Verizon Phone Book Delivery Jobs – An Example from Belmont, MA
A Deets reader in Massachusetts sent in this excellent story about his experiences delivering phone books over two days for Verizon. Two days he wishes he could have back.
My favorite: Verizon’s delivery list telling him to delivery 90 phone books to a Verizon server farm: “Why do servers need phone books?”
Dear Mr. Kohler,
I came across your blog about Verizon and phone book delivery problem. On 12/29,30 I spent the 8+ hours trying to make “easy money” supposedly. I live in MA in the home town of Mitt Romney, Belmont MA, yeah not cool.
I worked for 8+ hours sorting, throwing ,driving, and more. First sign of futility , businesses need to sign when they get all 3 phone books supposedly. Businesses in town were too busy, didn’t want them, know English, thought they had to pay for phone book, care, and signed with a comment of “this is ridiculous”. Yes it is!
Signing for a damn book you will never use. Some did not even have Verizon as a carrier, so why do they need it.
People on the route legitimately ran out of their house giving them back to us! One guy said he has called Verizon 4 times screaming at them about this and they keep coming back. I was dude no problem.
In the beginning I tried to care about where I threw this phone books but at the end of all the stupidity I just threw them.
I did every single house/ business on the route 546 to be exact and had so many extra. WOW what a surprise no one wants an out of date phone book. The people were questioning that I exactly did it. They made a huge deal about it too. I could have been like anyone else and throw them in a dumpster without any care but I thought about recycling and reusing. Is that a bad thing?
Side point in the office they were using windows 98 on an ancient laptop obvious the digital revolution has not struck them yet.
The kicker was when on the list was a server farm that Verizon exactly OWNED and was supposed to received 30 bundles or 90 books total. There was a dude outside who said “why do servers need phone books?” Hmmm.
Oh another great green environment practice is putting every book into a plastic bag. More waste.
So having finished the great task and trying to earn quick cash to go snowboarding in VT, I don’t have my money. The lousy $120 split 2 ways without the gas, insurance, labor, headaches. The dumbass people think I did not do the route even as I explain the flaws in this system. They need to check it and make sure. Ok!
What started off as a why to go boarding ended up in a headache and a killer to the environment.
Thanks Verizon, Idearc ,and Whoever else!
Thanks for the sordid tale. I feel bad for the local businesses in Belmont, MA who paid for Verizon to delivery phone books to servers, people who didn’t want the, people who think they’re ridiculous, etc.
Verizon is not helping but hurting businesses in Belmont, MA when they behave like this.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Ah. I miss windows 98
February 20th, 2009 at 8:00 am
[...] person accounts from people who say they’ve called every year for four years, delivery people admitting that they ignore the lists, yellow pages companies littering boarded up properties with their spam, and a clear case of a [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
if i’m in the drivers place i’ll stick these stupid books in a dumpster.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:08 am
i would like to knowq when the phone books deliverry that starts in muskegon michigan we had done it befoer and would like to do it again this year. thank u
May 4th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
when are they going to start the routes for verzion phone books for melbourne FLA,
please email me atsherie899@yahoo.com
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 am
I actually did this job, and it was indeed pretty awful. I managad to make out ok though, but only by being smart and digging through the pile of routes until I found an “easy money” one. The vast majority of the routes will earn you peanuts and wear you out, but a few of them aren’t too bad. I think I ended up making $10 an hour or so.
This blog will tell you all the tips you need to know if you are thinking about taking a job delivering phone books.
http://phonebookdelivery.blogspot.com/
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
You people dont seem to understand anything except your own pitiful little lives. Why are you so obsessed with phone books? If you dont want it then recycle it. How hard is that. Instead you want to put 1000′s of people out of work. Nice.
August 5th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Would like to know when distribution of the Verizon phone book is scheduled for the Harrisburg,PA area? Did last year and would like to do again Thanks
September 30th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I think in this case the problem lies with Directory Distribution Associates, also known as DDA. They are the sole delivery company in New England for Verizon. And Verizon has to take some responsibility here too as they let DDA run an anemic operation which in its strive to get the business from Verizon bids extremely low.
