Newspaper bundles are not being dumped
At Caxton Durban, a total of 221 325 newspapers are delivered, door to door, to homes and businesses in the eight areas of distribution every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with up to eight trucks being used every day.
IT’S early morning, and The Northglen News Printers’ entrance in New Germany is a hive of activity with the distribution company’s trucks rolling in to collect the bundles of Caxton Local Media’s newspapers for distribution.
Distributors load the heavy bundles, while supervisors with clipboards and drivers check the quantities.
While most folks know the newspaper cycle from collecting news and selling adverts to layout, production and finally how the printing works, the actual delivery of the newspaper – and its challenges – to your postbox, is not so well known.
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At Caxton Durban, a total of 221 325 newspapers are delivered, door to door, to homes and businesses in the eight areas of distribution every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with up to eight trucks being used every day. In addition to the door-to-door household delivery, local businesses also receive a copy.
Bulk drops of newspapers are delivered to key venues such as libraries, supermarkets, shopping centres, garages, post offices and so on.
These bulk drops are for the public to collect their copies of the newspaper if they do not live in the distribution footprint.
There are a few things that you should be aware of that can affect the delivery of the newspaper to your home or business, and how you may receive it if there is a problem.
Some postboxes are too small to accommodate the newspaper (especially the large month-end editions), and if our distributors try to squeeze it in, the postbox may crack. A 100mm round tube fitted on the fence, next to the postbox, is HIGHLY recommended.
Distributors are prohibited from inserting papers into gates or fences or throwing the paper into the yard – to prevent them from getting wet, shredded by dogs or jammed in electric gates. Therefore, no postbox or tube visible means no delivery of the paper.
At a cost of R79, you could have a newspaper tube with the name of your favourite local newspaper printed on it. All you need to do is email our distribution team.
The newspaper tubes are made from 100% recyclable material. The dimensions are 110mm outside diameter by 400mm in length. Each tube has a set of 5mm and 10mm holes that allow for easy fitment.
“To obtain a tube, you must live within the footprint of the publication’s distribution,” says Dhinesh Harilal, distribution manager for Caxton Local Media.
Click HERE to see if you qualify.
If rain is predicted, then the newspapers are placed in plastic bags, but sometimes the weatherman is wrong, and unfortunately, some newspapers get wet.
Occasionally, we receive complaints from residents saying they have not received their newspaper – it could be a passerby has nicked it out the postbox. This is most prevalent in busy thoroughfares.
Homes that have granny flats are urged to fit two tubes/postboxes which will be an indication to the distributors that two copies of the newspaper are required.
Note the delivery day of the Northglen News is on Tuesday, between 09:00 and 16:00. It’s not guaranteed that the newspaper is delivered at the same time every week as the distribution department could encounter problems such as factory breakdowns, vehicle breakdowns, weather and so on.
Bundles of newspapers get left on some verges so that the runners, who go from house to house delivering newspapers can refill their bags along their distribution route. This helps lighten their load as these bundles are very heavy. However, if you see a bundle the day after distribution day, we would appreciate that it be reported immediately with information on date and time seen, a photograph would also be great.
Unfortunately, errors do happen, and if you are not receiving your copy of your favourite newspaper or see an incident that you would like to bring to the attention of our distribution, please call our toll-free Distribution Number, 0800 4444 66 or email distribution@dbn.caxton.co.za. (Please remember to include your name and surname, contact number and physical address.)
We will make every effort to ensure you do receive your newspaper going forward and investigate why there may be a problem with you receiving it.
Caxton Local Newspapers distribution is monitored and audited, with each newspaper needing to be accounted for and allocated. Quarterly audits are performed by the Audit Bureau of Circulation which issues our Verified Free Distribution Certificate. This means that the distributors are not able to give out random papers as people ask for them, and are only allowed to deliver as per the rules mentioned above.
