Newsagents across Maidstone are at their wits' end over late or failed deliveries of their daily newspapers.

The non-arrival of the papers has meant they have been unable to supply customers, which they say is damaging their businesses.

Mike Patel, who has run Betty's News in Upper Fant Road, Maidstone, for the past 21 years, is one of the worst affected, because he is one of a diminishing number of newsagents who still deliver the papers to his customers.

In past times, the daily papers would be dropped off at his shop by Menzies Distribution when he opened at 5.30am in time for them to be marked up for delivery by his paper-boys before they went to school.

Mr Patel said: "Some times now they don't arrive till 11am, or midday; sometimes we have to drive to the warehouse in Aylesford to collect them or we wouldn't get them at all!

"It's impossible, by the time the papers arrive all my newsboys have gone. They have to go to school."

In order to avoid letting down his regular customers, Mr Patel and his wife Rupal then have to deliver the papers themselves – forcing them to close the shop while they do so.

Rupal Patel said: "It takes well over two hours to go round even by car.

"What annoys me is that Menzies seem to have no problem delivering papers to the supermarkets, but when it comes to small businesses like ourselves, they don't seem to care – even though we are more affected because we deliver."

Mr Patel said: "This has been going on now for a couple of months, but this is not the first time it has happened.

"The problem is they have a monopoly of distribution, so we can't even take our custom somewhere else."

The Londis Post Office and Store in Tovil is also suffering. A member of staff there, who asked not to be named, said: "We open at 7.30am but the papers are not arriving till 8am or sometimes 10am. By then, customers who have come in for their morning paper and found we don't have any, have gone to the supermarket nearby instead."

She said: "Two days in the last two weeks, the papers didn't arrive at all."

Dean Martin has run Broadway News by Maidstone Bridge for more than 10 years. He said: "It's been a terrible service for three or four weeks now, with the papers frequently coming late.

"Our papers are supposed to arrive at 6.30am so that we can sell to the early morning commuters catching the trains to London from the station next door. Instead they've been arriving at 9, 10 or even 11 o'clock – by that time we've missed all that business – and sometimes they haven't arrived at all."

Mr Martin said he had tried to complain to Menzies. He said: "First of all it's near impossible to get through – they have so many people ringing up to complain.

"When I have managed to speak to anyone, they blame a shortage of delivery drivers, and on one occasion when our papers didn't arrive, they said they had a new driver on the route who had delivered them to a different shop by mistake."

Menzies spokesman Stephen Benzikie said: "In recent months our operation in the area has experienced some disruption, chiefly as a result of the well documented driver shortage, with some of our local drivers from overseas returning to their home countries.

"We are taking measures to address the situation and are confident of a resolution."