Thank you for your interest in Right to Deliver

The right to deliver advertising literature, newspapers, phone books and other forms of commercial speech is as much a part of the First Amendment as the right to free speech itself. This overview is intended to give the current members of The Association of Alternate Postal Systems (AAPS), potential members of AAPS and of course the general public a basic understanding of a private delivery company's right to deliver.

AAPS has continually attempted to provide information and materials to its members that are practical, authoritative and instructive. We particularly believe there is much to gain by providing information that will provide the private distribution industry with some examples of proven techniques that should substantially increase targeted distribution effectiveness and better serve our advertising and publisher clients.

Although most areas of the Right to Deliver work are secured and dedicated to AAPS members who are owners and operators of private delivery companies or their legal representatives, the materials and analysis presented are based on core legal and constitutional issues that have involved all forms of expression since the earliest days of our democracy and the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Door to door distribution of subscription and non-subscription newspapers, phone books, commercial advertising circulars, political literature, product samples, and myriad publications has been a daily, ubiquitous activity for hundreds of years. Yet the Private Advertising (a.k.a. Alternate) Distribution Industry, with its roots in decades old practices and consisting of hundreds if not thousands of private businesses dedicated to timely delivering the customers' printed messages to the public, in many ways is just coming out of its infancy. Since 1973, we have had a national trade organization, AAPS, whose mission is to upgrade the industry on several levels. We have a national Code of Ethics. We encourage a uniformity of effective and equitable practices and procedures through the sharing of "best practices" and other information by trade association members, the creation and expansion of companies ("super-brokers") engaged in representing advertisers in targeting advertising pre-prints, yellow pages and product sample placement, and vast improvements in hiring, training, supervision, and quality control practices. All of these developments have contributed to moving what was years ago only a more primitive basic service into an organized, efficient, reliable and sought after trade.

With the Private Advertising Distribution Industry on the upswing throughout the country and with dozens of major markets served by respected AAPS member distributors, we have also seen the need and development for specialization. The special protocol, reporting and quality control requirements for the delivery of weekly community newspapers, TMC and SMC products, samples and phone directories have challenged almost all in the delivery business. Improved skills and services have led to newspaper and other publication delivery requiring the use of special postal carrier route or census block mapping, the use of special skip or delivery lists, the need to develop procedures for obtaining entry in lockout communities, and the special handling, quality control and logistic and security procedures necessary for product sample delivery, are but a few of these challenges that we have had to meet.

The simple truth is that those that have expended the effort to keep up with these new demands are prospering.

With Right to Deliver, the time has come to more proactively face some issues that have, at one time or another, plagued most private distribution companies. Those issues involve the barriers and restrictions placed on us by certain towns, cities, counties, state governments and quasi-public entities in the form of private communities or business centers that have prohibited or severely restricted the door-to-door delivery of the publications and products that we were retained to deliver for our customers.

There are literally thousands of unreasonable, unfair, and unconstitutional ordinances, codes and regulations that are and can be used against private delivery. Many of these laws and rules were written prior to several important of Federal and State court rulings on First Amendment and other constitutional protections that have expanded the protections afforded free speech. Others have been written more recently by legislators or officials who ostensibly assert that their laws are to be enforced in the interests of protecting the particular community from such problems as litter, crime, and invasion of the right to privacy. These laws and rules come in all forms but frequently place unreasonable, confiscatory and overly burdensome prohibitions on door to door distributors by imposing draconian licensing requirements and fees. Some ordinances and codes require prior consent of the resident before delivery, while others still attempt to prohibit totally the distribution of commercial literature in a community. Others require elaborate, time consuming and expensive pre-licensing procedures including criminal background checks, fingerprinting and unpredictable discretionary review by certain officials. Others set unreasonable time limitations and delivery windows and often require fees that either on their face or, in application, makes door-to-door distribution in a community either unreasonably expensive or prohibitive.

AAPS has developed Right to Deliver to encourage the private distribution industry to band together and share information and resources. It's critical that we support each other in successfully opposing unconstitutional restraints on our right to engage in our businesses without unreasonable and illegal interference. As stated, we have a responsibility to upgrade our knowledge to protect ourselves and our customers and clients.

As a member of AAPS, what you will find in the secured area of Right to Deliver

The secured section of Right to Deliver on the AAPS website will introduce both private distributors and legal counsel of their choice to the core legal constitutional issues that our industry faces on a daily basis. Remember, that although Federal law based on constitutional principles, particularly dealing with the First Amendment, is supposed to be uniform throughout the country, these are some significant variations among the states and in different Federal Court Districts and Circuits. Also, be mindful that various state constitutions also have the equivalent of free speech and free press provisions, and some of the case interpretations in these states may afford even greater protections to those seeking the right to free expression and dissemination of ideas than does the Federal case law. We have particularly seen, both on the Federal and State side, an increase in the protections afforded commercial speech (as distinguished from pure speech traditionally characterized by daily or weekly newspapers).

Finally, the Right to Deliver pages contains not only sections on obstacles to access and recommended ways for solutions, information on commercial speech versus free speech and sample legal pleadings but also sample letters written to city and county officials and law enforcement officers. These letters attempt to avoid expensive and risky litigation, cite supporting law, and ask for resolutions of problems created by a particular ordinance, code or regulation. Letters and communications such as these have traditionally enjoyed a high degree of success, since many administrative and law enforcement officials are aware of their particular vulnerability in the sensitive areas of free speech, freedom of the press and equal protection of the law. Both the letters and the pleadings are presented as a guide, or a method of approach to problem solving only, and should not be blindly followed, since there are usually differences in factual situations and jurisdictional law. Consequently, the advice and assistance of an attorney of your choice is highly recommended if your business is confronted with a licensing law challenge. AAPS members have the benefit of exclusive access to one on one dialogue regarding their own specific situations with our own expert attorney on free speech.

Again, AAPS does not attempt herein to advise you as to the law or outcome of any particular conflict that you may encounter in this area. We can only trust and hope that we have been helpful and have provided you and your legal counsel with a good starting point.