Another day another package
More very entertaining Courier Tales from Steve from back in the day
Thanks to Spence for this photo
We've had some more excellent and funny courier tales sent in by Steve again - well worth a read and very entertaining. Click
here to read his last ones.
"One of the weirdest (and yet most fulfilling) jobs I ever had, was when I was given one of the very sought-after long distance jobs, when working for World Courier in the early 1980s.
I did sometimes get the odd one, but in general they seemed to go to one particular rider, no idea why.
Anyway, there was a customer with a branch at Alnwick. Alnwick is in Northumberland, a very long way from London, over 300 miles, and the delivery to go to them was a large heavy box, so I decided to take the train up there at the end of the day.
The train was also a bit of luxury - the job was a serious earner and amply covered the fare, and I could treat myself to a bacon bap and two or three cans on the way up while sitting in the warm, so taking the train seemed like a no brainer.
Feeling very self-satisfied, I got off the train at Alnmouth and looked for a handy cab to take me the four miles into Alnwick.
Cab? Alnmouth? 10pm? Ha! No chance!
Get Ahead Get A Hat
Nothing for it, I would have to walk. It was pitch black by then, and the package was a ruddy great heavy box, I was seriously cheesed off, so I started hitching - not for the first time.
No one stopped of course, and I realised I should have gone up there lid in hand as that always seemed to work, but in my defence, I hadn't expected to have to be hitching in the dark!
No matter, after maybe 15 minutes of walking in the pitch black, and groaning under the thing that was only getting heavier, a single decker bus stopped. What a hero!
‘Where to?’ the driver asked
‘Alnwick’
“Climb aboard.’
Phew! We got chatting and it turned out, he was taking the empty bus back to the depot.
When I reached the package's destination there was nobody at the delivery address, so it would have to be one for the morning.
Next problem, now I had to stay overnight and had nowhere to stay, but the helpful bus driver said he knew a pub I could stay in so off we went. Pulling up outside, I met the landlord, and we started talking.
Where was I from? What was I doing?
I told him and he said that he knew a courier called Howard who worked in London. One of the most amazing coincidences - so did I, it was the same man. Howard sent him antiques from his Portobello stall.
It was as though I was talking to a long-lost friend.
He had no bedroom for me, but said I could sleep on the kitchen floor and he’d do me breakfast in the morning.
Maybe there is a god! Two terrific and friendly people made my day, and a zillion to one chance that we knew the same courier!
Peach Of A Job
Another contract the courier company had was with a big American bank. If one of their wealthy and special clients lost their credit card, they got one flown out to them, wherever they were.
What a peach that job was if you could get it!
The Office staff usually got those kind of jobs, they got flown out BA Club Class (yes, really - if I recall the firm did this so when they charged the client 2 or 3 times the fare, they made bundles.)
One Sunday, I got a job to fly a package out to Rome, which for some reason no one in the office had wanted or been able to do. Now
I’m not a great flyer, so I was a tad nervous, but the small bottle of Champers on my tray and proper cutlery made it better!
When I arrived I delivered the package, then had a mooch round the city, overnighted in a hotel, flew back the next day and got paid for it - Nice!
I had another one to Jersey, I flew out there on some sort of small BA prop plane, delivered the package, had a while diddling around, flew back later that day and then realised I had forgotten to get a delivery signature! Not a good move - I never got another one of those jobs.
Finally, A Lucky Escape
Working for the same client, I was happily heading south on the M23 on my Polaris-faired Maggot with throw-over bags full of computer tapes that went to a processing centre in Crawley. Weirdly I thought, people heading north kept flashing me, and it took too long for me to work out why. I only found out when smoke started swirling around my face, I looked back to see the right hand saddle bag had flames rising up out of it. I pulled over straight away and leaped off, desperately trying to get the bag off my bike. Luckily I managed it and was left with only a blackened exhaust which a bit of T-Cut cured later.
I hope the tapes were backed up!
Happy days!"
Ahh we do love courier stories! Have you enjoyed these, brought any memories back? Many thanks to Steve for sending them in. Let us know if you have any to add at
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