Bike couriers in big cities?
- Thread starter JMAC
- Start date
I think Spincrazy used to work as one.
Spinny, where you at dude?
Spinny, where you at dude?
"Couriers are paid a certain percentage of each delivery fee, usually between 40 and 60 percent. A reliable bike courier can make $350 to $500 per week, and experienced messengers claim they can haul in $700 a week or more. Full-time messengers work five-day weeks, with the busiest periods arriving in the late afternoon, when end-of-the-day panic sets in. " from the Boston Phoenix, so it prolly varies a little city to city
I wish my city was big enough for it...I don't even think there were any in Salt Lake...
My town has about 70,000...do you think it'd be big enough for me to courier-ify it solo? 
What is claimed they make, and what is under the table are two toooootally different things.
Its a hard life
Its a hard life
That's 'cause SLC is a friggin' cow town, Tex.xbluethunderx said:
-S.S.-
J
JRB
Guest
SkaredShtles said:
Tex??? WTF??? Do not use Texas slander for the peeps in Utah yo. :mumble:
I use "Tex" as slander for ANYONE....... it is the Universal Slander.loco-gringo said:
Just remember that...... Tex.
-S.S.-
I lied...there are some apparently...too bad I movededSkaredShtles said:
Salt Lake is too spread out for the most part for bike messengers...suburban sprawl at its best.
Based on what I know of the business, being a messenger is....ummm....well mostly a bad idea. Not that much pay, hard work, few benefits, very dangerous.
Heidi said:
Hey, I'm only a month late.
I was a bike messenger in Seattle many moons ago. Best days were making around $80-90 a day. I'd imagine you'd make more in a larger city, now, and once you've done it for awhile. You kind of pay your dues at first and work for the lower companies and if you can still hack it/stand it you can make pretty good money doing legal stuff. It is hard work and you do get burnt out on riding if you 'hit it' all the time, but it's a fun experience and depending on where you do it, you'll get into fantastic shape. With all the hills in Seattle and my adrenalin filled, money hungry attitude I became a stringy beast like, Tri athelete looking freak. Best shape of my life. Ah, the good times....
Bumping the oldass thread again...
I've decided I'm going to give small-time messengering a shot in my town. I have a bag, a cell phone, and a cross bike. There's a university and tons of law firms/professional businesses in town, and I know there is demand for it, I just don't know how to run it. I was thinking of giving businesses/law offices fliers, but how would it run? Just have them call my phone, do the delivery? What if there's more?!?! AHHH! I've looked at the IFBMA page on going indy, but it's for people who've got experience already and know how things are done. This is probably the reeeally wrong board to post this on but meh...
I've decided I'm going to give small-time messengering a shot in my town. I have a bag, a cell phone, and a cross bike. There's a university and tons of law firms/professional businesses in town, and I know there is demand for it, I just don't know how to run it. I was thinking of giving businesses/law offices fliers, but how would it run? Just have them call my phone, do the delivery? What if there's more?!?! AHHH! I've looked at the IFBMA page on going indy, but it's for people who've got experience already and know how things are done. This is probably the reeeally wrong board to post this on but meh...
why dont you just cut lawns or something? Youd make more.
A)it's the dead of winter
and
B)I could care less...If I can make money and ride my bike...yay.
and
B)I could care less...If I can make money and ride my bike...yay.
paperboys ride bikesxbluethunderx said:
We don't have paperboys.BurlyShirley said:
You dont have bike messengers either.xbluethunderx said:
or just give up and get a real job. :devil:the Inbred said:
Yeah. 17. If I can get this thing going, I'd stay here for college next fall...
spincrazy said:
I second that. Money thing for sateside would be different from what I was doing down here in NZ, but looks about the same, tho it used to be far far better. Best sorta on the job training for downhilling. All your doing all day long is interval sprints. Your sprint after a while will start to make track riders a lil bit worried.
Graphics companys are also a good bet for clients.
I was a messenger in Seattle for a couple years. Many of my friends still are. One close one runs his own show. He got it started when the company he was working for went under and he already knew many of the clients. He employs one car driver for the long board and runs all the short and dispatch from his bike. The others i know that are solo are from the similar background. They worked in the biz beforehand.
If you want to do this, you need clients that will want to choose because you are cheaper and faster (or at least they think you are) then a car. You also need to like pain and topramin.
Also, if you do this, biking is you job. It's not so fun to ride for fun when you have been riding for work 8-10 hours a day/ 5days.....
After i got a new job I had energy and $ to by bikes.
If you want to do this, you need clients that will want to choose because you are cheaper and faster (or at least they think you are) then a car. You also need to like pain and topramin.
Also, if you do this, biking is you job. It's not so fun to ride for fun when you have been riding for work 8-10 hours a day/ 5days.....
After i got a new job I had energy and $ to by bikes.
What's the going rate for deliveries? I can run it faster than a car...everyone here is lazy and will be more than willing to shell out money for me to deliver a document or pick up theatre tickets rather than get in their quad cab diesel truck and spend half an hour driving 4 blocks...
Have you already checked what courier companies exist there? not bike based, but car based. Dont' forget about cabs. They are fast and deliver more then just people. also, what will it cost then to ship a 5 pound package by ups ground? that will be very cheap and only take one day.xbluethunderx said:
if a customer calls you and need a banker box delivered, will you have to say no? they don't like that.
Rates? Normally set up by zones and speed. if someone calls you in a panic and needs a pint of ice cream delivered to here in 15 min from across town then it's $35 or $45 or $85. In Seattle there are enough people that will do silly stuff like that. what about Logan?
That brings up another point. When Seattle was in the .com boom, money was easy for a courier. I was doing 100-140 (that's doing between 30-50 deliveries) a day. Now that people have smaller budgets for shuttling ice cream around town, nobody in Seattle ever makes $100 a day now.
30-50 dels a day. Mans things are different here. My CBD is only 10-15 mins across (depends on the way the winds blowing). Back in the day we would be doing 100 dels a day, with a mix of 60's 30's and 15's. mind you Government departments makes things easier, gotta love multiple pickups in buildings, or floors. Thses days 50-60 dels is an average day
Are you prerouted legal? 50 in seattle is a lot. a 50 tag day is a no lunch, no stop, sprint everywhere type of day.
There isn't a single courier service in town. A couple that frequents the bike shop was thinking about starting one with their car early in the summer, but it fell through. What's great about this is that I really don't have much to lose if I do it, I'm not going to be quitting any jobs, almost no startup capital...