I am an insider and can tell you DDA is a terrible company. They pay at the top and trickle down money to the carriers. They load up the delivery with all kinds of useless staff and pay high salaries to the managers. They then pay peanuts to the deliver people(carriers).
DDA continues to allow inner office politics and favoritism which leads to a weird and stressful atmosphere. They have had several people die of heart attacks on the job which doesn’t surprise me as the managers know how poorly the approved tactics they use on carriers is.
Their tactics are so restrictive carriers in some cases have no choice but to do weird things such as throw away books and dump large quantities on the poor businesses. One such fellow filled up his apartment with books left over from jobs because he was scared to bring back extra books. He was fired and the incident swept under.
This can be a decent form of extra income or in some cases a full income but DDA has turned it into a string along type of operation which preys on people who need money today.
And you managers know what I am talking about Mary, David(deceased) and Judy. You have been pulling this crap for decades.
February 24th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Does anyone know when they will be in michigan and where they will be? Last year I did the flint area and want to do it again.
Thank you
March 20th, 2010 at 11:45 am
i started a route from a guy name brain i have the route #015010012 i tried to finish the route but he fefused to keep me going on the route and has not paid me on some routes that i did for him cause another guy stared it never finished the job so i did those too route he only paid me on it 20.00 nothing esle i would like too recive a phone call on this immettely . please cal;l my cell at 508 713 8239 ill givew futher info
thank you for u time
from corey
June 9th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
DDA’s sole purpose is to win bids for phone book delivery. Their whole operation is built around their appearance to the big phone companies. Everything is based on paper work and their phone book route structure. This looks very nice to the big corporate phone companies.
DDA bids very low and harbors a beautiful paper stream of BS marks and comments. They basically cut distributor pay which is how they underbid every other carrier and then hired cheap inside help to make sure all the routes are marked very neatly.
They then scapegoated the big delivery people by getting rid of them all ” Due to delivery quality.” The trick they do is to keep hiring more delivery people. A person is inclined to do better when they first start a job. AS they continue, they realize the excessive requirements that DDA imposes and start to take some shortcuts. DDA uses this to get rid of them so they can hire new recruits. That way they can get the paperwork the way they want it.
They also lose people because there isnt any money to be made.
Its a perfect system for them but abuses delivery people.
May 17th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
I look forward each year to receiving a Verizon phone book.
Concerning delivery of the phone book, maybe the external vendor company who wins the bid (to hire independent contractors to deliver the books) should SHORTEN THE DELIVERY ROUTES. As a result, a larger variety of people would have the opportunity to deliver the books, such as those people with cars instead of cargo vans, etc.!!! A lot of people are still unemployed. Also, short routes would enable the able older generation to make a little extra $$.
Regarding one comment about getting a signature for each book, I have never had to sign for a phone book and do not feel that signature should be required. For residents, just stick them in the mailbox, throw them in the driveway, or leave at the door.
May 17th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
@C putting them in the mailbox would be illegal. Putting them elsewhere is pretty much littering if people haven’t requested the books.
June 22nd, 2011 at 11:31 am
People seem to be smartening-up. Looks like DDA’s bad behavior towards its carriers is catching up to them. They were paying 10 cents per book in Providence this year which is half the going rate. They have been there for months without finishing the job.
November 20th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I’ve delivered for DDA a few times……THEY SUCK!
I’ve been delivering for over TEN years AND
If you cannot stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.
Some routes are not as profitable as others.
But heck me and Robert made over $465 in TWO six hour days!
