I guess I might as well chime in here.I work in columbus ohio(pop 1.1 million in metro area), there's about 25 messengers here.About 3 years ago a few of us started going indie.I used to work for Best courier, I went indie august 21st 2003, best move I ever made.I used to be a car courier, ive got about 19 years of experience in the biz, about 5yrs on the bike, ya im old(39yrs old).When I left Best I was taking home about $500/wk average, and here that goes a long long way, my monthly bills are only $400/month with food included.Now im on my own and business is still building, I went from having 128 clients and working for a 70% cut to 3 clients and a 100% cut in one day.Now I have about 40 customers and I get a new one about every month or so, got Borden Chemical this week matter of fact Ive slowly but surely been taking Best's customers and others companies clients away, its all about service, the job is truly what you make of it.Im averaging about $400/wk now and its steadily going up, I expect to hit about $700 and then hire someone and take a 50% paycut, then hire 3 car drivers and get my % of their work.You can make decent $$ if you work at it and make the right moves, it isnt for everyone.My business is an even mix of law firms and regular businesses, ive got a whole bunch of realestate related stuff, one court reporting agency, some architects, a PR firm, an engraving company etc etc.Its a pretty wide mix.The business is pretty flat these days in most cities, car couriers are expanding, bikes arent, and competition can be pretty tough.Here in Columbus the indies like me are prettymuch killing the big companies slowly but surely, there's 6 indie companies and 3 big courier companies with bikers.I live downtown which makes it easy for me.As for rates, right now I charge $3,$4.50, and $6 for 2hr,1hr,and 1/2hr service respectively, and thats in the downtown zipcode, outside that, add $2 each time I have to go into a different zip code.I charge $20/hr for wait time in the court houses(fed,local, and state),roundtrips are double the base rate.

In the courier biz in general there's way more bad unscrupulous companies than good honest one's unfortunately, and only experience will teach you that.One company here has been bouncing checks for 6 years plus and getting away with it, average biker for them makes $200/wk.

As an indie your street cred and rep with clients is worth its weight in gold, word of mouth advertising is the best thing there is.But, the only way to get it is to work as a contractor for awhile.When I left Best I solicited about 80 companies in 3 days, initially I got 3, a month later I had a dozen.After a year I had about 30.I still get phone calls from old customers wanting to switch every now and again.Ive solicited about 200 or so at this point, you get used to making sales calls and having your flyer/biz card chucked in the trash as you walk out of their offices, but, eventually it pays off.Right now im the oldest full time indie messenger here and ive got about 145,000 deliveries worth of experience, you cant buy that kind of experience, and it helps believe me.I treat it like a war, I keep track of what everyone else charges,who has what clients, and even scheduled pick times of the other companies, who works where both on the street and in their offices.Ive become very opportunistic and ruthless, its business, but for me, its also personal.Here lately ive been doing what many would consider car runs too, my delivery area is now about 16 square miles roughly.Bottom line, there is work for those that want it bad enough.