Here's a story sent in by one of our readers, Steve Crowley, all about his experiences and the folks he met while working as a courier in 1980s London. Many thanks to Steve for the story.

Happy Days
I think it was in around 1980, when I was about 24 years old, that I spotted a promising advert for couriers in the London Evening News. Those were the days before computers or mobile phones and maybe even faxes were new! (Happy days...!)
A company called World Courier were looking for a rider, BMW motorcycle supplied. I'd always had bikes since the age of 17, my first being a Honda CB125S but to get a company BM, well that sounded special!
I applied, I don't recall how, and got an interview (of sorts) in the firm's (then) office above the Hog in the Pound pub (if I recall) on Oxford/Davies Street.

To my surprise
Much to my surprise, I got taken on. Equipped with my mum's little old  A to Z, (no sat nav in those days,) I prepared for my first job, to go to Hay Hill and then back to the office. Outside was a blue R600, with bread bin white boxes, top and (two) side - so off I went. Of course, I immediately got hopelessly lost and when, much later, I eventually found my way back to the office, I resigned on the spot, realising that I was useless.

Give it another go
Luckily the woman in the office persuaded me to give it another go, so when I had calmed down, I agreed, and I'm glad I did. It was the start of many years of being a courier, mainly part time, but for a few short years, full time. To start, it was full time. Memory is a bit misty now I'm 64, but I think what follows is broadly how I got on over the years.

The Fleet
Another rider (John, I think) and I were each given a bike. As well as our two bikes, the firm had five VW Golf GLSs, two gold ones, a black one, a silver one, and a green one – that was the whole fleet, not even a van!

The Couriers
Mark was one driver, John (an ex-merchant marine who lived in a rented house in Islington next to a pub, God knows what that would cost now!) was another plus his brother Steve. Patsy lived in the flats in Union Street (though now it's gone all lah-de-da I bet he's now in deepest Essex or somewhere.) Chris was the Transport Manager, Mike (ex-army officer) the Operations Manager, Mervyn was the accountant, Mina worked in the office putting packages in courier bags, and there were two Grahams, one nicknamed 'Slips' for some reason.

Fuzzy
After a while, we moved to Lading House in Covent Garden. The security guard there was called Tony (and it's very non-PC) and we used to annoy him by putting a photo of his face over those in a magazine of very muscular men,and putting cling film over his phone so that when we rang him and he picked it up, it kept on ringing. Innocent and childish fun, those were the days!
When Chris the controller went to New York on company business for a few weeks, I was asked to take over as controller while he was away (and I found I was rubbish at that fairly soon afterwards, but anyway, they kept me on), and still being childish and very nosy, I found a large, old, dusty but still clearly "something-befitting-a-person-of-great-importance-executive chair" down in the basement. I brought it up one Saturday and put it at my desk. Now, in the hierarchy of things, riders are at the bottom, controllers one level up, then there are the office staff. I knew it would cause erupting volcanoes, and, much to my satisfaction, it did.
"How come he's got that great big chair, he's only a jumped-up rider."
Much quiet internal laughter (by me) - it worked!

Bottom of the food chain
Speaking of being 'at the bottom' I always found it interesting how people treated us riders. Most of course were fine, but there were always those who treated you as though you had trodden in something smelly before entering their domain. It upset some riders especially as riders came from all backgrounds and all walks of life. I well recall Bob exploding one day saying:
"I have a history degree, you know..."
I just found it interesting to people-watch and think about how perhaps their lives had panned out, maybe not as they hoped.

Thanks very much Steve – I'm sure some of your musings will strike a chord with some of our readers who may have had similar experiences and have happy memories to tell us about...