Motorcycle Couriers, then and now
From bike-enthusiasts making more than city gents, to marginalised workers duped into debt and struggling to earn a living wage.
Charlotte England
“Back in the day, being a courier was a licence to print money and have fun."
This is what dispatcher Mike Webb* told me, while tracking pickups, deliveries, and riders across a computer screen.
Webb runs a small courier company tucked inside a north London business estate. He worked as a dispatch rider in London throughout the 80s and 90s.
Loadsa money!
“We used to drink stupid quantities of alcohol, ride our motorbikes, and make loads of money. And life was cheap; everything was cheap then; insurance was cheap. And it was just a really good laugh.”
Motorcycle couriers used to be part of a distinct subculture. They were an eclectic mix of bike enthusiasts, including artists, musicians and “real public schoolboys,” who loved to ride, and, one advert alleged, made more money than a “city gent”.
It is not like that anymore.
“That central culture has kind of dissolved or became spread thin," said Peter Bulman, from behind another desk in the busy office.
What has changed, the two men agree, "is that it hasn’t changed".
The money, that is.
While the cost of living has soared since Webb started riding in 1979, the average courier wage has stayed nominally still. Dispatch riders now literally do not take home many more pounds than dispatch riders did back then, he said. Of course, this means the real wage, when you adjust it for inflation, has plummeted.
Webb estimated that the average motorcycle courier makes about £500 each week. But dispatch riders are self-employed contractors, which means they have to pay all their own expenses. Even after they have invested in a bike, weatherproof clothing, and other kit, they still have to pay out for petrol, insurance, repairs to their vehicle, and the occasional speeding ticket or parking fine. Webb said he reckons when you take all this into account, take home is about £350 a week.
In the 80s, it was more like £500, minus £40 or £50 for expenses, and in real terms that was a hell of a lot more money back then.
Wages have stagnated, Webb said, because of big companies becoming involved with an exploitative “supermarket mentality”.
His firm is one of the very few small courier companies left in London. Most others have been bought up by industry giants like CitySprint and eCourier, Webb said.
“Management still make some money out of [the industry], but the riders are the ones who suffer,” Webb said.
PHOTO BY DAVE GURMAN
The lived experience of couriers seems to back him up.
“I was offered a job at CitySprint working from Birmingham,” said Tom Freed, a dispatch rider I spoke to online. “It was £400 guaranteed a week, but that was with your own bike, insurance, petrol, and he reckoned you'd need to do over 1000 miles a week to get more than £400. So take-home would be abysmal.”
He added, “It's very risky. It will have you soaking wet and freezing for half of the year, and probably kill your interest in bikes”.
Webb said his drivers do take home about London living wage - he pays a retainer to make sure of this. But he agrees it is still a hard way to make a living.
“One of the things I do when we get a new rider, is I tell them all the worst things. I paint a really, really bad picture, I tell them how everyone is against you, you get rained on all day, you get sh*tty receptionists shouting at you… I go on and on and on and then I say ‘if you’re still interested I’ll tell you the good bits’."
“A lot of people go ‘oh thanks’ and run away.”
Big companies tend to do the opposite, he said. They advertise heavily to lure in people who have never been dispatch riders before.
When newbies phone up, they are promised big earnings. It is very common, Webb said, to see people borrow money “to buy a motorbike, get insurance, and get all the gear, only to realise after a week they do not have the right aptitude for the job, so they leave, terribly in debt.”
PHOTO BY DAVE GURMAN
Iain Rickman used to be a courier with one of the big firms based in London. “You'll spend weeks, months, years getting yourself into debt,” he said. “I spent two years trying to make a living out of it and failed.”
He added the job put a strain on his relationship because he was always on call and frequently exhausted and “grouchy”.
“In all honesty, you will probably earn more delivering for Domino's Pizza in a rich area, ” he said, adding that pizza companies even tend to pay riders a fuel allowance.
On the bright side!
A single good thing about couriering nowadays, Webb said, is the bikes are much more reliable. But despite this, he said he had seen couriers’ enthusiasm for their vehicles wane.
“There’s less of that real enthusiasm for being on two wheels,” he said.
“You used to get in the past more biker people, now most couriers at the end of the day get home and don’t touch their bikes. It’s just a tool. Whereas in the old days, most bikers would play with their bikes at weekends because they were just really into bikes.”
There are still a lot of old bikes out there, he added, in addition to new scooters. But that could be about to change too, with the introduction of a daily emissions charge to reduce pollution in central London next year.
Couriers have always been self-employed, so in a way they are not newcomers to the so-called “gig economy” (if you are not familiar with the term, it is exactly what it sounds like, a model in which workers are contracted job by job — gig by gig — rather than hired as employees with robust workers’ rights).
But in the past dispatch riders were adequately financially compensated for not being pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) staff. Job security and a safety net matter a lot more when you are scraping by hand to mouth, than when you are rolling in it.
“I looked into if I can afford to have PAYE riders, and I can’t," Webb said, adding that it is something he would like to pioneer. But unlike the big firms, he simply does not have the capacity.
Herding cats
Recently, cycle couriers at Citysprint unionised, went on strike, protested and won concessions. On average, they now make the living wage.
But it is difficult to get couriers — perhaps motorcycle couriers especially — to organise. Webb and Bulman said: it is not in their nature.
