Originally Posted by RobertHurst

A common misconception.

I was a messenger for 20 years so I know a little bit about this subject. You have misunderstood the goal of the messenger. The goal is to get the delivery done "on time" (close enough at least to satisfy or fool the customer) and not get hurt or hurt anybody else in the process. The fact is, due to the way the companies are set up and the promises they make to their customers, and the incredible demands of those customers, getting all the deliveries done "on time" often requires some law-breaking.

This common idea that messengers ride crazy fast in order to make as much money as possible is a relic from a time when there were tons of messengers competing with each other and endless work to be done. These days, messenger companies are just trying to keep the (few) customers that they have, and messengers don't have a chance to make a good paycheck even if they rode through the streets faster than Fabian Cancellara. They are just trying to get the work done so they can maintain their reputations and keep getting work so they don't starve or have to live under the subway.

Messengers don't break laws and ride fast through the city in order to make an extra five an hour. If they're doing that, it's because that is what they are hired to do. (Or because they're going for some stupid glory in an alleycat race or because somebody is following them with a video camera, or some combination.) A completely law-abiding messenger wouldn't last a single day. They would be replaced immediately by somebody willing to do the work.

Personally when I was working I would prefer to ride at a leisurely pace all the time. In fact I could often make more money by loafing around and holding deliveries for as long as possible, contrary to popular belief. (This gives you more of a chance to get multiple deliveries going to the same area.) And while I worked on commission, a lot of 'em work on a fixed hourly or daily wage, and of course derive no benefit from riding fast. But when the shtf the lowly messenger doesn't have any choice about waiting at lights or hanging out behind a traffic jam.

When you think about 15 minute deliveries (from the time the call is received to getting a signature for the drop) consider that it can take about 15 minutes just to lock up your bike and get in and out of a single building, depending on the elevators. Obviously, completing one delivery is a two-building experience. And you might have two or more of those rush deliveries on board at the same time. And one of those customers is probably at the other end waiting, watching the clock, drumming their fingernails on a desk. Which customer? Often you're trying to get something in before a govt. office closes, like proposals with hard deadlines -- at 4:59 you'll be faced with a locked door with nobody on the other side, no slop time (better hope their clock isn't set thirty seconds fast.) Sometimes the company gets swamped with calls and you're just trying to dig out of an avalanche of deliveries. The last thing the order taker (who could very well be the company owner) wants to tell a regular customer is "I'm sorry, we can't get that done for you right now." Those clients would be on the phone to another outfit immediately, and may never call you again. Losing a single good client will cost a small messenger company tens of thousands of dollars per year, if not six figures. This translates into a lot of pressure at the pointy end of the spear so to speak.

Sure, nobody put a gun to their head and forced them to take the job. But individual messengers are hardly to blame for the fact there used to be a very hot market for expedited intracity delivery, which is now half dead.

Somewhere right now a lawyer is frantically sprinting around her office throwing papers and literally screaming into the phone about some delivery or another. Every customer thinks their delivery is the most important delivery of all time. They don't care if you have to kill old ladies and bash into strollers to get it done.

You imagine messengers as selfish scofflaws tearing up the fabric of the city. That's a fantasy. A good messenger is really a tempering force against unreasonable and violent demands.




You are just plain wrong about this. You are not alone.

Veteran messengers are the safest riders on the street, because they are the most experienced riders on the street, and because a cyclist's safety in fact does not spring from his/her willingness to wait at red lights and observe vehicular niceties. The cyclist's safety depends on vigilance and anticipating the mistakes of other road users. If you don't get that, then you don't understand what it means to ride "safe and conservative."