to stand firm on issues and when I need to dance the corporate paperwork dance to keep getting paid on a regular basis. I have developed a pretty good working relationship with the District Managers in order to keep myself informed and ahead of the corporate games so as to avoid unnecessary difficulty. It is really unfortunate this attitude that they have chosen to have towards the very people that are trying to help them. It has damaged my relationship with the Tri-City Herald to the point that I have started working in a new direction to transition out of delivery service without disrupting service to you as a customer. This new direction is working with the telecommunications provider endorsed by Donald Trump. It is an exciting opportunity and I would love to share what I am doing with you. Click here for more information about an amazing offer that ends Nov. 30 and for a link to my website.
3. Failure to Forward Tips
This, I feel, is the largest abuse of the Herald's relationship with their customers and one that you should be aware of. Typically, when a customer makes a payment directly to the Tri-City Herald with a tip included, the Herald will forward the tip on to the carrier. This is not the case when there is a substitute on a route. The tips that you pay into the Herald do not go to the substitute carrier that is currently delivering your newspaper - the Herald keeps them!
Denis Waitley taught me that the word "tip" stands for To Insure Performance. Because of this Denis actually advocates giving a tip in advance rather than after good service has been given. Well, as of right now, your tips are only insuring the performance of the Tri-City Herald balance sheet right now.
I do not tell you this to try and solicit tips from you. I work hard to make the amount of money that I make and am appreciative of my health and ability to do so and I appreciate the compensation I receive for my efforts. I have had the added pleasure of meeting some of you in the early hours and have appreciated your kind expressions of satisfaction in my level of service both in your words and in the tips handed to me. I have even managed to spot a rare "To the TCH Carrier" envelope taped to a door or propped up on the edge of the porch where I would see it. Again I thank you for your generosity and thoughtfulness. (If I have missed other generous offerings, I do apologize. I can only think that I overlooked it due to the pace that I keep and the darkness of the morning.) Nor do I tell you this to try and upset you to the point of canceling your subscription or of making angry phone calls into the Tri-City Herald as both of those could make a significant impact on my income. I just want to make you aware of the situation so that you can determine whether the tips you choose to pay go to the carrier or the company.
I do not know how long I will be a substitute on your route, but you can always check this blog to find out. I will post route changes as the occur as well as maintain a side section that is labeled "Nice Guy Delivery" where you can check to see if your address falls in my current delivery area (A good reference, too, if you notice changes in the quality of the service you are receiving. You can check to see if it is me or someone else). If I am still delivering to you and you wish to leave me a tip, you may e-mail me at niceguyblogging@hotmail.com and leave me instructions of where to look for the envelope. Otherwise, you can call the Tri-City Herald at (509) 586-2138 during their office hours and instruct them to leave a comment on the "top sheet" for the route with said instructions. This method will actually work whether I am your carrier or whether somebody else is.
These are the three areas where I feel the Tri-City Herald has failed to deliver to you as a paying customer. For the most part, I have no control over these situations, but I will continue to do what I can to minimize the impact of these difficulties where I can.
A Small Favor
If you have read this far in the blog, I appreciate you taking the time to come by and see what I have to say and invite you to come back again soon. I do have one last favor to ask of my Tri-City Herald customers and I hope you do not mind me asking. During the winter months, sidewalks and porches are filled with decorations and/or become wet and slick at times. Please leave a porch light on to insure my safety, to protect your decorations from damage, to keep your paper dry, and to enable me to deliver to your doorways more accurately. I would really appreciate it.
Thank you again for visiting my blog and I hope to see you here again. Don't forget to click here to read about the details of the awesome telecommunications offer that expires this month. You can also click here to find out more about the company I am working with and some different ways that I may serve you. If something peaks your interest, e-mail me at niceguyblogging@hotmail.com with your name and number to allow me the opportunity to discuss those interests further. Have a great day!
1 comment:
Your title is soooo true. The TCH recently switched our paper tomail delivery, because they couldn't find someone to take the route. All of a sudden we wern't getting a paper and couldn't figure out why. I called and was told I had not paid. I had just sent in a check to the TCH! After almost a month of calls every 3 days and getting the run around every time, I finally was able to go in and talk to them, with all my records and get it fixed. It's still frustrating though, because we don't get a paper until the afternoon and Sunday's doesn't come until Monday.I am not happy with them at all. If I didn't come to Tri-Cities for everthing, I wound have switched to the Yakima paper. Amy
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