Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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So, after looking at this picture, what would YOU think? Perhaps this customer doesn't really want the paper? Or, perhaps they're on vacation? Maybe the carrier started the wrong address. Maybe the recycle bin toppled over? OK, that's a stretch, but here's the thing about papers piling up... I've had it both ways. I've had instances where folks go on vacation, and either I miss the stop, or they forgot to call the paper to stop their delivery while they're gone. If we as carriers don't guess correctly, and we allow the papers to pile up, the residents get angry that it looks like they aren't home, inviting theives or vandals to their premises. I've had several situations where the resident was sick - once a woman had pnuemonia and couldn't get out to pick up her paper for a few days. Once, a gentleman had been in the hospital for a little over a week. Again, if we guess incorrectly and pick up the papers, when the customer recovers, they want to know why they don't have all of their papers to catch up with the news and obituaries. It's a tough call.  But seeing this along the road one afternoon reminded me of an amusing story one of our managers told a few years back.The manager apparently was riding with a carrier for a couple of days before the carrier was going in for surgery. The manager agreed to deliver the route for the three days that the carrier would be off, and before the substitute that the carrier hired could actually take over. I will try to relate the landscape the way it was related to me, and hope I'm close to the original story. The carrier pulled up to a driveway on the right side of the car, and gave the paper a really hefty toss over the car. The carrier explained to the manager beside him, that the customer had requested porch delivery, and the manager said, if you listened for a couple of seconds after he threw the paper, you could hear the paper **smack** something solid, and it sounded like he hit the wood porch. The manager admitted he thought that was pretty good to hit a porch in the dark like that- especially when it appeared the porch was 15 - 20 feet away, and up on a slight hill, which made it even more amazing. So, when the manager had his turn at delivering, he drove up the driveway, unsure he'd acutally hit the porch like the carrier who'd had more practice. He tossed it over to the cleaned off porch, pretty proud of himself that he'd even hit the porch from six or eight feet away, and over the roof of the car. The next night, he pulled up the driveway, but yesterday's paper was still there. He questioned himself that he had the correct house, but his notes said this was the PORCH house, so he tossed it. It landed only a few inches away from his first paper. The third night, both papers were there, and he called the office to make sure he hadn't missed a stop on this fellow - how odd that the carrier and this customer would go on vacation at the same time. The office confirmed that the customer was an active account, so the manager tossed the third paper near the first two, and continued on without giving it another thought. A few weeks later, he had some other reason to drive down that street and slowed down to get a look at the house in the daylight. He slammed on the brakes at the sight of what he guessed was over fifty orange bags scattered all over the hillside. The **SMACK** they'd heard was the paper hitting the black landscaping plastic held down by large random stones, and NOT the wooden porch. His three papers were still there, along with all of these papers all over the property. He called the customer when he got home and could get access to the customer records from the office. The customer claimed that he'd never ordered the paper, and couldn't understand why the carrier couldn't "take the hint", after seeing all of those papers speckling the landscape. The manager laughed and challenged the customer to drive by his own property some night around 3:00 am, and see if he could see the papers in the dark. The manager said he'd stop the guy's paper; I assume this poor fellow was left to clean up a mess. |