Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080083
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
LOCALS DO THE WALKING AT PHONE-BOOK TIME
Like the ringmaster in a no-frills version of a Ringling Brothers circus, Charlie Gale blew into Roanoke this month with tractor-trailers filled with the equipment for his act:Some folding chairs. A pile of computer printouts. A slide projector.
And almost 200,000 copies of the new C&P Telephone directory.
Gale is a delivery supervisor for St. Louis-based Directory Distributing Associates, one of two companies hired by Bell Atlantic Corp. to distribute 34 million phone books to its 12.5 million customers. C&P is an operating subsidiary of Bell Atlantic.
Gale's lifestyle is almost gypsy-like. Every three weeks or so, he moves to another town with a truck filled with volumes of one of the 245 different phone books Bell Atlantic publishes.
Through postcards stuffed into C&P telephone bills, Gale each year recruits local residents who hit the streets and deliver the directories.
"If you're going to deliver phone books, then Roanoke's one of the better towns to do it in," he said. "The residents here have very good work ethics."
June and Bill Haupt of Blue Ridge are prime examples.
The couple supplements Bill Haupt's income by delivering newspapers year-round. They rise at 1 a.m., deliver their newspapers - she has a home delivery route, he fills newspaper coin boxes - then he heads off to work.
And when the telephone directories come to town, they're first in line for delivery routes.
For two weeks every year for the past 14, the Haupts have spent his two weeks of paid vacation delivering C&P directories.
That might not seem like much of a vacation, but the money they earn during those 14 days could take them to just about any exotic location you could name.
"Yep, they're the big moneymakers," Gray Gilbert said of the Haupts as he and Ronald Patterson stood in a tractor-trailer behind Victory Stadium loading the Haupts' flatbed truck with more than 2,200 bright yellow phone books.
Like the Haupts, Gilbert and Patterson are working to supplement their incomes. Bill Haupt is a mechanic, Gilbert a janitor and Patterson a landscaper; and they all have the same plans for spending the money their earn from Gale's outfit.
"I'm going to try to pay off some of my bills," said Haupt.
Steve Huse, annual directory distribution manager for Bell Atlantic, says it's mostly the underemployed rather than the unemployed who seek the work.
"Delivering phone books might seem like easy work," he said. "But it's not. The people who do it really earn their money."
One woman - who did not want to be identified - said that even though she's not in bad shape, after her maiden voyage delivering directories her arms and legs were sore. Not to mention the blisters she got on her hands and feet.
"Next year I need a little red wagon," she said.
Though she completed her two assigned routes last week, she still has two directories she hasn't been able to get rid of.
"Businesses have to sign for theirs and every time I've tried to deliver them, they've been closed," she said.
One she just plain couldn't find. The address turned out to be a vacant lot on Franklin Road.
For the six hours she worked on one route, she got $100. Was it worth it?
"It's $100 I didn't have before," she said.
The pay is based on a complex formula that includes the density of houses, the terrain and an estimate of how long each should take to deliver.
With 14 years of know-how, Bill and June Haupt have turned the delivery process into a science. Their long history of good work has earned them the bulk-delivery route - considered one of the best by those in the know.
They manage to pack their 1965 Chevy truck with phone books three high over the cab. Over the years, they admit they've had a few mishaps.
"We lost three bundles once turning coming up Salem turning onto Jefferson," he recalled. "Phone books all over the place."
And once when he turned from Interstate 581 onto Peters Creek Road about 60 books didn't quite make it.
"Now that was a mess."
You've got to move fast to keep up with the Haupts. The faster they move, the more books they'll deliver. And the more books they deliver, the more money they'll make.
When the Haupts first started, they were given a rural delivery route. With steep hills and long walks to the front door, these are considered among the toughest.
"We did Ruritan Road one year," said Haupt. "We really earned our money there." Less taxing are bulk deliveries to large businesses, such as drops of 1,800 directories each to Roanoke Memorial Hospital and Dominion Bank.
On Wednesday the couple was loading up books at Victory Stadium for the day's deliveries to various businesses along Franklin Road, including Krisch Hotels corporate offices, Holdren's warehouse and Fulton Motors.
They wouldn't talk about how much they're making on their day-lighting venture. But Gilbert, Patterson and the woman delivering phone books for the first time bet they're doing fairly well.
"They've gotta be making at least a couple thousand dollars," one estimated.
"The money's good," Haupt admits. "It's helped us out a lot. And sure, lots of times - like when it snowed on Monday - we get aggravated.
"But we wouldn't give it up for the world."
\ DELIVERING THE PHONE BOOKS
For three weeks each April, Bell Atlantic launches a large-scale telephone book offensive. Directory Distributing Associates of St. Louis, an independent contractor that has served the Bell Atlantic area for more than 40 years, oversees the work in Roanoke from temporary offices at Victory Stadium.
This year's phone book delivery began March 29 and will continue until April 19.
In 1992 Bell Atlantic delivered 175,038 phone books to 85,735 telephone customers in the metro area.
The average delivery route has 250 to 400 stops, or points at which a phone book is dropped.
Virginia residents can receive free a phone book from any locality in the state.
Telephone directories for other areas can be purchased through the telephone company.