Has anyone done te AL map test? I'm told it's nothng lik the knowledge but wondered what it entails.

Is it just queston like what postcode is Aldwych in or how many squares in W1 for example as opposed to the knowledge which asks you to get from a to b.

Thank you

Haven't seen their test for a while but it was quite comprehensive.
You won't pass if you're a new boy.
It's largely the usual crap:
Name the bridges crossing the Thames from Tower to Wandsworth.
Give the postcodes of Tower 42, Greater London House, The Business Design Centre, Royal Fsetival Hall, etc.
Name five streets off each of Great Portland Street, Essex Road, Borough High Street, London Wall, etc.
There were some Knowledge questions in it though:
Give the best route from Euston Tower to Pont Street or The London Dungeon to the Dorchester Hotel type of crap.
What gets me is that the arrogant feckers now send prospective drivers out to do a watered down version of the Knowledge. Next time you pull-up next to an apparent halbschmutz at the lights, take a look at the board on the front of his bike. The run will probably have a "Knowledge of London" logo, but it might have an Addidon Lee one.
They're quite a good firm to work for as a cyclist, even though John Griffin thinks cycle couriers should be banned and doesn't ideally want to have any - Addison Lee only got cyclists when they took over other firms: notably Junkiefucker Jenkins's Premier Despatch.

Thanks for the response.

I went into Lewis Day offices the other day and they gave me their Knowledge test and it was largely as you describe Friar, roads off roads, how many bridges take you into south east London etc. I did that OK as I have been doing the proper Knowledge on and off for a couple of years.

Is there a practical test as well? they also talk of the Institute of Motoring Examination - anyone know of that ?

I'm sure you've got to be fairly knowledgeable but the best answer to give is 'look at the satnav you give me', I suppose.

I never got a test at AL but then they had seen my CV ;) As long as your not on a pushie you can go were u want, we got enough extra riders right about now

That test isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Back in '99 to get in to Metro I had a pass a series of tests. The first was keeping up with Simon Barnes in a run from Clerkenwell to Soho, on to Chelsea and back to Clerkenwell. He was the current Alleycat champ and i think he went on the go slow so that was kind of him. The next test was doing a quick ride from Clerkenwell to Se1 and back with Tipex Tipper. He tried to push me under a bus but somehow I made it back. The last test and by far the hardest, I had to spend a few hours in the Chelsea bomb hole with the hardes' of 'em all, Overdrive. I couldn't understand a fucking word he said, he screamed blue murder, ranted about the dishes in the sink, swore about the poll tax, asked me if i was a protestant, if i liked Riverdance and even offered me a crack pipe. I was ready to get the next flight back to Aus but Overdrive must have put a good word in...

Metro didn't give me a test.
Yep, Sleepy - you are correct in saying that Addy Lee first got pushies when they took over Anderson Young, though I think they may have had one or two for travel client embassy stuff before then.
I'm pretty sure Malcolm Young only started MY after Anderson Young had gone to Mr. Griffin's Empire... for not much more than the company vehicles were worth! (How does a firm get in that much shit?) I believe Anderson Young had two offices at the time - the one that's still a minicab office in Munster Road, just south of the Dawes Road junction; and the City office that was Southbank on Cambridge Heath Road until Anderson Young took Southbank over.
I don't know any former Anderson Young pushies still at Addison Lee. Good pushie firm to work for if you knew the right people was Anderson Young. One fed fucker had a contract in EC4 that paid £70 a day. It was such a piece of piss that he used to knock out ten or twelve jobs on circuit most days and pulled £500 per week. That's almost as good as working for Metro. Motorbike rates at Anderson Young were crap. I dug out some paysheets last winter and took them into the office of the firm I was working for. The riders laughed loudly at the Anderson Young rates... and the tightfisted ripoff bastards still went skint!
I was at Anderson Young immediately before the takeover, but I was tipped off by someone in the know that they were about to go skint and got the fuck out of Dodge before the shit hit the fan. In hindsight, maybe not a great move, though I didn't fancy a free transfer to Addison Lee.
There is still the odd ex-Premier pushie at Addison Lee.
I think the only firm that does a sort of practical test before they take you on os Courier Systems. Thick wannabe yuppie twat Greg Williams used to tail prospective company bike riders on a circuit of the Westway, St. John's Wood, Queen's Park and North Ken. Same deal for company vans. Greg's now been promoted to some post that involves even more cocksucking than working in the recruitment section. I doubt is his long-term partner in crime, Pierre DuPreez, would be trusted to carry out the same routine, as he's pissed too often.
Oh, yeah, EssexJC... none of this "on and off" Knowledge crap. Get on with it! Or you'll end up like Punch at Anderson Young's local rivals BCCP. He's been doing the Knowledge "on and off" for ten years (Definitely "off" at the moment!) and he's still behind the fucking mike at Townmead Road. This week sees the second anniversary of an acquaintance of mine passing the Knowledge only 18 months after starting it. If you work your bollocks off it can be done.