And the next two days had way too many Businesses on the routes….had to get a good percentage of business cards
from them….some do not want to give you any info or sign even though they advertise and our contract requirements are to get signatures from advertisers. Just have to deal with the problems like SERVERS YES I was there too! In Ashburn, VA I delivered to Godaddy and Match.com and motley fools all in the same building and I had three of these maybe even four buildings that showed like needing three hundred books I was ABLE to carry BACK to the distribution warehouse and NOT get paid for deliverin. SO NEXT Year I KNOW not to even take this route on. WHAT PISSES me off is when Hassan<<>>>>> Anthony Johnson walks all over MY ROUTE and when I get to Businesses I have to get names and signatures from they already had it at their door in the early AM …..and if I walked on someone else’s route I would get DNR’d do not rehire SO Who are the best companies to work for the ones who do not screw the experienced person who does this to make a living BUT THEN AGAIN you have to watch out for the field manager too BUT STAY AWAY FROM ANYWHERE>>>>>DDA out of Duluth GA, and SDDS in Buford, GA
and APD in Florida
Las Vegas YellowBook jobs to NOT DO because STEVE with SDDS
field manager and they give you GPS Transponders to click and they do not work then they call your route and see you did it and fire you because THEIR GPS CLICKERS do not work Yellowbook stay away from Them in Memphis as PHATMAN Darren is rude and saddly won’t accept the truth about these kids that threw a marble and borke a windown of a house we delivered a book to. WHY would I break a window glass storm door for the sake of delivering a 22 cent phone book BTW I tried throwing books through another door and it would not break and we found the marble they threw in the glass pile because we were not guilty but we stayed at the scene until the owner came from US KNOCKING on the house BUT we got screwed by YELLOWBOOK! next time ii=f there is one I will leave my helper and chase the juveniles down and probably go to jail for that!! BUT SCREW YELLOWBOOK Deliveries! And WHITE PUBLISHING IN Tallahassee Florida also SUCKS! The ladies in the office said we THROW the books out our van wondow when actually we set them next to the mailboxes on rural deliveries!! I got SHOT at in Gainesville florida and some expletives I will never forget in Some City,OR who chased us down the highway and all over the backroads for fourteen miles at high speeds LOL ALL because we delivered a frikking phone book. So please whomever is is Belmont, MA I can feel for you about a few things and I disagree with a few others I made $1173 and change last week! Wanta Talk call me 315-745-9418 unless you are Clyde Clayton or John and Angela or anyone I will hang up on and you know who you are!
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Storrs
January 7th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
I’ve written about this company before.
They are currently violating their own Delivery agreement and very possibly federal IRS regulations regarding Independent Contractor status of their delivery people.
They state in line 5 of their Delivery Agreement the below statement. Verbatim.
“All work is subject to accuracy checks. If the work is not completed to the reasonable satisfaction of DDA, payment will be withheld. DDA will not exercise control over the method or details of performance, and will look to results only.”
DDA and DDA’s delivery managers are currently demanding all independent contractors carry with them a GPS device as a monitoring agent which requires one to click it at every delivery stop. If one does not comply, they do not get any work and if the device fails or is not clicked correctly, further work is not allowed out the door with that carrier.
This is in violation of their own deliver agreement which clearly states, “DDA will not exercise control over the method or details of performance, and will look to results only.” In particular, details of performance.
They are clearly riding both sides of the fence here. They are hiring IC’s, allowing them to avoid employee tax expenses
and clearly implementing strict control over the same IC’s and violating their own agreement in the progress.
I am not an attorney but am forwarding a copy of this to an attorney friend for elaboration.
January 7th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Here is how the IRS defines an Independent Contractor.
Verbatim.
“People such as doctors, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, accountants, contractors, subcontractors, public stenographers, or auctioneers who are in an independent trade, business, or profession in which they offer their services to the general public are generally independent contractors. However, whether these people are independent contractors or employees depends on the facts in each case. The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. The earnings of a person who is working as an independent contractor are subject to Self-Employment Tax.
If you are an independent contractor, you are self-employed. To find out what your tax obligations are, visit the Self-Employed Tax Center.
You are not an independent contractor if you perform services that can be controlled by an employer (what will be done and how it will be done). This applies even if you are given freedom of action. What matters is that the employer has the legal right to control the details of how the services are performed.
If an employer-employee relationship exists (regardless of what the relationship is called), you are not an independent contractor and your earnings are generally not subject to Medicare and Social Security Taxes for Self-Employed.”