I'm a courier that's been working in chicago for +3 years, and thinking about moving to the west coast. Is it hard to find a job in San Francisco? How long does it take to get in a spot at one of the good companies?
Thanks for the info.

from what I know (my company's in the east bay...a 7 mile swim from SF) it's not a great time to be a messenger in SF.

Yup, times are tough right now in the city.

why are they i want to be a courier but i don't know where to go, but why are they rough.\?

Not much business lately. Lots of electronic filing and file transfer going on.

that sucks.. when i'm down there i see alot of messengers sitting around i think it is a bart entrance, i don't rememeber, some thing with a black fence, around the E-Trade place.

yeah...and even when times are good messenger pay is *****...San Fran has one of the most convoluted filing systems around, and sf messengers pride themselves on being able to navigate it. Lots of movement towards electric filing has cut that down, as well as post 2001 bag screening at courthouses. The only reason my company does reasonably well is because we specialize in non-standard-messenger things (like pianos). I can't remember the last time I did a court filing...

The messenger business is contracting, its happening in all the cities.Some of it is electronic filing, some of it is just business as usual.We have about 25 messengers here and realistically its about 8 too many.Three to four years ago we had about 40.Here where I live the independent guys like me are prettymuch killing the big courier companies, the prices are also being arificially low by big_courier_co, and they wonder why their turnover rate is 80% annually LOL.Still, there's always work for those willing to do it and work hard at it.For years many here have been milking an easy system, times got tougher and alot of the less willing folded.My business has been steadily increasing since I opened,and I dont see an end to it either, the job is what you make it.

The big big obstacle about east coast or west coast cities is housing, its outrageously expensive, here in the midwest in smaller cities a one bedroom apt is less than $400/month, my rent is only $285.

where in the midwest do you live???

you can swing cheap rent anywhere, though, if you are willing to make some tradeoffs and know what you're doing. In 9 years in the sf bay area my rent has steadily decreased from 780/mo for a shared room when I got here in '96 through several other places at 600, 500, 450, 360, and now I've got a nice room in a nice house in a nice neighborhood for 250 bucks/month, so I can swing it on messenger pay around here and still have enough money to satisfy my blingy bike addition (i'm in a masi phase right now)

columbus ohio, and im about 1.1miles from the dead center of the city

you wont find very much inexpensive housing in other cities that close to the center of them,least not in my experience