Letter to Cox Media written April 22nd

I wanted to first let you know how disappointed I was that neither of you deigned to respond to my previous email.  As a colleague I thought I would at least get a limited response that you were in receipt of my correspondence and was naively hopeful that you would acknowledge or validate my concerns.  This is another example of the disdain I perceive all carriers are dealt with.  I am not worthy of reply?  Great leaders lead by example and this is surely a poor one.

As I stated in my last email, the late trucks are the single most demoralizing aspect of this job because there is nothing on our end that we can do about it.  They effect us financially unlike any other single group in this newspaper pipeline and they directly effect our safety as the morning wears on and the drivers take to the roads.  With that in mind I have to tell you that Sunday morning 4/20 was an absolute disgrace.  I was at the distribution center for five and half hours before the papers were there.  No I didn't come in at 9 p.m. to prep papers -- I came in at 12:30 a.m. in hopes that the previous night's 4 a.m. truck arrival would NOT be repeated or maybe even rectified with an early truck for Easter Sunday.  Of course we know how that went!  I cannot for the life of me comprehend how you as the managers of this part of  production can allow this to happen time and time again.  You cannot tell me you are so obtuse as to not realize that again we are dealing with people who are paid overtime and holiday time and that this is a repeat of the same performance given at Christmas.  Take away the financial reward for this behavior and you would have a different outcome, penalize them instead of rewarding them.

I kept hearing rumors about a truck driver shortage...are you kidding?  In this economy you cannot expect me to believe you can't find drivers.  Where's the fleet manager?  I want heads to roll. Why isn't he or she running papers to Springfield, Tipp City wherever else you have to go?!!  I heard that the previous Sunday it was so late because the truck made a delivery to Tipp City and then back to Franklin and then back to Springfield.  That's so asinine it can't possibly be true.  Why not send the truck that goes to Middletown to Springfield first and then to Middletown, right in Franklin's backyard -- why the two furthest points??  I mean come on, you shouldn't need a PhD in logistics to figure out these common sense issues??  Again these were the rumors that I heard, I pray to God you all can't possibly be this inept.  I have also heard from carriers with friends in Beavercreek that they have no such problems with late trucks.  Why are we, the Springfield distribution center, singled out for this abuse?!  Is there some agenda against us as a group or have you targeted an individual?  How very professional!

The truck departure times are no longer even inputted in the computer.  It's probably been over a month since they were.  Is that so you have no record of your terrible performance?  Monday morning the truck arrived at 1:30 a.m. I guess there was no holiday pay or overtime on the line!  And then this morning, Tuesday, you send a new driver to our center and he can't make a phone call, work a gps or look across the parking lot to the building that still bears the name "News Sun" big as day on it...3 a.m. delivery time on Tuesday...incredible.  I'm starting to wonder if all of you are sharing one single brain cell down there and have to take turns using it.

After I got home Sunday morning, I got a call from a customer.  I told him what had happened with the truck being late -- he was very nice to me on the phone.  After we said good bye and he went to hang up the phone, he said to either someone in the room or under his breath..."I don't even believe this crap anymore."  So you see just as I told you in my last email... you have caused me to lose all credibility with my customers...who believe it or not, I do care about and I care about what they think of me.  You have used me to cover your gross ineptitude too many times.  I can no longer believe you myself  and I won't cover for you ever again.  If the five and half hour wait didn't already have me walking out the door -- well that phone call was the last nail in the coffin -- it sealed the deal.

I gave John Patton my resignation on Monday.  I nearly walked off the job on Sunday morning but since that doesn't really hurt anyone but John I decided to do the right thing and give him two weeks notice.  As I told John, it wasn't the cold or the snow that ended this job for me.  It was the complete incompetence and absolute indifference of the you folks at Franklin and Dayton.  I want to be compensated for the time I put in on this job.  Not just the hours I'm on the road delivering.  When I spend hours prepping Sunday papers I want to be compensated, when I spend hours rolling 500+ tri-county shoppers I want to be compensated.  And don't try to tell me that I am in the rate I'm paid.  I put in over 40 hrs in a week doing this job -- and after paying for my gas and supplies I make less than $5 an hour and that's before any penalties are levied on my pay.  But there is no amount of money that brings back my Easter Sunday, not for me or any of the other carriers who waited hours that morning for the guys getting paid time and half, double time or triple time to do their damn jobs.  You see you didn't just cheat me out of those five and half hours, you stole my entire day.  While your families sat down to a holiday celebration compete with a grand meal and other activities, my family was lucky enough to be dining on roasted hot dogs.  The only celebration we managed to get out of the holiday was a trip to the local park.  Why?  Because I had to sleep after being up all night.  There was no Sunday service for me, no egg hunts, no Easter ham with all the fixings.  Your crew took all that away from my family this year.  But you won't have the opportunity again because I'm done.

Everything points to the death of the traditional newspaper.  But you guys are doing a pretty good job of hastening its demise.  One carrier told me their customer called the call center to find she was speaking to someone in Honduras.  Atlanta was bad enough -- but Honduras?!  Have you not read your own stories about how consumers hate that?!  I really can't decide if the executives at Cox are just plain stupid are unbelievably ignorant... or maybe they want to see the business fail.  Keep up the good work...you'll all be unemployed soon!

I would end this correspondence by saying I look forward to hearing from you soon...but since your track record of professional courtesy has already been established I won't hold my breath.  I just wonder if you were raised to be discourteous and cowardly or did the corporate culture at Cox corrupt your good upbringing.



Sincerely,

K. Kathleen Baber