No,not very,innit.

What's with all these innits?

Courier Systems are not all that bad. Everyone slags them off, but I have seen bad. Bullshitting bad.

I was going to bugger off, but.....
I can't let "Courier Systems aren't all that bad" go.
Courier Systems are THE worst firm in London.
Yes, you can make money there. I've worked for them three times and I earned well above industry average last time I was there. From that viewpoint - the viewpoint of a rider thinking only about today and what he's earning - they're a lot better than most and certainly well ahead of the likes of West End where you'll earn £15 per day.
However, as Marc Patton pointed out, they're the lot principally responsible for driving down prices in this industry. I've done sales shit in West London and the rates Courier Systems charge are a farce. As Patton said, if an account is paying Acme Despatch £4.95 minimum and £1.35 per mile, Courier Systems don't bother going in at £4.80 and £1.30. They steam straight in at £3.75 and a flat £1.
They fund this by having a fleet of idiot newbys who don't know what they're doing. They retain a hardcore of professional riders for Goldman and KPMG shit and they charge smaller existing clients extortionate rates.
I had two post-5pm out of town "solo/double-rush/express" deliveries at Courier Systems that I absolutely flew to. No reply at the drop but on both occasions there was almost certainly someone in, provided I banged on a few back doors or waited in the car park for a while. On both occasions the "Bring it back" was almost immediate, even though I'd explained the situation. They couldn't wait to charge the client, who'd probably gone home, for a premium rate return. On both occasions, I hung about and delivered the package.
Whereas they could charge a flat £80pw for company vehicles, they charge less than that, usually £60, and then hit riders/drivers with charges for anything that needs to be replaced on the bike/van.
I know one rider who was given a company bike, pointed out that the clutch felt dodgy and was told it was OK. Three days after he started, the clutch packed up. They charged the rider £300+ to replace the fucking thing.
Anyone has even the slightest scrape, they keep the £500 deposit for damage to the vehicle and stick the rider/driver in another one. If that happens to you and you spot the vehicle damaged in the scrape, it'll still be in the same damaged conditon as when they took it off you. No work done. They just nick £500.
When I left they found an excuse to charge me for a new set of tyres and for cleaning the bike. (£50's a good rate for cleaning a bike. When can I start?) There were no new tyres on the bike when I saw it a week later.
One former workshop manager, who races at a respectable level up and down the country, funded his operation for a full season by nicking parts from the workshop and selling them. Such is the scale of fraud in the workshop when it comes to charging riders/drivers for non-existent parts, that the racer got away with his scam for the whole season before they spotted it. Of course, they simpky asked him to leave. They could hardly press charges, could they?
Absolute scum firm.

From my dealing with them as a pushie, they've been nothing but straight up. To be honest I expected worse. So long as you can/are making money who is to say whether closed door practices are moral or not.

But when it comes to say MB or Car/Van hire, I would be very wary of trusting any company out of the box.

lol THE GOTH RAPPER RETURNS HE TAKES NO PRISIONERS ill be Robin letts spray these U turning cunts yeah and give us an E .There goes my job in the force

^ Don't say that, it was the only sort of bloody courier racing I was any good at.....apart from earning more than the rest of you.

glib, I meant I earned more money than Zack and Overdose when we worked at the same company as couriers..........cue 'it's cos you sucked the controllers cock better*' jokes.

We all did, some metaphorically others...........well I'l leave it for your torrent searching.

That's not fair, Overdrive has edited what he said, i bet he was ranting in one of his rages, someone tell me what he said?

Never heard of any test over there. As far as I know they use test fot motobike riders. You go to the office and they take you or not, it depends if they need someone.
This contract in EC4 mentioned before paid £53 a day, not £70...
I think, there's only 1 rider in AL left who previously worked for AY.

nepotism/favouritism has been rife on every circuit i've worked, with the possible exception of metro where there were so few riders it just wasn't practical. getting in with the control room, either by bribing them with a strawberry cornetto (you know who you are!) or speed was just part and parcel...

The EC4 contract I'm talking about definitely paid £70 per day. The rider in question had the next numbered call-sign down from me and I got his paysheet by mistake. Twice. (Told you they were useless!) Actually he lived just around the corner from my current abode in Acton.

What I remember most about those days was the depths that some riders plumbed to get the good work.There was some hardcore arse licking going on in that room.John Carlin's ring-piece was f*cking spotless....
Just sayin'.

FFS, Bong!
Learn the form before you come on here!
When I post deliberately false - but irrelevant - statements, such as "The contract paid £70 per day", you're supposed to tell me I'm a cunt and initiate a pointless bout of slagging.
(It did pay something like £53... but the fed bastard did earn £500 per week.)