It’s the holidays once again and we urge you to show a little love for your newspaper delivery person. That is, please set aside a tip for your carrier.

We have an army of 34 carriers covering 89 routes across Central Oregon, six days a week, rain or shine. They also deliver the free Marketplace classifieds publication and the weekly Redmond Spokesman.

Carriers are independent contractors for The Bulletin, so they are not employees. They pay for their car maintenance and gas to cover their travels along their delivery routes. If they are out sick for some reason, or sidelined, it is up to them to find a substitute for their deliveries.

The carriers usually get their papers around 12:30 a.m. each night and take a couple of hours to drive their routes delivering The Bulletin. But due to an odd production issue, they sometimes may not receive papers until 3 a.m. or later. Still, they make the effort to deliver to you on time, by 6 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends. Many of them have secondary jobs they have to get to after they deliver their routes, so they are hustling when the papers are late.

Icy, slick roads, blizzards, rain and simply just delivering in the dark to homes that don’t have clear street addresses can be a challenge. So show them a little bit of Christmas cheer.

There are a couple of ways to leave a tip. On your invoice, there is a box to check for a tip, so you can include it in your bill. Or, you can send a check with the carrier’s name to The Bulletin, P.O. Box 6020, Bend, OR, 97708.

If you need help getting a check to them, call 541-385-5800, and we will help make that happen.

Happy holidays and thanks for reading.