OK, I delivered papers for several years by bike. There has been some misinformation put out on this thread. I delivered on an old raleigh 3speed. it was so old the paint had faded from red to grey. Front and rear wire racks. The route was 2 miles away. The closest customer was a little less than 2 miles the furthest was a about 3 miles away. The dryness wasn't an issue we wrapped the papers just like the car delivery guys do. Sometimes the company issued waxpaper wrappers sometimes plastic. We delivered in thunderstorms. One bike carrier got lifted into the river by a waterspout. If another carrier was sick or couldn't do his route sometimes I'd do two routes- even for a competing paper. Once when it was a sunday I had all my racks full and two of those big canvas bags. I didn't make two trips I just doubled the load. My paper was an evening paper but other bike carriers did the morning paper before school. We didn't drop our routes for school, we dropped them for other jobs or because we hated the boss. In my case I begged for a route in my neighborhood then realized the distant route had better customers- businesses and retirees. The businesses paid their bills and the retirees treated me with respect. The close to home route had young families who wouldn't pay their bills and mean dogs. As far as getting the paper on time it was very routine, every customer got the paper within a set time from when I received them from the company, except on collection day. The morning paper- which I delivered for my brother sometimes came out so early that only the very earliest risers could tell when it came anyway.
Believe it or not, it seems like a dream even to me, but I got in a bike accident not associated with the job and found out the paper gave the bike carriers health insurance to the extent that they offered to pay my medical bills. I didn't have to ask, when the supervisor found out I was hurt, the company offered to pay. This was in the United States. My parents had insurance so the company didn't end up paying anything but still they extended the helping hand before the family had to ask.
With electronic bill paying, relieving the carrier of the chore of chasing down the customers, the job would have been much easier. I could've taken two or three routes. Yes, you can carry 100 Sunday papers on a bike with those huge baskets. You sling two big canvas bags around your chest and rest one on the papers in the front basket and rest the other on the papers stuffed in the rear baskets. Nowadays with these nice bike trailiers it is even more doable.
In my town, the economy went bad when the major employers dumped their workers. It was about that time that car deliverers began to appear. I imagine each car carrier deprived several young teens of the experience of using a bike as a working tool, and of having a job. Since they threw the papers from moving cars they deprived the customers of the quality service I gave. If the customer wanted it in a certain place, I put it there- under the mat, in the window sill, knock on the door, inside the screen door - whatever. The way the car people just sling the papers into the yards how can they even conceive of giving each customer a slightly different experience based on the customer's wishes? With electronic bill paying the customer doesn't even have a chance to request that the paper be placed between the screen and main door. Many customers probably have never met their newspaper person and would never imagine that they could have their paper resting on the doormat instead of hunting for it somewhere in the yard. Look at the exchange here, a low paid person spending a small amount of time saving a highly paid person a little larger amount of time. It is quicker for the bicycle deliverer to put the paper on the mat than for the customer to go hunting it. In the car delivery scenario the corporation in the form of the car delivery saves time at the expense of its customers. And we all accept this last trade off as the right way that things should be because it benefits the corporation. Don't even get me started on the social utility of having many kids develop a work ethic and sense of responsibility at a young age.