I'd like to start a charitable foundation that supplies mufflers to newspaper delivery people.

I'd like to start a charitable foundation that supplies mufflers to newspaper delivery people in my area.

You would think that Subaru and Hyundai offered muffler delete options on their Outbacks and Elantras back around 2003. I also suspect that they're driven exclusively by vampires, as they all seem to vanish once the sun comes up.

I dare say that the cars used for newspaper delivery would not pass emissions and safety testing.. that's why they are only driven at night for newspaper delivery.. you can't see the failed (or lack of) sticker

Funny you should bring this up. This had been a minor peeve for me too. For about the past five years the newspaper delivery person in our neighborhood drove a twenty-something year old Corolla with a rust-perforated muffler. Further rant: I'm an old school geezer who still likes to read a newspaper. She could never seem to get the paper in my driveway. Usually it was out on the sidewalk or in the gutter. One time in the winter when we had a lot of snow she managed to fling it on top of a 6-foot pile of snow at the end of my clean, plowed driveway. Good ending: She recently had a baby and fortunately decided to retire from her newspaper delivery career. The new person is much better. His vehicle is quiet, and he can expertly place the paper thirty feet up the center of my driveway every time.

You guys are making me feel young at 42 with your desire to still have a physical newspaper.

I think this speaks more to the place people are at in their lives when they take a job delivering newspapers. Weird short hours, low pay that might not actually hit minimum wage after putting gas in the car, and the job requirements are pretty much 'be breathing, own car'. When my wife considered it quite a while ago, it was gonna be in a rusted out '94 Escort that had its muffler hole aluminum-taped shut by me, sooooo....yeah.

Low pay job. High abuse to the vehicle. Paper is heavy and each day the car starts the day highly overloaded which means riding low and likely knocking the muffler onto the ground or suspension.

Print paper is a dying breed. In Cleveland, OH the big paper has gone to only 3 days out of 7.
For a delivery driver, just imagine how much worse the job has gotten. I would think in the '90's if you had a street of 30 houses, you likely delivered to 25 of those houses. Now, on that street of 30 I'll bet you don't deliver to 10 of them.
This means a lot more miles driven to deliver a "carload of papers" for no more pay.

Back in my paper delivery days, I never had one noise complaint...Of course, that's probably because I was 13 years old and riding a bicycle.

I stopped getting the paper in 2005, the whole industry is dying fast.

My paper delivery person is very consistent: during nice weather they throw it right up on the front step, but if it's raining the paper is thrown in a puddle out on the sidewalk.

I live on a street with five houses on it. I don't get a newspaper, but my neighbor gets two.

I get a Sunday paper, only because I have to to get their online subscription. Its annoying, I have to remember to go pick it up and throw it in the recycle.

java230 wrote: I get a Sunday paper, only because I have to to get their online subscription. Its annoying, I have to remember to go pick it up and throw it in the recycle.

The reason for this "forced Sunday paper" is due to the high revenue the paper gets from the coupon inserts into the Sunday paper. Also, the revenue they get for these inserts is tied to the number subscribed so they need to keep those numbers high (even if artificially high.)

If you add on Harley owners as recipients I'm in.

Back when I used to be a paperboy (I rode a bicycle), the paper's field supervisors all drove base model Chevy Corsicas. I bet they still do, albeit without mufflers.

RedGT wrote: I think this speaks more to the place people are at in their lives when they take a job delivering newspapers. Weird short hours, low pay that might not actually hit minimum wage after putting gas in the car, and the job requirements are pretty much 'be breathing, own car'. When my wife considered it quite a while ago, it was gonna be in a rusted out '94 Escort that had its muffler hole aluminum-taped shut by me, sooooo....yeah.

Yes, I do in fact have empathy for these folks. It's the quintessential "entry level" job. And it isn't an easy job considering the hours, the financial return (although not as bad as one might expect, all things considered), and the fact that you need a reliable vehicle to perform the job, and these folks are scraping the barrel as it is. But that's absolutely no excuse for delivering consistently crappy customer service for years. In my case it was terrible.

