When the Great Falls Gazette started offering Home Delivery in Great Falls, it was to help people who, for whatever reason, didn’t care to get postal delivery. Many loved getting the paper the day it was published, the same day it was available at newsstands around town. Others appreciate the reliability of home delivery. Even if there was a problem, a quick phone call to the Gazette could resolve issues quickly.

As publisher of the paper, part of my job is making sure that our subscribers get their copies of the paper. Every copy. Not just most of them, not on perfect days. We have plans for winter distribution, and while some folks may have to wait for the roads to get out before we can deliver, we WILL be delivering peoples papers!

Recently a few subscribers have missed a couple of papers. 99% of our missing copies have happened with the postal service. Of the rest, some were because someone changed a delivery spot and didn’t tell their spouse/roommate/ etc. We have had three of our home deliveries that were missed, and not caught, and three that were misdelivered to the wrong address. Any time you don’t receive your paper, you should let us know. You’re not bothering us, this is part of our job and we take it seriously. If there is an ongoing issue, the first step in solving it, is to know it’s there!

We now use sophisticated software, like what = UPS or FedEx use, to track where we are when we make a delivery, and what time it happened. This lets us see if the delivery driver was at your home when the delivery was made. This has eliminated issues, as the system flags us if it was a misdelivery. We have had five mistakes, in which we have caught and delivered a replacement paper without the subscriber even knowing they didn’t get a paper.

So how to fix things for folks who live out of town and don’t have home delivery? Today, we’re announcing that Sun Prairie, Manchester, Vaughn, and Bootlegger Trail are now eligible for Rural Home Delivery. The big difference between Rural Home Delivery and Home Delivery in town is the requirement for a “Motor Tube” These are the little newspaper boxes you often see attached to mailboxes. These allow our drivers to make the delivery in rural areas as quickly as possible. Our drivers are paid by how many papers they deliver (properly!), so if they have to open gates, or walk 1/8th of a mile to deliver a paper, they take more time than they have available. The Motor Tubes allow fast, efficient delivery, protect the paper from the elements, and are required at any delivery address outside of city limits.

Homeowners can easily mount motor tubes, with either screws or using a clamp for most metal fence posts. We ask that tubes be mounted with the opening towards the road, and between 3′ and 4′ off the ground, if possible. If a homeowner is not able to mount their tube, please contact us, we’ll help get that up for you.

Currently, motor tubes themselves are free for subscribers with one year or six month subscriptions, or subscribers who have been with us monthly for over six months. If we need to put a post in for the tube, we do charge $5 for that, and we will drive the post for you. The cost is just to help pay for supplies. If we need to install a motor tube for someone, they need to be present when we do, so that we can make sure it’s in a good spot both for our subscribers and for our drivers. We ask that they NOT be attached to postal gang boxes, as that is not permitted by postal regulations. Also, we are NOT able to deliver to rural mailboxes. We can deliver to other non-mail boxes, but they must be roadside and accessible by our drivers. Depending on locations, we can even deliver to parcel boxes and other safe spots that are easily accessible.

Author: Andy Anderson

Andy is publisher of Foxys Publishing Co, as well as pressman, ad sales, distribution and sometime janitor. He occasionally makes a wild attempt at writing but quite often is seen running around our offices trying to "Get 39 million things done today..."