“The thing about couriers is they’re all very independent," Wedd said. "They’re all loners. They’re all individuals. If you think, they’re spending days riding around on a bike on their own. To actually get them all together is like herding cats, basically.”
But it could happen, Webb said. He is sure there will always be demand for people to take things quickly from A to B.
“When the drivers stop working for peanuts, the customers will have to pay more,” he said. “If you think about it, there will always always be demand for couriers.”
*Some names and identifying details have been changed
Comments
22/12/16 - My first company was riva
22/12/16 - I witnessed the death of one of the last of the 'rock n roll' jobs. It was the best job in the world ... destroyed by technology and greed
22/12/16 - I used to live in London for many years.I never worked as a courier.But I have this to say:most of them are very good riders,very good guys.Also I am convinced that they are a different kind of bikers.I am a biker but they are different, not better or worst.Respect.
22/12/16 - Been in the courier game for 35 years, starting with Pony Express back in 1981
22/12/16 - Worked at Pegasus Despatch in South London when everyone either had a Peugeot speedfighter or CB500, I worked my EXUP 1000 and Honda Fireblade. Great times
22/12/16 - Love This
22/12/16 - I worked an Exup too. Loads of fun
22/12/16 - Put over 140,000 miles on it.
22/12/16 - Reserve tank switch was a C. ..though.
You KNOW what I'm on about....lol
22/12/16 - I used to work as a courier nationwide ten years .worked out of peterborough
22/12/16 - I did 20 years at it .....
22/12/16 - Nice
22/12/16 - So no difference between the UK and Ireland regarding Couriers pay and conditions
22/12/16 - 20*yrs in London, Pegasus/goughwallace/securitydespatch/citysprint.
22/12/16 - Worked for 13 years as a courier always London based but travelled all over. Briefly featured in MCN 1988 and a reader recognised me pushing my GSX 750 a week later as I ran out of petrol near Holyhead late at night and rescued me.
22/12/16 - Worked from 1976 to 1985 for Arrow One, Roadrunners and Inter City Couriers, the last on PAYE so he won't be pioneering anything.
Got to Leeds at 7pm in January one time. By the time I got back to London I couldn't move my legs so had to slip the clutch around the roundabout at the bottom of the M1. I also had to slow down for red traffic lights on the North Circular until I was able to move my legs. I spent the next day in bed.
22/12/16 - Did 4 years London home counties NTV600.
22/12/16 - 1984-1987. Bristol.
Interlink Express. Pony Express.
Over 200,000 miles.
Three Kawasaki's. Z650B1. Z750L3. Z750GPA1.
Great times, with some great people. Nicky at Royds SW, springs to mind.
Liz Riches from Interlinks head office was another.
Never grossed more than £500 in a week.
22/12/16 - It always was (and still is) the best and worst job in the world
24/12/16 - Hell yeah !
22/12/16 - Valuable Post !
22/12/16 - Great experience, a window into the working world of every business in london. . Great times, cold times, wet times. .
Got back what you put into it. . But the good times are laaaaaang gaaaaaaan. . Gave up in 2000. . Was averaging £500 + at reuter brooks. . Gotta take petrol and tyres outta that so. . Not brilliant £. . Could be very stressfull. .
Never doin it again
22/12/16 - Agreed i quit around the same time hiring a cb 350 rent deducted for radio was a means to an end enjoyed the experience but glad i got out
22/12/16 - Nice
23/12/16 - I was at Reuter Brooks too. I started there when they were still Gough Wallace averaging around £700 p/w. I quit left in 99 when I became a full time Virgin Limobike rider.
22/12/16 - I managed just over a decade (13yrs) dispatching in the 80's/90's, Hornets, Pony Express, Fastway Flyers.... fantastic times, great memories but those glory days are long gone
22/12/16 - +1
22/12/16 - 94-99 in london,bonds,premier,west one,courier express and last but not least,holborn globetrotters!
22/12/16 - Worked out of Croydon for Pony Express on a variety of bikes, CX500, 350lc in the summer, cb500, gt500 made an absolute fortune, wheelies everywhere not 1 prang in 3 years. It was great until they started fucking with the rates and if you weren't bunging the controller a wedge each week you'd get shit runs. Do my biking on track now, kindly sponsored by the best spares supplier on the south coast, yup Wemoto
22/12/16 - Did a year or so back in '79 for a small Company based in Duck Lane (Soho) on a Superdream...then years later in around '90 I did 5 years straight finally finishing up with Ricochet (now called just Rico) on an XJ900, until I knocked the Controller out, lol. Was great money back then...regularly hit the 500 quid a week mark.
Wouldn't go back though.... no money in it now, plus it's a young Mans game anyway
22/12/16 - Started at city bikes in 95 on rs260's and cx500's could earn good money then
22/12/16 - That should be rs250's my fat fingers
22/12/16 - Started at mayday couriers in 83 " then city bikes in 86 until 2007.. bl**dy hard and demanding job. Looking back " it was a great experience.
23/12/16 - I did a few wks AtoZ in 86, drove trucks for a dew yrs to Malta. Pony Express and West1,1990 to 99. Ended with a big off on a wet December night in Victoria.
Bought and paid for my house. After being in the Army, it was my 2nd favourite job. Meet Prime ministers, World leaders, celebrities and some d*ck heads on security 
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