LCEF makes the London Review of Books blog and Road.cc
25.11.09 by Buffalo Bill
Sympathetic coverage coverage of the courier’s plight over here
Riding a bicycle round London for ten hours a day is grindingly difficult. A bike courier is paid £2-£3 per job (with a 10 per cent bonus for working a full week if you’re lucky), income can be fickle, and a slow week spent standing in the rain is no fun at all. Though it varies dramatically, couriers cover distances averaging around 300 miles a week. Couriers are obliged to deliver whatever a client wants delivered as quickly as the client requires; if you can’t get from pick-up to destination within 40 minutes, you don’t get paid. Covering London from (roughly) Wapping to Knightsbridge and Camden to Elephant and Castle, you see a lot of the city, a lot of weather, and a great many post-rooms.
and road.cc gives Courier Appreciation Day its own news item here
while to some, earning a living through riding your bike may seem like heaven, for bike couriers there are obvious downsides, such as dealing with irate taxi drivers and white van men, dodging careless pedestrians, and consigning packages to unsmiling security guards, not to mention the ever-present risk of serious injury or worse while going about your work.
meantime, House of Pistard chronicle the ever-growing band of people that have had the lock-ring and lightning logo tattoo-ed somewhere on their body here.
Action movie with messenger as central character
Daily Mail attacks cyclists, Jenny Jones says write to your MLA
Stop SMIDSY
Apologies
DC courier makes $25 in a day
The next big thing - fixies without handlebars
Bikes are 'fashion', not just fashionable
Power a fridge
Guardian blog provokes more anti-cycling drivel
FT reckons the best couriers make £400 a week, Austin Horse is uninsured
< I don't pay road tax · Police appeal for witnesses to fatal collision, 11th London cyclist killed >
hah your tentacles really cover the entire interwebz innit Bill. They cut the best bit though, where I said that “from the perspective of a bicycle courier, the postman’s lot is somewhat pedestrian.”
— jontyponty Nov 25, 10:56 AM #
Oh, it was you, was it? Nice piece.
“from the perspective of a bicycle courier, the postman’s lot is somewhat pedestrian.”
Ha! Brilliant.
— Bill Nov 25, 12:31 PM #
nice 1 Jon!
— Darrengerer Nov 26, 08:57 AM #
Cheers man, I even delivered it by hand, my last job ever!
— jontyponty Nov 26, 11:52 AM #