(Here's a hypothetical question: Do you tip somebody that gives you pisspoor customer service in hopes that they might improve next time? Or do you reward only the exceptional provider that gives consistently good customer service?)

In reply to Harvey:

I'm 41 and I buy a paper every morning on my way to work from a guy at a newsstand the way God intended. I would still get one delivered to the house too but the people at the Poughkeepsie Journal couldn't manage to deliver it 4 out of 7 days and eventually I had to stop trying.

I used to drive the company van that delivered the papers to the carriers and businesses in the wee hours of the night.

Basically, if you were not a business or a child with one or two bundles... You were an ignorant, smelly, drunken degenerate trying to fit 40 bundles of newspaper into a 79 Chevette along with your 3 cats and every McDonald's wrapper you had ever opened.

I imagine it's still a notch down from selling your own blood and clean urine on the employment scale.

Reading a proper newspaper is one of life's small pleasures. I started in my teens and never stopped (I'm 45). While I don't like the way the industry has declined, for most local markets it's just not viable any more; those that remain are mostly pathetic collections of internet cullings and ads. Even some of the national papers (I'm looking at you, USA Today) are horrifyingly poor excuses for news reporting.

I still get the WSJ daily, but that comes by mail. While the writing and editing are still pretty good, some of the more recent changes still grate (dropping the true broadsheet format and adding color, for two).

Get off my lawn!

Woody wrote: I'd like to start a charitable foundation that supplies mufflers to newspaper delivery people in my area.

and I thought you meant one of these.... mouth muffler

around me... many of the bicyclists think no one hears them as they shout at each other while pedaling past my house... would love to fit these on them......

Is that mouth muffler thing the thing that tuna guy has on his mouth?

The Chicago Tribune jacks up the rates forcing me to call and threaten to quit.

When I call I always remind the ladies in the Philippines that I was a trusty carrier of this paper as I delivered it daily on my Schwinn bicycle (Collegiate 5-speed) and have subscribed for most of my life but I'm willing to walk away from all that loyalty - then I remind them of all the free news on the Internet.

My E36 M3 boxes rusted out muffler lets the hoards and I mean hoards of millenials biking to work know I'm there because skater helmets make you invincible. When I get to work I hope the only print newspaper to the right of FDR available hasn't already sold out to the early go getters.

Harvey wrote: You guys are making me feel young at 42 with your desire to still have a physical newspaper.

This. I picked up a physical newspaper once. I couldn't figure out where to plug the stupid thing in!

Joking aside, i've considered getting the paper just to have for cleaning windows.

I met the paper guy once about five in the morning and watched him trying to dive out of the car and quickly jam a rock behind his wheel so it wouldn't roll while he ran up my drive with my paper. Apparantly he couldn't shut his car off. I watched for a while and finally suggested he give me the paper. He had not seen me walk up so he was startled and jumped up. He whacked his head on the mirror and then his car rolled back down the drive and into the ditch. I had to pull him out with my pickup and jump start him. Felt pretty sorry for him. He is an older guy and still reliably delivered my paper years later. His muffler was good though.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Low pay job. High abuse to the vehicle. Paper is heavy and each day the car starts the day highly overloaded which means riding low and likely knocking the muffler onto the ground or suspension. Print paper is a dying breed. In Cleveland, OH the big paper has gone to only 3 days out of 7. For a delivery driver, just imagine how much worse the job has gotten. I would think in the '90's if you had a street of 30 houses, you likely delivered to 25 of those houses. Now, on that street of 30 I'll bet you don't deliver to 10 of them. This means a lot more miles driven to deliver a "carload of papers" for no more pay.

In the 80s I had a 60-home route that I built up to an 80+ home route, and took on a second 30-home route.

Difficulty: I was 10.