What is the difference betwen a "messenger" and a "courier"

Thatcher did a lot of things that were plain fucking wrong and I will have a street party when she dies, dribbling and pissing herself. However CliveO is wrong about the rise of couriers. Motorbike couriers were thriving in London in 1976 when I was one. The horrors of Thatcherism were a few years down the pipe.

My memory is getting foggy with age. I can remember seeing motorcycle couriers in or around 1980. I also remember doing some research into the Post Office monopoly in 1975 or 1976. At some time around then, following a mail strike the London Document Exchange opened to circumvent Post Office problems but to ensure that urgent mail was delivered. It avoided the monopoly as each company rented a box and therefore deliveries were to that company. Now you mention it, however, I also recall people I knew in the late 1970s working as motorbike couriers. They used to hang around phone boxes as they often weren't given (or possibly allowed) radios. They were fairly rare though.

I can specifically recall using taxis in 1982 to take packages. The firm I worked for sacked its Corps of Commissionaires chap in 1981 for being repeated if not constantly drunk and failing to come into work. After than they just employed a geezer and then dropped it altogether in favour of external messengers.

I can also recall seeing cycle couriers in New York in 1985/6 darting through the traffic. They were novel as up to then we had usually had motorbikes in London. There were and are not many motorbikes in NY.

I am old and my memory is suspect.